The Wilderness
In “Letters XII: Distresses of a Frontier Man” addresses a commonly held misconception among Europeans that an inexorable trip westward through the American continent would akin to time travel. The farther away from the European colonies one traveled, the more primitive civilization became. The author expresses this feeling through the common perspective of defense of civilization against a primal invading horde capable of overpowering civilized man through primitive thuggery:
“From the mountains we have but too much reason to expect our dreadful enemy; the wilderness is a harbour where it is impossible to find them. It is a door through which they can enter our country whenever they please; and, as they seem determined to destroy the whole chain of frontiers, our fate cannot be far distant”
Slavery
In describing the horrific spectacle of a slave auction, metaphorical language is engaged through simile that gains power from being far closer to a literal description than any metaphor should ever get. The comparison is apt; so apt, in fact, that it is almost painful to read and realize it is not nearly far from a straightforward literal description as the utilization of simile makes it appear:
“There, arranged like horses at a fair, they are branded like cattle”
Quakers
In describing the rigid plainness of the Quakers of Nantucket, de Crèvecœur can get wickedly humorous in his use of metaphor. He suggests that they are so committed to stripping away all artifice from their lives that even were someone merely to speak correct grammatical English at odds with their simplified version, that person “would be looked upon as a fop or an innovator.” Likewise, any man wearing a longcoat on a day other than Sunday “would be looked upon as a careless spendthrift.”
Whalers
The author marvels at how Nantucket has managed to become such a perfectly functioning company town. Everything there is related to the industry of whaling and that interest cuts across all normal societal divisions. So powerfully cohesive is the population of Nantucket that
“Could the manners of luxurious countries be imported here, like an epidemical disorder they would destroy everything; the majority of them could not exist a month, they would be obliged to emigrate”
“We are like the pismires destroyed by the plough; whose destruction prevents not the future crop.”
This is a beautifully constructed simile that unfortunately suffers as a result of its own cleverness. The comparison here is one in which civilized Europeans stand on the threshold of perhaps one day being forever altered by the potential power of a fully inhabited America. America doesn’t present a threat of devastating Europe and reversing the course of colonization, but what will come afterward will be substantially different from what has existed. The beauty of this metaphorical connection is the utilization as a point of comparison of the pismire which is a term for a highly organized, industrious insect which lived in formally organized colonies much like the Europeans had been doing for millennia. Or, in other words, a pismire is another word for ant. And even at the time of composition the word pismire was already rarely used, thus lending the word itself a sense of being archaic and outdated. Unfortunately, today pismire is almost totally unrecognized by most people as the word is not just rarely used, but almost never used.
