Digging Beneath the Obvious: Figurative Language
In This Chapter
• The difference between symbolism and metaphor
• How to spot hyperbole
• Religion, myth, and superstition as literary devices
• How authors incorporate wit and humor into their work
Like every other part of a carefully constructed novel, an author is always searching to tell the story in unique ways. To help you find the meaning, the author will incorporate clues in the form of symbols and metaphors. Sometimes these clues are bold and obvious, whereas other times they meander through the story like secret passageways left open for readers to discover on their journey.
In this chapter, you learn what you could be getting from a novel beyond the obvious. It's not just the characters, the plot, the themes, and the numerous narrative techniques that make the work come together, but the symbols, metaphors, and myths incorporated in the text that make the story complete and fulfilling.
Getting Definitive
We touched on figurative language in Chapter 7, but it's time to take a closer look. Somehow over the years the meanings of the words symbolism and metaphor have crossed paths, and one term is often mistakenly used for the other. So before you read any farther, the first thing you need to do is establish the definition of the two words so that you can spot them within the text of a piece of fiction. (Allegories—symbols that reveal a larger metaphor—were covered in Chapter 7.)
Here are the definitions of the two words according to the Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (Second Edition):
Symbol. An object or name that stands for something else, especially a material thing that stands for something that is not material. For example, the symbol of America
Metaphor. The comparison of one thing to another without using the words like or as. For example, "The road was a ribbon of moonlight."
Literature and Symbols: Unveiling Mysteries
Why is it important to understand symbols? Symbolism, as we have discussed in previous chapters, is frequently used in fiction as a creative literary device to give the story more depth and complexity, which of course means that there will be more for you to understand.
Sometimes symbols are blatant—they will stand out and scream their meanings— but the more interesting symbols are the ones you have to dig for. Some authors are heavy on the use of symbolism, whereas others tend to be more subtle. For example, it's fair to say that one of the most blatant symbols in The Scarlet Letter is the letter A. As you remember, in Chapter 6 we looked at the many different ways that simple letter took on very specific symbolic meanings in that novel.
Because some symbols have become so much a part of our everyday lives, many authors try to keep their ideas and writing fresh by creating unique symbols and using them to tell stories in new ways.
For example, Amy recently read the novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, which builds itself up primarily by heavy use of symbolism and metaphor to make the story complete and fulfilling. The story is about a young girl's search for the truth about her mother's life. Lily Owens's mother dies tragically when Lily is a child, and she is left to be raised by her brutish father and a strong-willed African American nanny. In Lily's search for understanding of who her mother really was, she encounters several other symbolic mothers along the way.
A picture of a black Madonna leads Lily to the home of her mother's own nanny, named August, who lives with her two sisters, May and June—a household of women nurturing women. August, the oldest of the three, is a spiritual and wise woman who uses the image of the black Madonna on the label of her jars of homemade honey.
In the hive, there is the Queen Bee, of course, the mother of the hive without whom all the bees would be lost. August, her sisters, and their female friends worship the Madonna (the ultimate Christian symbol of motherhood) by using their own physical relic of a black Madonna in their living room services.
The symbolic breakdown would be as follows:
Lily uses a symbol representing the Virgin Mary to find her own mother. A mother (the Madonna image) leads Lily to another mother (August). August cares for yet another mother (the Queen Bee) and all of her offspring. The Queen Bee and the black Madonna are two of the most significant symbols in this book, and they are used deliberately by the author to help you understand what the book is about. It is not only Lily's story, but a story that calls out to everyone who seeks love, nurturing, and unconditional acceptance. In the big picture, the global meaning is that we all need to be nurtured. The concept of "mother" is the very
essence of ultimate nurturing, but we can also find that nurturing in the most unlikely places, whether it is in the house of three unwed beekeeping sisters or within the hive itself.
From the Serious to the Ridiculous
Authors have so much fun with names in their works of fiction on many different levels. Think about all the great names in literature—there are so many! Remember Ahab and Ishmael in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick? In Chapter 7, we discussed how their names have particular symbolic meaning to the story. We also discussed why Melville chose those names.
Think of the character Huckleberry Finn for a minute. The name conjures images of nature but perhaps in a more playful way. A huckleberry is a wild berry that grows in mountain regions, and a fin is the part of a fish's body that allows it to move. So immediately, through his name as a symbolic reference, we have a sense of Huckleberry Finn as being something good, natural, and free.
Charles Dickens consistently used names to represent character type—in fact, it is one of his many claims to fame. Some of the names of Dickens characters are so familiar to us now (does the name
Ebenezer Scrooge ring a bell?) that they have taken on a life of their own in the English language, and we often use them as symbolic references. We might call a stingy person "a Scrooge," for example.
Metaphorically Speaking
Using The Secret Life of Bees as an example again, although the bees and the Black Madonna are symbols, what they represent in conjunction with the story is a metaphor. In other words, when you put all the symbols together and connect them to the story, they become pieces of the overall concept.
The concept of the beehive and its beekeepers is metaphorical in relation to the theme of the story. Although there is order and nurturing within the hive, in the same breath there is also fragility. This is
a metaphor for what we experience as human beings. In the story, the narrator explains what happens to the hive if the Queen Bee disappears—the workers would be lost. Likewise in life, if we are not nurtured we will suffer a sense of tremendous loss and grief..
So how on earth did the author put together all these ideas in the first place? The answer is simple: by living, observing, and thinking creatively. These are the qualities that make the author an artist.
Hyperbole? Stop Exaggerating!
Using hyperbole is another way both poets and prose writers sometimes express an emotion. Hyperbole is an exaggerated expression used to show the depth and strength of an emotion. We use hyperbole in our everyday language, certainly more than we would ever use metaphors or similes. For example, how many times have you heard someone say, "I'd give my right arm for a hamburger" or "I'm so hungry I could eat
a horse"? This use of language to demonstrate the strength of emotion is called hyperbole.
Some believe that hyperbole is just melodrama and sounds a little ridiculous and clichéd at times. Although this may seem true if the device is overused (as it tends to be in some gothic and romantic literature), when used in moderation hyperbole can actually be very amusing and quite profound.
Hyperbole Then
Many older pieces of poetry and prose tend to be rich in hyperbole. The romantic writers loved to use hyperbole because it allowed them to break away from the conventions of past generations of writing. They could express passionate emotion in their writing that might not have been so well received in previous literary eras.
Gothic horror in the romantic literary era is most recognizable in the use of hyperbole for effect:
The murderer discovered! Good God! How can that be? Who could attempt to pursue him? It is impossible; one might as well try to overtake the winds, or confine a mountain-stream with a straw.
—Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and William and Dorothy Wordsworth are some of the most well-known writers of hyperbolic text in the history of the English language.
Hyperbole Now
Human beings cannot resist the temptation for melodrama. Although hyperbolic text is not nearly the fashion now as it might have been 200 years ago, it's still commonly used by modern-day authors.
Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Mârquez's writing hyperbole, as are many works by
Spanish-speaking authors. In fact, hyperbole is so commonly used in the writing of Latin authors that it falls into its own literary genre known as "magical realism."
When Marquez writes in One Hundred Years of Solitude "... it rained for four years, eleven months, and two days ..." what does he mean? Did it really rain all that time? No. It's an exaggerated and humorous tone that tells us that it had rained very heavily. It is highly unlikely that any place would ever get that kind of consistent rainfall, but Marquez is trying to describe the devastation to an area as a result of a storm.
Let's look at some samples of hyperbole from both old and new works of literary prose, with some explanation of what the author is trying to do.
Here we get a sense of the newness of the place through exaggeration and humor: The world was so recent that many things lacked names, and in order to indicate them it was necessary to point.
—Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
Whereas here we just get a wonderful sense of Mark Twain's consistent and beloved caustic wit through narrative voice:
There did not seem to be brains enough in the entire nursery, so to speak, to bait a fishhook with.
—Mark Twain, A Connecticut King Arthurs Court
(Ahh, Twain and his humor ... what would we do without them?)
Hyperbole is often used to describe someone's physical features:
The skin on her face was as thin and drawn as tight as the skin of an onion and her eyes were gray and sharp like the points of two icepicks.
—Flannery O'Connor, Parker Is Back
As you continue your reading journey, try to pay attention to hyperbole, especially in modern works of literature. We seem to be in a current literary trend of finding great meanings in understatement, so when you find exaggeration in a newly released novel, ask yourself why it's there; it may lead you to a greater understanding of the story.
References to Religion and Myth
With every page you turn in various works of fiction, you will find references to myth and religion. And if you don't find these references, you will often find their antithesis—meaning a denial of these religious or mythical references.
In Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd, Hardy sets the scene of a passionate, idyllic, and even tragic pastoral countryside where nature is representative of life with all its good and bad. In the midst of this rural, almost pagan setting, Hardy introduces Bathsheba Everdene, who shakes up everyone's world with her strength, independence, and beauty. It's interesting to note that here; too, you will find symbolic names. The characters who are part of the pastoral setting have names such as Oak and Boldwood, which are strongly connected to nature by bringing to mind the image of trees; whereas Bathsheba is a biblical name taken from the Old Testament.
Both her name and her very presence as an outsider automatically create a contrast between religion and culture.
If you decide to read Far from the Madding Crowd, keep your eyes open for another surprise. An outsider by the name of Sergeant Troy comes into the picture. What do you know about the word Troy Troy
So in one novel, Hardy uses both religion and myth to move the story along. It's a device that is frequendy used in fiction, so pay attention to the signposts as you read—names, settings, symbols, and metaphors will soon jump off the page at you if your mind is curious enough to find them.
Superstition as Metaphor
Superstition is a term used to describe a belief that is not based on reason but more on magical thinking. Sometimes a superstition is faith-based or has simply arisen from the beliefs of a particular culture or society, meaning it has folkloric origins. Some people say that superstition comes from ignorance or fear, whereas others say it stems from an unenlightened religious mindset. In actuality superstition can be any or all of these things.
So how do authors incorporate elements of superstition in their writing, and how is it different from religious metaphors? For a good example, let's revisit Huckleberry Finn. After all, Huck was one of the most superstitious characters in literary history.
Hairballs and Snakeskins
Superstition is a powerful force that drives Mark Twain's writing in Huckleberry Finn. Both Jim and Huck have their own sets of superstitions that stem from their own cultures and life rituals. Although Huck initially writes off Jim's superstitions as ridiculous, he eventually comes to see the relevance and wisdom in what Jim says.
And although you, as the reader, may not relate to these superstitions, what Twain is doing is showing the breakdown of differences between the two characters. The more they understand about each other, the more they respect each other.
Here are just a few examples of superstitions referenced in Huckleberry Finn:
• A hairball can tell the future.
• A loaf of bread can point out the whereabouts of a dead body.
• Touching a snakeskin with your bare hands will give you the worst kind of luck.
There are countless others. It's a wonder these two don't scare themselves to death
with all of their superstitions!
Nature, Superstition, and Metaphor
Nature is used as symbol and metaphor most frequently for Huck's state of mind. For example, when Huck feels lonesome and wishes he were dead, his mood is captured with superstition references:
The stars were shining, and the leaves rustled in the woods about somebody that was dead, and a whippowill and a dog crying about somebody that was going to die; and the wind was trying to whisper something to me, and I couldn't make out what it was, and so it made the cold shivers run over me.
The stars and the leaves and the whippoorwill and the wind and all they represent superstitiously to Huck seem to extend his mood of deep sadness and dread.
Read on:
I got so downhearted and scared I did wish I had some company. Pretty soon a spider went crawling up my shoulder, and I flipped it off and it lit in the candle; and before I could budge it was all shriveled up. I didn't need anybody to tell me that that was an awful bad sign and could fetch me some bad luck, so I was scared and most shook the clothes off of me. I got up and turned around in my tracks three times and crossed my breast every time; and I tied up a little lock of my hair with a thread to keep witches away.
All of these references from Huckleberry Finn demonstrate the use of extended metaphors using nature and superstition to symbolize Huck's various emotional states. By using superstition as Huck's and Jim's belief systems, Twain further reminded readers that these two people are almost untouched by "civilization," education, and religion. This makes them appear to be as pure as the nature around them, which makes their transitions in the novel all the more poignant to the reader.
The Art of Wit and Humor
Mark Twain is famous for his sense of humor as evidenced in his fiction and essays. Twain loved to take the seemingly normal and conventional world and turn it on its head to show the reader just how ridiculous we can be. In doing this, he helps us laugh at ourselves.
Mark Twain posts a notice at the very beginning of Huckleberry Finn warning his readers that if they take any of the story seriously, they will be punished. In writing this "notice" to the reader, he is really asking his readers to find the humor before they get all riled up over any presumed messages.
Of course, Twain wants you to see the seriousness of the subject matter, really, but what he asks the reader to do is to see the humor first. In fact, this is another way that Twain breaks conventional literary traditions. He is not asking you to look beneath the surface by using metaphor and symbolism; rather, he wants you to find your way to the top by seeing the humor in his writing first, because then and only then will the hidden meanings be clear. He would rather the truth as he sees it be revealed to the reader by playing on the reader's own human qualities and sensibilities, one being, of course, a sense of humor.
Here is Twain's "notice" to the reader:
Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.
By Order of the Author
The Joy of Discovery
There is no end to what authors can do to reach their readers, and there is nothing more pleasurable for a reader than to spot the hidden treasure that lies within the text. If you are the kind of reader you want to be, you will be able to find the name, the symbol, the metaphor that opens doors wide for further understanding. When that happens, you will experience a joy in reading fiction that you may never have expected. It's like being the archaeologist who finds the skull of a previously unknown dinosaur. You will relish your discoveries and use them to forge ahead to further understanding about yourself and the world around you.
The Least You Need to Know
• Symbolism and metaphor are two different comparative devices.
• Hyperbole is exaggeration used to express strong emotions.
• Superstition, myth, and religion are commonly used as metaphors in fiction.
• Humor is a clever device used to help readers see deeper meanings in literature.
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