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Metaphor
Explanation and Analysis—Balloon-Fat:
In Booker's letters, which Brides pores over at Queen's house, he uses a metaphor to describe the difficulty—and the mistake—of trying to understand racist thinking:
Trying to understand racist malignancy only feeds it, makes it balloon-fat and lofty floating high overhead fearful of sinking to earth where a blade of grass could puncture it letting its watery feces soil the enthralled audience the way mold ruins piano keys both black and white, sharp and flat to produce a dirge of decay.
The metaphorical image of "racist malignancy" as a balloon that fills until it pops illustrates the danger of trying to "understand" racist worldviews—an attempt that only "feeds" the problem and ultimately makes things worse. What's more, the passage ends with a simile comparing the end result of trying to understand racism to “the way mold ruins piano keys both black and white, sharp and flat.” This simile brings to mind a terrible mess, effectively functioning as a warning about trying to empathize with racist ideology. Doing this, the novel suggests, is not a noble attempt that will disarm racism—to the contrary, it will only make things worse.
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