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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
1. Mowgli’s Brothers
Explanation and Analysis—Moon Eyes:
In the face-off between Mother Wolf and Shere Khan in “Mowgli’s Brothers,” the narrator uses vivid visual and auditory imagery, a simile referring to the weather, and a metaphor to enhance the scene’s intensity:
The tiger’s roar filled the cave with thunder. Mother Wolf shook herself clear of the cubs and sprang forward, her eyes, like two green moons in the darkness, facing the blazing eyes of Shere Khan.
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Explanation and Analysis—Man's Red Flower:
In The Jungle Book, animals in the Jungle only refer to fire through a metaphor, calling it the "Red Flower." This “flower” consistently reappears as a motif that points to Mowgli being more than an animal. For example, when Bagheera instructs Mowgli to go and fetch some fire, he says:
Unlock with LitCharts A+‘Go thou down quickly to the men’s huts in the valley, and take some of the Red Flower which they grow there, so that when the time comes thou mayest have even a stronger friend than I or Baloo or those of the Pack that love thee. Get the Red Flower.’
By Red Flower Bagheera meant fire, only no creature in the Jungle will call fire by its proper name. Every beast lives in deadly fear of it [...]
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Explanation and Analysis—A Dog's Son:
When Shere Khan speaks to the Council of Animals, Bagheera demonstrates his extreme dislike of the tiger through an idiomatic metaphor:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Bagheera lay close to Mowgli, and the fire-pot was between Mowgli’s knees. When they were all gathered together, Shere Khan began to speak – a thing he would never have dared to do when Akela was in his prime. ‘He has no right,’ whispered Bagheera. ‘Say so. He is a dog’s son. He will be frightened.’
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3. Kaa’s Hunting
Explanation and Analysis—No Tree Trunk:
In this passage from "Kaa's Hunting," Bagheera uses a metaphor to warn Baloo to be gentle with the “Man-cub”:
Unlock with LitCharts A+‘Well, look to it then that thou dost not kill the Man-cub. He is no tree-trunk to sharpen thy blunt claws upon."
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7. The White Seal
Explanation and Analysis—Wait for the Wave:
In this passage from "Wait for the Wave," Kotick employs a metaphor when speaking to his mother about nesting. He evokes the image of waves to describe his desire to wait another season before marrying and settling down:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Matkah, his mother, begged him to marry and settle down, for he was no longer a holluschick, but a full-grown sea-catch, with a curly white mane on his shoulders, as heavy, as big, and as fierce as his father. ‘Give me another season,’ he said. ‘Remember, mother, it is always the seventh wave that goes farthest up the beach.’
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13. Her Majesty’s Servants
Explanation and Analysis—Our Own Wills:
Kipling uses a metaphor and intense situational irony to depict the highly regulated mechanisms of colonial rule in “Her Majesty’s Servants.” The Afghan Chief and the Viceroy’s Officer have the following conversation after the Animal Parade has gone by:
Unlock with LitCharts A+'But are the beasts as wise as the men?' said the chief.
‘They obey, as the men do. Mule, horse, elephant, or bullock, he obeys his driver, and the driver his sergeant, and the sergeant his lieutenant, and the lieutenant his captain, and the captain his major, and the major his colonel, and the colonel his brigadier commanding three regiments, and the brigadier his general, who obeys the Viceroy, who is the servant of the Empress. Thus it is done.’
‘Would it were so in Afghanistan!’ said the chief; ‘for there we obey only our own wills.’
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