Paris
This is a novel where the story spans across the globe and over time. One section takes place in Paris on the day the country fell into German power in World War II. “What François had taken away was that France, the French system, had rejected him—and that Paris was a cauldron of misery.” That metaphorical image is a powerful statement of the depths of despondency one is subject to feeling at being left down so comprehensively. This cauldron bubbled and boiled in reaction to what remained unspoken among the French for decades because of shame or perhaps just a willed forgetfulness.
Constantine
Because setting is so integral to the telling of the story, it is not surprising that much of the metaphorical language is directed to bringing those locations to vivid life. “Constantine like a fairy-tale city perched on its spiny ridge, buffeted by winds, the glory of the wide desert.” There is actually much more description both before this assertion and after but ultimately it seems superfluous. One can imagine their own version of what a fairy-tale city in the desert might look like and perhaps none of those versions would be very much unlike what is portrayed in those additional descriptive details.
Gaston and Lucienne
More than once a metaphorical phrase is utilized to describe the long union of Gason and Lucienne. “Their marriage seemed clearly to have been fated, to be the masterpiece of both their lives” and at another point one-half of the couple poses the idea in question form, “Perhaps our love is the masterpiece of our lives?” The question is entirely rhetorical, of course, since the answer is clearly to the affirmative. Although described as a masterpiece of some sort, the aesthetic details of this metaphorical state of ultimate achievement is never defined. It is not a masterpiece of any particular art. It is just a masterpiece of luck and fate.
Gaston During Wartime
Gaston is at a very low place in his own self-esteem at one point. He fears death, of course, but he knows that he fears failing his manly soldierly duty even more. He philosophically muses that “A man is an animal; he, thirty-four years old, an animal in its prime, full of strength, a modicum of wisdom, permeated by the life force—what was he doing trapped here, far from combat, womanish, a eunuch cowering at the sidelines of the war.” A eunuch is a term for a man who has been castrated so that he can be trusted to guard a concubine without being able to give into sexual temptation. Gaston may have existential urges toward viewing himself as an animal stripped of its power but by the end it is clear that this animal is just the same old misogynistic and patriarchal concept of what a man without the capacity to act on his aggression. Gaston fears not that he is a powerless animal but that he is a woman, a creature that is by definition powerless.
Tata Jeanne: Metaphor Queen
A character known as Tata Jeanne becomes the unlikely recipient of one of the most metaphorical imagery-laden sentences in the entire book. “She was like Madame Defarge at the guillotine or like one of the Fates, knitting instead of spinning, cheerfully observing life’s dramas as though it were all a Saturday matinée.” There once was a time when this might be criticized as mixing metaphors but ultimately all the references paint a coherent portrait of the woman. Just after this bountiful description she asks another character to make sure she is told if there is any news of an increase in the death toll. She is voyeur to tragedy who occupies her time by keeping close track of other people’s appointment with the darkest side of fate.
