|
Have questions?
Contact us
Already a member? Sign in
|
Get every literary device explanation for There TherePlus so much more...
Sign up for LitCharts A+Get instant access to every literary device explanation, plus so much more...
Metaphor
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.
Monthly
Annual (Best Value)
$595USD/mo
Charged $71.40 USD every year
Teacher$795USD/mo
Charged $95.40 USD every year
Literature Guide PDFs
LitCharts PDFs for every book you'll read this year.
Instant PDF downloads of all 2245 LitCharts literature guides and of every new one we publish. Try a free sample literature guide.
"Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!"
Quotes Explanations
Find the perfect quote. Understand it perfectly. Then rock the citation, too.
For all 50,066 quotes we cover.
For all 50,066 quotes we cover.
Teacher Editions
Close reading made easy for students.
Time saved for teachers.
For every book we cover.
Time saved for teachers.
For every book we cover.
Common Core-aligned
PDFs of modern translations of every one of Shakespeare's 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and 3 longer poems.
Literary Terms and Devices
Definitions and examples for every literary term and device you need to know.
Plus a quick-reference PDF with concise definitions of all 136 terms in one place.
Plus a quick-reference PDF with concise definitions of all 136 terms in one place.
Try a free sample literary term PDF.
Advanced Search
Refine any search. Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more.
Related Themes
Comparing and contrasting texts? Find where any theme occurs across all of LitCharts in seconds.
Poetry Guides
Line-by-line explanations and analysis of figurative language and poetic devices.
For every lyric poem we cover.
For every lyric poem we cover.
