White Noise
by Don DeLillo
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White Noise: Metaphors 1 key example

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 White Noise

Chapter 27
Explanation and Analysis—Delicate, Webby:

In Chapter 27, Jack desperately wants to take some of the Dylar pills that were prescribed to his daughter Denise. He tries everything he can think of to convince his family to let him take them and uses a metaphor to describe his many arguments, comparing them to a "webby" material:

Over the next few days I tried an assortment of arguments, some nearly breathtaking in their delicate webby texture. I even enlisted Babette, convincing her that the bottle belonged in adult hands. But the girl’s will was supremely resistant. Her life as a legal entity had been shaped by other people’s bargaining and haggling and she was determined to follow a code too rigid to allow for the trade-off, the settlement. She would keep the object hidden until we told her its secret.