Trains
Railroad trains have long been a goldmine for writers looking to create inspired metaphors and similes. From the clacking sound the produce to the imagery of links in a chain to the self-containment of society on those taking passenger cross-country, trains just about have it all. Leave it to a talent as large as Gordimer to extricate from the morass a genuine striking and original metaphorical conception for mainstay:
“A train shuttered past like a camera gone berserk, lens opening and closing, with each flying segment of rolling stock, on flashes of the veld behind it.”
The Embrace of the Soldiers
“A Soldier’s Embrace” commences with a moment of celebration of the revolutionary spirit realized. The transfer of power from a ruling white minority into he hands of the formerly oppressed black majority at last comes to fruition. In that moment of celebration in the streets, a white woman caught up in the sweeping tide of excitement is embraced by a white soldier on one side and a black rebel on the other and in a moment of pure exultation at the promise of racial equality seething through the moment, she plans a kiss upon the cheeks of both men. That kiss—that three-way embrace—becomes ever-after a symbolic moment of the realization of a new beginning as well as the unrealized beginning of an end. Some time afterward, the woman recalls:
“That vision, version, was like a poster; the sort of thing that was soon peeling off dirty shopfronts and bus shelters while the months of wrangling talks preliminary to the takeover by the government went by.”
Action
Gordimer is not a writer who is particularly dependent upon the simile for conveying character. Her preference leans toward drawing metaphorical imagery from the holster to convey action. The resonance of the train in movement is a perfect example, as is a description of something much simpler to which her simile increases depth:
“She stood up with a start that was like an inarticulate apology and went quickly from the room.”
Darkness
If you look for it, it will come. The quickest way to confirm the very authentic possibility that no other single metaphor is as omnipresent in post-19th century fiction as “darkness” is to read digital copies and pull the trigger on the search mechanism. One may well expect to be amazed at the sheer volume of hits on that word which turn out to be engaged as metaphor. The story “Keeping Fit” for instance, the word appears five times. Though some of these uses are entirely literal, others are a more ambiguous fit between literal and figurative while one is irrefutably metaphorical:
“Darkness danced with the after-vision of the boy’s profile against glare; the waiting was the first atmosphere shared with the one to whom refuge had been given.”
Opening Line
An instance in which Gordimer engages the power of comparison afforded by the simile is the striking opening paragraph of “Is There Nowhere Else Where We Can Meet?” This short, two-sentence paragraph is actually, in fact, nothing but metaphorical imagery that affixes a certain mood to its specific setting which will prove to be a consequential element in the story. Nevertheless, take note that it is yet another example where the author is moved to use metaphor for the purpose of describing action:
“It was a cool grey morning and the air was like smoke. In that reversal of the elements that sometimes takes place, the grey, soft, muffled sky moved like the sea on a silent day.”
