Metaphorical Contemplation in English Class
The book opens with the first-person narration of Donte sitting in school and looking at the linoleum floor with black specks almost lost amid the white yet also sticking out for same reason. He reflects upon the fact that he is learning about metaphors in English class and the two things come together. “I won’t believe I’m just a black speck. I’m bigger, more than that. Though sometimes I feel like I’m swimming in whiteness.” The metaphorical language turns to simile at the end to situate his position in comparison to the linoleum with perfect symmetry as he, too, at time feels both invisible among surrounding whiteness and as though it makes him stick out.
Fencing
The story is about a young Black student at an exclusive private school of the type in which the jocks that rule the school are members of the fencing team. Anyway. Donte is determined to make it onto a fencing team for his own personal reasons having to do with number one school-ruling fencing champ. This ambition leads him straight to a metaphorical epiphany. “Fencing is in my blood.” This is not purely metaphorical although it is not exactly literal, either. Donte learns from his Black coach that fencing has not always been the domain of privilege white males.
Hollywood’s Eraser
Donte comes to learn that the author of the most swashbuckling story ever, The Three Musketeers, was racially mixed and that the father of that writer, Alexandre Dumas, was born the son of a slave. Nevertheless, the metaphor is apt: “Black fencers like Dumas were erased.” The eraser belonged to Hollywood—as a metonym covering the entire early history of the cinema. The contribution of Black Europeans to fencing had not been a secret and it would not become a secret until the movie versions of the novel of Dumas presented a completely whitewashed account of history.
This Means War
The whole motivation at work behind Donte’s ambition to make it onto a fencing team is his dream of a showdown with the star of the school fencing team who also happens to be as quick with a racist comment as he is with a foil. Donte is preparing for war and so the metaphors quickly take on that aspect. “The battlefield is a mat—forty-six feet long by six feet wide.” He goes on to explain that competitive fencing is the wild ballet acrobats like in the movies, but it contained entirely within this narrow strip. Stepping off the confines of the strip is like going AWOL from the battlefield. It is not a good thing.
Math Guy
Although it is not made abundantly clear through hard evidence, a confession by Donte reveals he is a math guy and not a word guy. A math in the sense of being suspicious of things like synonyms and one of those math guys who views the idea of synonyms and homonyms and connotation with suspicion because they lack the predictability of math. “Why can’t the world make sense like numbers? A two is a two. It is what it is. Can’t be a three. Or a ten. Not even an eleven.” While there is a definite logic to this metaphor based on a desire to reduce chaos, it also reveals a rejection of creativity and choice. That Donte wishes for a world where twos can’t be three is psychologically illuminating. He feels a sense of chaos in his life engendered by a lack of dependability, and he is eager to foster that sense of predictability any way he can.
