Archaic Comparisons
Although the title of the collection derives from the title of one of the stories, the word “mustard” appears within the content of the narratives just once. Fortunately for this section of analysis, as a simile. Unfortunately, the comparison being made is likely to produce a quizzical look among most modern readers. This points out a very common problem for writers when utilizing commonly used slang and phrases of the time: everything eventually goes out of style. (Except, it seems, for the hipster connotation of the world “cool” which has long since outlived its time of origin.) In this particular example, for the quizzical, being as keen as mustard meant, essentially, very cool excited to do something very cool. One more note: this paritcular simile is almost exclusively the use of the British.
“Plenty of kids used to come along at one time, keen as mustard to follow in father’s footsteps, because ours is a district with a band tradition.”
Moving Toward a Closing Metaphor
The ironically titled story “My Friend the Enemy” is a first personal confessional that inexorably and unrelentingly leads to its metaphorical final paragraph. It is a very intense story about friendship and betrayal and understanding and misunderstanding that is quite specific in the narrative arc and the details. But the concern at the heart of the story is far more universal and appropriately ends on a metaphor of universality:
“But do not bother to defend me, for I have joined the ranks of the most despised and persecuted of all racial minorities. I am the Jew, the negro, the aboriginal. I am the enemy. My race is the human race.”
Opening with a Metaphorical Image
By contrast, “The Lily Hand” commences with a simile that establishes a metaphorical comparison. Like the first example, it is a comparison that has not aged well, though may arguably be more familiar than that stuff about mustard. Rudolph Valentino was perhaps the biggest silent screen star in the world—a dashing figure of romance and sensuality—whose death was made all the more tragic by felling him at age thirty-one:
“The day Felipe died the women stopped the traffic in New Bond Street, weeping and fainting and having hysterics round that classy shop of his almost as if he were another Valentino.”
The Titular Metaphor
Although the mustard-seed of the title story is not directly implicated as a metaphor through simile, the same does not hold true of the animals referenced in the title “I am a Seagull.” While the birds of the title are real, the title itself is meant to be understood as metaphor, of course. As a result, throughout the story are direct comparisons that heighten the metaphorical foundation.
“[the gulls] screamed through the howl of the wind, like demons. Their voices seemed to me to hold the whole of desolation, but the whole of joy, too.”
Subtle Metaphors
Sometimes a metaphor can be so subtle that it doesn’t even seem to be a metaphor. Lacking the distinctive structure of the simile which indicates a comparison quite explicitly, most metaphors still tend to be recognizable as a comparison of one thing or another. But a metaphorical image can be one simply gives a subtle personification to an inanimate object:
“The house waited for me, quiescent, biding its time.”
