Self-Recognition
Usually, a metaphor is introduced into the narrative without drawing attention to it. At one point, a man in a marriage that has gone sour who is attracted to a female co-worker conceives a thought and then immediately reflects upon the creativity of the thought. “Love, when alive, is a garland, he thought. When dead, it’s a garotte. He felt rather pleased with himself for having come up with the metaphor.” The metaphor describes his perception of the current state of his marriage. The emotional chasm caused by that perception doubtlessly has him grasping for any positive demonstration of self-worth. Thus, the commentary on what is actually a rather uninspired comparison.
Aftershock
The premise of the book is that people trapped together in an office following an earthquake take turns telling stories to stay calm and pass the time waiting for either rescue or something else. A man named Cameron is in the middle of his story when something else arrives. “It was as though the giant in the earth had heard Cameron speak his name.” The comparison of the sound and fury of a major aftershock to a giant moving deep within the earth is very effective at conveying the terror of the moment. Surely, it would take a giant of truly momentous proportions to wreak such devastation and the timing of the aftershock aligns with the recurring thematic exploration of the nature of fate.
Fate and Perception
That the aftershock would occur in the middle of Cameron’s story specifically is foreshadowed earlier in the story. “He was a trouble magnet, as his aunt liked to say.” In addition to hinting that bad things happen when Cameron is around, this metaphor is another example of how the book pursues themes related to fate. More specifically, thoughts and incidents are directed toward how people perceive their relationship to events they determine to be examples of fate.
Metaphor as Motivation
Lily is the youngest and smallest of those trapped in the aftermath of the earthquake. As a result of her size, she is tasked with working her way through a tiny crawlspace in the debris. It is difficult physically and she feels the pressure of being the only person capable. For motivation, she creates a fantasy and turns to metaphor. “I’m Gulliver, she told herself. This is a mountain in Lilliput.” By transforming reality into merely metaphorical imagery, she is better able to deal with both the psychological pressure and the more tangible difficulty of navigating through the pile of wreckage.
Character Analysis
The husband who takes pride in his mastery of marital metaphor is unhappily married partly because it seems, he and his wife are not entirely compatible. She is deeply critical of his ability to successfully compartmentalize the various aspects of his life, calling it cowardly. Metaphor is then engaged to illuminate this character trait as he thinks of the girl in the office to whom he finds himself attracted. “Although when he thought of her, the drawers in his mind shrank. He could not fit her into any of them.” The language illuminates how his wife is probably onto something about his nature since even thinking about the object of potentially adulterous relationship filters through the detached managerial operating system of his mind. It is an example of using the metaphorical configurations created inside a character’s head to reveal a fundamental construct of their core personality.
