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Irony
Definition of Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor can be stated explicitly, as... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other... read full definition
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Crevice of Time:
In Chapter 3, Huxley details the role that soma (a mind-altering drug) plays in regulating the masses. Free time, during which people can have new thoughts and question the validity of old ones, poses a threat to totalitarian societies like this one. Huxley makes this connection between soma, time, and societal control through metaphor:
If ever by some unlucky chance such a crevice of time should yawn in the solid substance of their distractions, there is always soma, delicious soma, half a gramme for a half-holiday, a gramme for a week-end, two grammes for a trip to the gorgeous East, three for a dark eternity on the moon; returning whence they find themselves on the other side of the crevice, safe on the solid ground of daily labour and distraction.
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Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Social Body:
In Chapter 6, the Director tells Bernard Marx about the time that he himself went with a woman named Linda to visit the "Savage Reservation" in New Mexico. Linda became lost in the course of their trip, and the Director never did find her or find out what happened to her. Using metaphor, the Director attempts to console himself in the face of this loss:
Unlock with LitCharts A+'It’s the sort of accident that might have happened to any one; and, of course, the social body persists although the component cells may change.’ But this sleep-taught consolation did not seem to be very effective.
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Chapter 12
Explanation and Analysis—Poetic Crystal:
In Chapter 12, Huxley describes a budding friendship between Helmholtz Watson and John, both of whom love literature and words and are ecstatic to finally be able to discuss these ideas with another person. Their interactions, curiously enough, illuminate certain unsavory aspects of Bernard's character. Huxley uses metaphor to communicate this:
Unlock with LitCharts A+In the course of their next two or three meetings he frequently repeated this little act of vengeance. It was simple and, since both Helmholtz and the Savage were dreadfully pained by the shattering and defilement of a favourite poetic crystal, extremely effective.
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Chapter 14
Explanation and Analysis—Maggots:
John has an extremely disconcerting experience in the hospital while visiting his mother on her deathbed. Young Delta children are brought into the hospital during his visit as a part of their conditioning. They unsettle John with their uniformity and lack of personal boundaries, pestering him with questions about Linda. Huxley combines simile, extended metaphor, and imagery to describe this behavior in Chapter 14:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Their uniform was khaki. All their mouths hung open. Squealing and chattering they entered. In a moment, it seemed, the ward was maggoty with them. They swarmed between the beds, clambered over, crawled under, peeped into the television boxes, made faces at the patients.
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Chapter 15
Explanation and Analysis—Maggots:
John has an extremely disconcerting experience in the hospital while visiting his mother on her deathbed. Young Delta children are brought into the hospital during his visit as a part of their conditioning. They unsettle John with their uniformity and lack of personal boundaries, pestering him with questions about Linda. Huxley combines simile, extended metaphor, and imagery to describe this behavior in Chapter 14:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Their uniform was khaki. All their mouths hung open. Squealing and chattering they entered. In a moment, it seemed, the ward was maggoty with them. They swarmed between the beds, clambered over, crawled under, peeped into the television boxes, made faces at the patients.
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Chapter 16
Explanation and Analysis—Cooking:
In Chapter 16, Mustapha Mond reveals that he himself was once a physicist who questioned the state of scientific inquiry under the World State's regime. Mond makes an important distinction between the banal repetition of already-understood scientific processes and experimental science: the practice of pursuing knowledge for its own sake. He uses metaphor to describe the difference between the two:
Unlock with LitCharts A+"I was a pretty good physicist in my time. Too good—good enough to realize that all our science is just a cookery book, with an orthodox theory of cooking that nobody’s allowed to question, and a list of recipes that mustn’t be added to except by special permission from the head cook. I’m the head cook now. But I was an inquisitive young scullion once. I started doing a bit of cooking on my own. Unorthodox cooking, illicit cooking. A bit of real science, in fact.’"
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