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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 Sonny’s Blues
Metaphors
Explanation and Analysis—Light in Darkness:
Near the end of the story, when the narrator is at the jazz club listening to Sonny play the piano alongside a group of other musicians, the narrator has the sense that the men are getting at something important about their suffering with their music. In this moment he starts to contemplate suffering himself in his narration, using a metaphor in the process:
[W]hile the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn’t any other tale to tell, it’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Low Ceilings:
Near the beginning of the story, the narrator reflects on the lives of the high school students he teaches—comparing their lives to his brother Sonny’s—using a metaphor in the process:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I was sure that the first time Sonny had ever had horse, he couldn’t have been much older than these boys were now. These boys, now, were living as we’d been living then, they were growing up with a rush and their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities. They were filled with rage.
Related Themes:
