One Bad Dream
Bad dream and nightmares are kindling for the writer who enjoys crafting metaphor and simile. The descriptive possibilities conveying the intense effects upon the psyche of such a nighttime visit to the subconscious is almost infinite. Consider, for example:
“I could remember, all right. It stuck in my mind like a bad dream you sometimes get after eating a bait of fried hog liver for supper.”
Texas Patois
Funny thing about Texas patois: even though most of it sounds like the kind of stuff people only say in the movies, the reality is that a lot of what Texans say in the movies actually does originate back home. The book is filled with examples of Texas patois, endowing the narration with an immediate sense of realism:
“I looked across the backs of a lot of swimming horses and saw a sight that set my heart to flopping around like a catfish in a wet sack.”
The Big Sleep
Metaphors intended to make death seem not so absolute an abyss of nothingness abound in literature. In addition to the “the big sleep” some popular examples include “pushing up daisies” having “bought the farm.” Of course, not all metaphors make death seem quite such a happy place:
“I’m a dyin’ man, Sanderson. All’s that left for me now is the cold grave and the Misty Beyond.”
Setting
A sense of setting is easily conveyed using metaphor. In fact, some people are so prone to using metaphor to frame the setting of a story they are about to share that one can always tell when the story is going to be long and rambling. Grasping this trait can be convenient when one doesn’t want to be drawn into such a discursive ramble:
“Puts me in mind of a time I’m on a cow hunt in the cedar breaks west of Hornsby’s Bend,” he began. “Dry as a powderhouse, the country is, and—”
“Not now, Mr. Searcy,” Papa interrupted.
Emotional Reaction
In one particularly vivid example of the power of metaphor, the reactions of three different characters to the same traumatic display before are effectively and efficiently put across using metaphorical imagery. The writing is terse and concise, conveying a wealth of information for paltry cost of word count:
“Lester White’s black eyes flashed me a quick look of sympathy. Uncle Pack Underwood, a lean old wolf of a man, burned away to star out across the prairie, his line faced bleak with a dark and brooking bitterness. Bud Searcy went all to pieces.”
