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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 7: Idyll on a Terrace
Explanation and Analysis—That Dazzling Light:
In Chapter 7, Ibarra and María Clara meet for the first time in the novel. At this point they are, as the narrator describes, "a loving couple." The narrator describes their eye contact when they meet:
What did those two souls say to each other? What was exchanged in the language of their eyes, more perfect than their lips, the language afforded the soul so that no sound disturbs an ecstasy of feeling? In these moments, when the thoughts of two happy beings meld through their pupils, words move slowly, coarsely, weakly, like the raspy, awkward noise of thunder from that dazzling light that appears after the quickness of the flash.
Chapter 21: A Mother’s Tale
Explanation and Analysis—Just a Bit of Light:
At the beginning of Chapter 21, Sisa, already in a panic over not knowing where her sons are, runs home hoping to find them. When she arrives she finds Civil Guards surrounding her apartment, searching for the money her son supposedly stole, and coming out empty-handed. At this point, Sisa becomes totally despondent, as the narrator describes using a metaphor:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Sisa ran home, her thoughts in that upset that results when in the middle of some misfortune, we find ourselves abandoned by all, our hopes gone. When it seems everything has grown dark around us and if we spy just a bit of light shining in the distance, we run toward it, we pursue it, even if in the middle of that path an abyss opens up before us.
Related Themes:
Chapter 46: The Cockpit
Explanation and Analysis—Among Nations:
At the cockfight in Chapter 46, the red chicken, "the crowd's darling," defeats the larger white one, though both bleed out and die at the end of the fight. So the "judge" has to rule on which one wins the fight, ruling by decision. Since "the underdog won," the crowd erupts in jubilation, which the author develops into a metaphor:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Then the judge, in accordance with what the government prescribes, declares the red one the victor. A savage shouting greets this judgement, heard throughout the town, prolonged, steady, long-lasting. Whoever hears it from afar knows that the underdog has won; if not the jubilation would have been shorter. This is what happens among nations. When a small one defeats a big one, they relate the tale for centuries and centuries.
Related Themes:
Chapter 61: Pursuit on the Lake
Explanation and Analysis—Malapad-na-bató:
Elías and Ibarra have a dispute, in Chapter 60, over whether Ibarra will escape and whether Elías will come with him. Elías makes the fraught decision to remain in the Philippines, and the men stop talking for the first time in a while. Rizal describes their friendly silence in metaphorical terms, personifying the night around them:
Unlock with LitCharts A+They remained silent until they arrived at Malapad-na-bató. People who have at one time cruised the Pasig at night, on one of those magic nights the Philippines offers, when the moon spills a melancholy poetry from a limpid blue, when shadows hide the misery of men and silence snuffs the rotten timbre of their voices, when nature alone speaks, they will understand what was going through the minds of those two young men.
