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Irony
Definition of Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor can be stated explicitly, as... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other... read full definition
Dinner with Secretary
Explanation and Analysis—Curtain of Stars:
After Patrick's date with Jean in the chapter "Dinner with Secretary," he leaves her apartment and sees the night sky above New York. He describes the sublime view with a metaphor:
Eleven thirty-four. We stand on the sidewalk in front of Jean’s apartment on the Upper East Side. Her doorman eyes us warily and fills me with a nameless dread, his gaze piercing me from the lobby. A curtain of stars, miles of them, are scattered, glowing, across the sky and their multitude humbles me, which I have a hard time tolerating. She shrugs and nods after I say something about forms of anxiety.
At Another New Restaurant
Explanation and Analysis—Gray Place:
In the chapter "At Another New Restaurant," Patrick gives the most extended description of his relationship with Evelyn in the novel. He uses metaphors of color to show how Evelyn feels that the relationship is mostly normal, while he feels his usual panicky isolation:
Unlock with LitCharts A+To Evelyn our relationship is yellow and blue, but to me it’s a gray place, most of it blacked out, bombed, footage from the film in my head is endless shots of stone and any language heard is utterly foreign [...]. It’s an isolation ward that serves only to expose my own severely impaired capacity to feel. I am at its center, out of season, and no one ever asks me for any identification.
Related Themes:
