M is for Metaphor
Metaphor – one of my favourite literary devices 😊. As we’ve all learnt at school, metaphors create a comparison between two dissimilar objects without using ‘like’ or ‘as’. Which sounds simple, but as any secondary student will say, understanding metaphors is not as easy as it sounds.
Metaphors imply that the two dissimilar objects are in fact practically identical. From a writer’s point of view, this is especially helpful when tackling abstract ideas. A well known example is describing someone as having a heart of stone. Obviously the person’s heart is not made of stone but the word stone implies something unmovable. A person who is merciless, cruel, or unsympathetic, in other words.
Using metaphors in one’s writing—if done well—tends to elevate the prose as it engages the reader in understanding meaning beyond the text. Of course, the best metaphors are those which are ‘new’. Well known expressions like ‘heart of gold/stone’ have been used so often they are cliches. Good writers create their own comparisons which delight, or shock, readers. Poets especially, but also writers of all genres, pack a great deal of meaning into their metaphors without the need to explain at length.
When I chose the title Dawn of Purple and Grey for my debut novel, readers would realise at some point that dawn of purple and grey is being used as a metaphor in that purple and grey refer to the colours of the royal house, a house and family which has been conquered and eliminated. Therefore, dawn (the start of the day) hints at the re-emergence of that house. The purple and grey clouds hint at the coming storm (conflict/blood/death) about to break over the land.
On Reading
I’ve done very little reading these two weeks, but I’ve started book 9 Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone (2021) in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. It’s been some time since I’ve read books 1 – 8 so I’m still orientating myself in the story.
Till next time.
Caroline