Metaphorical Epigraph
Before the actual first lines of the novel can be found an epigraph introducing Part 1. It is a simple declarative sentence issuing a simple direct metaphor. Simply stated, yet, but clear in its intended meaning? Not so much. As an epigraph it is effective. As a metaphor, it is vague to the point of meaningless. But a strange thing occurs with a turn (or swipe) of the page: suddenly the epigraph seems to actually be the missing first part of the opening sentence:
“Death is a perfection of the eye.”
The Literary Allusion Simile
The literary allusion is a type of simile that takes advantage of the familiarity of a popular or well-known literary subject to create a sense of similarity that that effectively makes a connection across a broad swath of readers. The more well-known the literary work, author or character is, of course, the more universal it becomes. Thanks to a series of high-profile films beginning in the 1990’s the following simile is more widely recognizable than it might have been in the past:
“Now, as I stood in a little pharmacy on the corner of Water Street and Wall Street, my mind was empty, subject to a nervous condition; this was the expression that came to me as I stood there, as though I had become a minor character in a Jane Austen novel.”
When a Simile is a Better Choice
Some comparisons may be entirely appropriate to certain people sharing cultural values, political ideologies or nationalistic pride. These comparisons may even be appropriate to some outsiders equipped with a broad enough mind to view things beyond their own cultural instincts. And then there are the comparison which may be acceptable to broad-minded outsiders, but which even those people recognize as the bad decision when a choice exists. Such is an example of the following in which just the slight alteration from a direct metaphor to simile would make it an infinitely better choice of words:
“America is a version of Al-Qaeda.”
Such a statement is guaranteed to cause trouble except is most particular of situations. On the other hand, “America is like a version of Al-Qaeda” says the same thing, but in a less aggressive manner.
Character Description
The use of figurative language—especially the simile—is especially effective for conveying character quickly. This truth is even more so when the character is in an out in the blink of an eye but needs to be delineated in a way that gives them life; a way that makes them stand out for that moment:
“I saw someone, at last, at the far end of the street. It wasn’t the far end, just two blocks down. The person was small, slow, like a memory approaching.”
Out of Sync
The narrator describes the strange unreal quality of the semiotics of Christmastime in the city during a period of jingoistic patriotic warmongering zeal. The time of the season and the tenor of the times seems awkwardly out of sync:
“That afternoon, during which I flitted in and out of myself, when time became elastic and voices cut out of the past into the present, the heart of the city was gripped by what seemed to be a commotion from an earlier time.”
