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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 I: Tony Loneman (1)
Explanation and Analysis—A Face Worn Through:
In his first chapter, Tony Loneman references a line from the MF Doom song "Rhinestone Cowboy": "Got more soul than a sock with a hole." He explains its multiple meanings: a hole in a sock shows the sole of a foot, while it also shows the sock has soul. Tony applies this lyric to a metaphor about his own life:
What I liked is that I understood all the meanings to it right away, like instantly. It meant soul, like having a hole in a sock gives the sock character, means it’s worn through, gives it a soul, and also like the bottom of your foot showing through, to the sole of your foot. It was a small thing, but it made me feel like I’m not stupid. Not slow. Not bottom rung. And it helped because the Drome’s what gives me my soul, and the Drome is a face worn through.
Tony was born with fetal alcohol syndrome (F.A.S.), which he calls the Drome. F.A.S. is often associated with a characteristic set of abnormal facial features as well as delays in language development. Tony's face exhibits these features, and he struggles with dyslexia, both due to the Drome. But the fact that Tony can easily understand the double meaning in the Doom line makes him feel like he is "not stupid," like the effects of the Drome are perhaps not as difficult as he thought.
Then he compares his face to the sock in a metaphor that adapts Doom's own metaphor: "the Drome's what gives me my soul, and the Drome is a face worn through." Tony shows that just as the wear on the sock showed that it had soul, Tony's facial differences also give him soul. In multiple ways, the Doom line shows Tony that he can still be smart, and that he still has a soul; in other words, that he can live a full life with the Drome.
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Part I: Dene Oxendene (1)
Explanation and Analysis—Empty:
In his first chapter in Part I, the narrator describes one of Dene Oxendene's memories, looking back on the first time he saw someone tag. Dene scrutinizes their choice of tag and understands its metaphorical implications:
Dene waited for his moment, watched the kid tag in the condensation on the bus window three letters: emt. He understood right away that it meant “empty.” And he liked the idea that the kid was writing it in the condensation on the window, in the empty space between drops, and also because it wouldn’t last, just like tagging and graffiti don’t.
The name emt, as Dene sees, means "empty," but the word itself is emptied of letters. Dene appreciates that the kid wrote it in the empty space between drops. The name also works as a metaphor for graffiti itself, particularly this small piece of graffiti in the condensation on the window. The emptiness of the form makes the work ephemeral, which is reflected metaphorically in the name emt.
Dene recalls this moment from his young life while on the way to an interview to get funding for his project to tell Native stories. The ephemeral nature of the graffiti reflects Dene's fear that Native stories will not be remembered. Thus the metaphor not only speaks to Dene's past as a graffiti artist, but also to his present projects and his fears and concerns.
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Part I: Edwin Black (1)
Explanation and Analysis—Nothing is Happening:
Edwin Black's first chapter as narrator in Part I begins with him on the toilet. He has severe constipation, which serves as a metaphor for his entire life. As a well-educated man with a degree in Comparative Literature, he intended to write and learn about Native American culture and stories. But by the time of the novel, he has retreated to his mother's house and no longer does any academic work on his subject. Here Edwin describes himself trying to overcome his difficulties:
I'm on the toilet. But nothing is happening. I’m here. You have to try. You have to intend, and not only tell yourself but really sit there believing. It’s been six days since my last movement. One of the bullet-point symptoms on WebMD was this: the sense that everything didn’t come out. This feels true about my life in ways I can’t articulate yet. Or like the name of a short-story collection I’ll write one day, when it all finally does come out.
Edwin understands, vaguely, that his constipation is a metaphor for his life. Specifically, the constipation resembles how his work has become constrained and painful. The one direct comparison in this passage connects the title of his short-story collection to his bowel movements, both stopped up somewhere inside him. Edwin understands what he has to do, from WebMD: "You have to try." But, importantly, he doesn't seem to have any urgency about either his constipation or his writing, waiting for "when it all finally does come out." The scatological metaphor adds levity to the scene, which otherwise would be the rather depressing story of a derailed life.
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Part III: Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield (2)
Explanation and Analysis—Bored a Hole:
In a chapter on Opal in Part III, the narrator describes Opal's obsessions and superstitions, as well as her long history of regrets. After the previous chapter, which shows her as a young woman with a variety of unusual behaviors, this chapter shows her as an older woman with many memories and experiences. The narrator describes these in a metaphor:
So she bore those years, their weight, and the years bored a hole through the middle of her, where she tried to keep believing there was some reason to keep her love intact. Opal is stone solid, but there is troubled water that lives in her, that sometimes threatens to flood, to drown her—rise up to her eyes. Sometimes she can’t move. Sometimes it feels impossible to do anything.
Opal carried all her years like a weighty object, which has now "bored a hole through the middle of her." Then the narrator continues to describe this hole. There are two important parts of this metaphor. First, the narrator considers the weightiness of Opal's regret, that she is "stone solid." But this contrasts with the other metaphor, that there is "troubled water" inside Opal as well. In sum, these varied metaphors show the complexity of Opal's emotions. These highly image-driven metaphors are also quite typical of the clipped writing style the author uses to describe deep and complex emotions.
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Explanation and Analysis—Legs in There:
In the first chapter of Part III, Opal eats dinner with her grandchildren, who act unusual. The table is oddly quiet and oddly lacking in any arguing or fighting among the kids. In a metaphor, she compares her feelings in reaction to this strange behavior with a bump she once had with spider legs in it:
Opal didn’t want to force the issue. She really didn’t know what to say about it. It was like something was stuck in her throat. It wouldn’t come back up and it wouldn’t go down. Actually it was like the bump in her leg the spider legs had come out of. The bump had never gone away. Were there more legs in there? Was that the spider’s body? Opal had stopped asking questions a long time ago. The bump remained.
Opal thinks back to a rather disgusting skin problem she had as a child, the large lump referenced on multiple occasions in the novel. Opal does not want to question her grandchildren's odd behavior because she does not want to stir up familial trauma from her childhood. This is analogous to Opal's old lump. The regrets of her past seem attached to her and they will not go away, like the stubborn lump on her skin. And yet despite its closeness, she does not fully understand (or want to understand) exactly what is inside the bump, any more than she wants to investigate what is actually the cause of her grandchildren's odd behavior.
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Part III: Daniel Gonzales (1)
Explanation and Analysis—Votive Candle:
In his first chapter as narrator in Part III, Daniel Gonzales writes an email to his brother Manny, who has passed away. In the letter he describes his new 3-D-printed guns, as well as his emotions, particularly on the subject of their mother, who is severely depressed. Daniel depicts their mother's depression metaphorically through the image of a votive candle dropped on the floor:
The other day she dropped a votive candle on the kitchen floor [...] shattered, and she just left it there in pieces. [...] all out there in the living room like your picture on the mantel [...] feels like it cuts me whenever I see it, how you graduated from high school and we all thought [things] would be okay from then on because you did.
Ms. Gonzales dropping the votive candle represents her relationship with her family. She dropped the candle on the floor, an inciting incident. But then she left the broken pieces of the votive candle spread out dangerously across the floor. This shows that the physical consequences of an action are often just as dangerous and harmful as the action itself. Daniel tells Manny that his picture on the mantle "cuts deep," which elaborates the comparison of the dropped votive candle and the memory of Manny. The metaphor, as a whole, describes Manny's death as dropping a votive candle, with the consequences and grief not dealt with, like so many shards of glass left on the floor.
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