The Shreds
The very title is a metaphor. The context of that metaphor is made plain in a line from the monologue that opens the play. A clearly agitated is obsessed with the return from exile of his brother, Wak. There is more than just politics going on here, but in the grand tradition of distraction, Odie formulates his emotional excess within the context of humanitarian concern with vexation about those—Wak—who cannot hear the wail of humans crying out in woe who:
“have no ear for the onslaughts of man by man? No ear for human cries of woe…no shred of tenderness left?”
The Very Last Shred
Later, the very same character is working himself up over thoughts and predictions about the response of liberators muses about how those who fled in exile from liberators are reacting upon their return. Could that lack of a shred of tenderness go deeper so that Wak:
“all the while he keeps cool and may be secretly having a laugh as pockets of resistance crumble.”
“sausage and bacon”
This phrase is a metaphor that Odie uses contemptuously toward those—especially Wak—who fled n self-exile rather than face the consequences like he has. Odie has over that time worked into head that beyond all shadow of doubt those who fled while the rest stayed behind have been living in a much better state. This state is represented in the simplicity of the symbolism of being better off: they have access to pork. This access is what Odie believes is emblematic of all the things those returning as refugees have enjoyed. And those who never left have not.
Like a Wak
Odie is a very figurative speaker. His language is peppered with director metaphors, repetition, alliteration, and other rhetorical tools of propaganda. He seems to reserve his supply of less direct comparisons—similes—specifically for Wak. It as if his brother has created something in him that will not at times allow him to directly confront. Some of these similes are among the funniest lines in the play. Not that it is a comedy by any stretch. Odie on Wak:
“grinning like a green gecko”
“did not have as much guts as a cowardly chimpanzee”
The Best Metaphor
The single best metaphor in the entire play from the perspective of literary creativity and semantical imagination is also—what else—a glimpse into just how deep Odie’s intensity of feelings toward Wak goes. A common expectation among linguists is that most people reserve their most figurative and metaphorically complex articulations for those with whom they have the most complicated relationship. In other words, someone you don’t know very well—or at all—might receive nothing more inspired than a “you are as dumb as a rock.” Odie’s display of the complexity of his long relationship with Wak is demonstrated most efficiently when he digs deep and asserts”
“You were a perfect circus for an audience of octopuses”
