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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
Key Examples in Homegoing
Part 1: Ness
Explanation and Analysis—Devil in Hell:
Metaphors speak in ways that descriptions alone cannot. In Ness’s narrative, metaphor underscores the ghastliness of her experience of enslavement. She thinks back to her first master one night while awaiting punishment from Allan Stockham:
She is back in Hell. She is married to a man they call Sam, but who comes straight from the Continent and speaks no English. The master of Hell, the Devil himself, with red-leather skin and a shock of gray hair, prefers his slaves married "for reasons of insurance," and because Ness is new to Hell and because no one has claimed her, she is given to calm the new slave Sam.
Related Themes:
Part 2: Marcus
Explanation and Analysis—Beached Beast:
A metaphor reawakens the past during Marjorie and Marcus’s trip to Cape Coast. Their tour of the Castle brings them back in direct contact with history:
Unlock with LitCharts A+And soon they were headed down. Down into the belly of this large, beached beast. Here, there was grime that could not be washed away. Green and gray and black and brown and dark, so dark. There were no windows. There was no air.
Related Themes:
