An Extended Metaphor
A very beautiful example of an extended metaphor is engaged to put into perspective the abstraction of an idea that is sadly disappointing. A character named Lucy is in a cave said to be so large that a ship landed within it. But what happened?
“The very thought dropped a veil over the scene, and she imagined the years disappearing like tendrils of sea smoke.”
Philosophizing
At nearly 900 pages, one might well suspect the novel engages metaphor more than a few times to explore philosophical concepts. That’s a lot of time spent in space for the characters to contemplate the meaning of life. They may not be terribly profound, but then that’s the power of metaphor: it can often make even the most prosaic of contemplative philosophizing sound kind of deep.
“The path to our goal is rarely straight. It tends to turn and twist, which makes the journey far more enjoyable than it would otherwise be.”
Kira versus Gregorovich
Kira and Gregorovich engage in almost a battle of metaphors at one point. Some is, as Kira points out, simply bad blank verse. Others are actually pretty interesting. The best of the lot, for instance, is actually pretty complex when one penetrates into its seemingly simple assertion:
“Amusements are hard to find when one finds oneself bounded in a nutshell.”
Conversation
Most people never really take the time to notice it, but for the average person, everyday discourse is littered with metaphor. Since they aren’t framed as obvious comparison using similes, however, it is easy to overlook the subtlety and thereby miss the pervasiveness. If you really want to see to what extent everyday conversation is littered with metaphor, start noticing those people who don’t incorporate them much or instead incorporate metaphor weirdly. For comparison of how subtly most people do engage, study this back and forth dialogue from the book and notice how even when the metaphors are pretty non-conversation, it still sounds like perfectly conversational discourse:
“We are made from the dust of dead stars.”
“I’m aware of the fact. It’s a lovely thought, but I don’t see the relevance.”
“The relevance—”
“—is in the logical extension of that idea. We are aware. We are conscious. And we are made from the same stuff as the heavens.”
“Don’t you see, Prisoner? We are the mind of the universe itself. We and the Jellies and all self-aware beings. We are the universe watching itself, watching and learning.”
A Final Lasting Image
One of the last images in the novel is also one of the most moving and beautiful examples of metaphor. It is such a beautifully constructed metaphor that it almost seems as if all preceding 800-plus pages are leading directly to this lingering still frame:
“The ship sailed, but it seemed not to move. A butterfly, bright and delicate, frozen in crystal, preserved like that for all eternity. Deathless and unchanging.”
