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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
Book 1, Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Nothingness:
Towards the end of Book 1, Chapter 2, the author uses a metaphor of nothingness to describe the enormous horizons of Nebraska's grasslands and their initial impact on the young Jim Burden. Jim describes one of his first encounters with the landscape in the following way:
I wanted to walk straight on through the red grass and over the edge of the world, which could not be very far away. The light air about me told me that the world ended here: only the ground and sun and sky were left, and if one went a little farther there would be only sun and sky, and one would float off into them.
Related Themes:
Book 1, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Sunflowers:
In My Ántonia, there's a recurring metaphor—which forms a motif—of sunflowers representing the 19th- and 20th-century American ideals of freedom, exploration, and Manifest Destiny. In Book 1, Chapter 3, Jim describes the “ribbons” of sunflower-bordered roads spanning the prairie through Nebraska and beyond:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[...] all along it, wherever it looped or ran, the sunflowers grew; some of them were as big as little trees, with great rough leaves and many branches which bore dozens of blossoms. They made a gold ribbon across the prairie.
Related Themes:
Book 1, Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Krajiek:
Early in Book 1 of My Ántonia, Willa Cather compares the cruel character Peter Krajiek to a rattlesnake through a metaphor that emphasizes his vicious and predatory nature. Jim describes the living situation involving Krajiek that the Shimerda family have been forced to accept, saying that:
Unlock with LitCharts A+They kept him in their hole and fed him for the same reason that the prairie-dogs and the brown owls house the rattlesnakes—because they did not know how to get rid of him.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Sunflowers:
In My Ántonia, there's a recurring metaphor—which forms a motif—of sunflowers representing the 19th- and 20th-century American ideals of freedom, exploration, and Manifest Destiny. In Book 1, Chapter 3, Jim describes the “ribbons” of sunflower-bordered roads spanning the prairie through Nebraska and beyond:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[...] all along it, wherever it looped or ran, the sunflowers grew; some of them were as big as little trees, with great rough leaves and many branches which bore dozens of blossoms. They made a gold ribbon across the prairie.
Related Themes:
Book 1, Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Pavel's Body:
In Book 1, Chapter 8, Cather uses a simile and a metaphor to describe Pavel's struggle for breath and to foreshadow his death, as he lies patiently fighting for air after an accident:
Unlock with LitCharts A+He lay patiently fighting for breath, like a child with croup. Ántonia’s father uncovered one of his long bony legs and rubbed it rhythmically. From our bench we could see what a hollow case his body was. His spine and shoulder-blades stood out like the bones under the hide of a dead steer left in the fields. That sharp backbone must have hurt him when he lay on it.
Related Themes:
Book 5, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—The Road of Destiny:
In Book 5, Chapter 3, Cather uses a metaphor to describe destiny as a road Jim Burden follows throughout the book:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I had the sense of coming home to myself, and of having found out what a little circle man’s experience is. For Ántonia and for me, this had been the road of Destiny; had taken us to those early accidents of fortune which predetermined for us all that we can ever be.
Related Themes:
