The Kid: Soot
A character initially introduced as simply the Kid but who quickly goes on to earn a nickname the kid hates—Soot—just suddenly shows up at the narrator’s side. He sidles up to him while he’s eating, you might say. And the most distinguishing characteristic is fodder for metaphorical rhapsodies:
“But all of that is secondary to his skin. It’s black. But not just black, he’s impossibly dark-skinned. The darkest skin I’ve ever seen. It’s like a clouded ocean sky in the dead of night. It’s like burrowing into old caves where sunlight has never set foot.”
Meta-Metaphor
It is not often you get to enjoy metaphorical language in a novel and then have the author purposely comment upon the metaphorical nature of the language itself. It is a case of meta-metaphor: acknowledging the fact that the metaphor exists and admitting it is intended metaphorically:
“The house is gray with a slanted roof and white-framed windows. It sits up on concrete blocks and the black earth can be seen beneath. The whole thing looks tired, and yet the whole thing looks as though it could stand for another hundred years without breaking a metaphorical sweat.”
Deep in the Heart of Heartlessness
The effects of racism pervade throughout the narrative as a significant consequence of American history, yet often takes a curiously allusive form. And then, suddenly, there is an explosion of consciousness as if conscience can no longer contain the willingness to ignore or overlook. And in these cases, the metaphors run sharp and to the point:
“Yeah, the South is America’s longest-running crime scene. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. But the thing is, if you’re born into a meat grinder, you grow up around the gears, so eventually you don’t even see them anymore.”
But Mostly Allusive
But racism is most often dealt with in a more suggestive and allusive manner. The intended effect is not to directly confront the reader and say look here, but to nudge readers to take it upon themselves to look over there. And the hope, of course, is that by looking over there they will no find it impossible not to look here: America as it really exists:
“On one of the gurneys behind her, dangling out from beneath a large, white sheet, is a small, black hand. It’s the darkness of the hand that catches my attention. It’s impossibly black. As if it has captured the pigment of an entire nation.”
May 25, 2011
After a paradigm-changing run of twenty-five years, Oprah Winfrey’s discussion show aired its final episode and officially came to an end on this date. In its final incarnation, the show became an instant gold ticket to commercial success for any book or author she recommended. Getting Winfrey to say good things about your novel could come to be considered something of a Holy Grail among those in the marketing part of the publishing industry. And so that it why the date became a metaphorical day of remembrance:
“In the industry it’s known as ‘The Day the Milk Ran Out.’ We hold a moment of silence on that day each year.”
