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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
Part 1: Arrival on Himmel Street
Explanation and Analysis—Grave Diggers:
In Part 1: Arrival on Himmel Street, Death describes Werner's burial. His commentary contains an allusion that leads into an important metaphor:
Witnesses included a priest and two shivering grave diggers.
AN OBSERVATION
A pair of train guards.
A pair of grave diggers.
When it came down to it, one of them called the shots.
The other did what he was told.
The question is, what if the other is a lot more than one?
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Part 2: 100 Percent Pure German Sweat
Explanation and Analysis—Deer in Lights:
In Part 2: 100 Percent Pure German Sweat, Liesel attends a mandatory, violent book burning and ends up helping Ludwig Schmeikl after his ankle is crushed by the mob. Death uses an idiom and a metaphor to describe the look on Ludwig's face when he finds Liesel:
Unlock with LitCharts A+All he was able to do was pull her toward him and motion to his ankle. It had been crushed among the excitement and was bleeding dark and ominous through his sock. His face wore a helpless expression beneath his tangled blond hair. An animal. Not a deer in lights. Nothing so typical or specific. He was just an animal, hurt among the melee of its own kind, soon to be trampled by it.
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Part 5: The Gambler (A Seven-Sided Die)
Explanation and Analysis—Millions of Fists:
In Part 5: The Gambler (A Seven-Sided Die), Death describes Max Vandenburg's nightmare about fighting with Hitler. A hyperbolic metaphor emphasizes the intense willpower Max must summon to go on surviving:
Unlock with LitCharts A+In the basement of 33 Himmel Street, Max Vandenburg could feel the fists of an entire nation. One by one they climbed into the ring and beat him down. They made him bleed. They let him suffer. Millions of them—until one last time, when he gathered himself to his feet …
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Part 8: The Hidden Sketchbook
Part 9: The Snows of Stalingrad
Explanation and Analysis—Firing Into Blank Pages:
In Part 9: The Snows of Stalingrad, Death describes Robert Holtzapfel's death at Stalingrad. Death uses a metaphor comparing bullets to language scrawled on blank pages:
Unlock with LitCharts A+It was Russia, January 5, 1943, and just another icy day. Out among the city and snow, there were dead Russians and Germans everywhere. Those who remained were firing into the blank pages in front of them. Three languages interwove. The Russian, the bullets, the German.
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