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Metaphor
Explanation and Analysis—Let it Blaze:
When Bride reads Booker’s letters at Queen’s house, Booker uses imagery and a metaphor:
You should take heartbreak of whatever kind seriously with the courage to let it blaze and burn like the pulsing star it is unable or unwilling to be soothed into pathetic self-blame because its explosive brilliance rings justifiably loud like the din of tympani.
The sentence uses a double metaphor—cosmic light and orchestral sound—to present heartbreak as an energy that deserves to be celebrated rather than diminished. When Booker suggests that heartbreak should "blaze and burn like the pulsing star," he presents grief or struggle not as a wound but as something temperamental and intense. The word "pulsing" specifically suggests periodic intensification, which acknowledges that heartbreak can be a bit unpredictable—it can flare, subside, and then flare again.
Toward the end of the passage, the sentence focuses on auditory imagery, as Booker talks about the "explosive brilliance" of heartbreak sounding out "like the din of tympani." This underscores the intensity of certain kinds of struggle or hardship, though Booker once again evokes this intensity in a celebratory way. On the whole, the metaphorical and sensory language in this passage invite Bride to embrace messy, difficult feelings—something she hasn't been all that interested in doing throughout her life.
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