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Metaphor
Explanation and Analysis—Shaila the Pillar:
When the government-appointed social worker Judith Templeton and grieving widow Shaila meet for the first time, Judith explains why she reached out, using a metaphor in the process:
“I’ve worked in liaison with accident victims, but I mean I have no experience with a tragedy of this scale—”
“Who could?” I ask.
“—and with the complications of culture, language, and customs. Someone mentioned that Mrs. Bhave is a pillar—because you’ve taken it more calmly.”
At this, perhaps, I frown, for she reaches forward, almost to take my hand.
Judith metaphorically refers to Shaila as “a pillar” because of her “calm” response to the loss of her husband and two sons in a horrific terrorist attack. This metaphor is meant to capture the ways that other members of Shaila’s Indian-Canadian community who lost loved ones in the attack have been distraught in the aftermath of the event.
This moment captures something important about the way that the bureaucratic Canadian government values controlled reactions to loss and grief over complex and messy ones, despite the fact that such reactions can also be viewed as maladaptive. That Shaila “frowns” in response to Judith’s description of her indicates that Shaila is aware that her “calm” is actually a painful sort of numbness. She does not want to be viewed as a “pillar” that stands strong but as a grieving person who uses dissociation to cope.
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