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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 5
Explanation and Analysis—Beating Drums:
Both of the following instances of figurative language concern the same core components and themes and are thus worth discussing in tandem. In both passages, Achebe compares ceremonial drumming to a heartbeat—the village's "heartbeat."
The first instance of this "heartbeat" comparison appears as a simile in Chapter 5:
The drums were still beating, persistent and unchanging. Their sound was no longer a separate things from the living village. It was like the pulsation of its heart.
Related Themes:
Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Beating Drums:
Both of the following instances of figurative language concern the same core components and themes and are thus worth discussing in tandem. In both passages, Achebe compares ceremonial drumming to a heartbeat—the village's "heartbeat."
The first instance of this "heartbeat" comparison appears as a simile in Chapter 5:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The drums were still beating, persistent and unchanging. Their sound was no longer a separate things from the living village. It was like the pulsation of its heart.
Related Themes:
Chapter 15
Explanation and Analysis—Locusts:
In Chapter 15, Okonkwo, Uchendu, and several of his fellow clansmen discuss news from a neighboring clan. A White missionary is rumored to have visited. Suspicious of the visitor's motives, clan members killed him, tying his bike to a pole. Several days later, the White man's comrades appeared and slaughtered the entire village. Only a few people made it out alive.
In the following passage, Okonkwo and his fellow clansmen hear about a prediction made by the neighboring clan's oracle. This oracle utilizes metaphor in its prediction, comparing White men to locusts:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[The Oracle] said that other white men were on their way. They were locusts, it said, and that first man was their harbinger sent to explore the terrain. And so they killed him.
Chapter 16
Explanation and Analysis—Converts:
In Chapter 16, Achebe describes the attitudes of various Umuofia clan members towards the Christian missionaries. When said missionaries arrive, many clan members react with wariness or outright hostility. Chielo even compares the new Christian converts to excrement, using metaphor:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Chielo, the priestess of Agbala, called the converts the excrement of the clan, and the new faith was a mad dog that had come to eat it up.
Related Themes:
