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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
Chapter 1 - The Black-Eye-of-the-Month Club
Explanation and Analysis—Lifeboats:
In Chapter 1, Junior introduces himself as a cartoonist. He uses a metaphor to explain why drawing is important to him:
Just take a look at the world. Almost all of the rich and famous brown people are artists. They’re singers and actors and writers and dancers and directors and poets.
So I draw because I feel like it might be my only real chance to escape the reservation.
I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats.
When Junior looks around, most of the adults who look like him struggle with poverty, alcoholism, and generational trauma. None of his parents' dreams have panned out. The people of color whose lives he envies have all pursued careers in the arts. He thinks of his own art as a fleet of "tiny little lifeboats" that he rides through a "series of broken dams and floods." He hopes that one day they'll carry him somewhere else. It is important to note that he does not envision himself landing on a shore. He still expects life to be turbulent when he is (hopefully) rich and famous, but staying on the reservation would amount to slipping under the current instead of keeping himself afloat on the rush of water. To stay truly alive, he thinks he needs to let the water take him away.
This metaphor captures the difficult dilemma at the heart of the novel. Junior is desperate to build a life bigger than the one available to him on the reservation. However, he worries that leaving the reservation behind constitutes a betrayal. Is there a way for him to have the future he wants without rejecting his family, Rowdy, and even his own American Indian identity? The idea that Junior is surviving "a series of broken dams and floods" contains an answer to this very question. In many American Indian traditions, creation is not a singular event, but rather a cyclical process in which everyone is constantly participating. Floods are part of many American Indian creation stories. This kind of "natural disaster" may destroy the world in its current form, but it also gives rise to something new. Plenty of American Indian climate activists have called for dams to be broken to restore ecological balance, a policy idea that is wrapped up in the notion that people can recreate the world. By imagining his life as "a series of broken dams and floods," Junior entertains the possibility that he too could create the world anew every time it falls apart on him. He thus doubles down on his American Indian heritage and what it has taught him. Even as he fantasizes about life beyond the reservation, he brings his cultural identity with him, along with a deep respect for and connection to the people who share it.
Related Themes:
Chapter 15 - Hunger Pains
Explanation and Analysis—The Smudge:
In Chapter 15, Junior uses a metaphor to describe his burgeoning relationship with Penelope:
I think she was bored of being the prettiest, smartest, and most popular girl in the world. She wanted to get a little crazy, you know? She wanted to get a little smudged.
And I was the smudge.
But, hey, I was kind of using her, too.
After all, I suddenly became popular.
Penelope is a wealthy White girl who feels enormous pressure to please everyone through perfect conformity. The pressure to conform comes from her peers but also from her father, who expects her to date a popular White athlete like Roger. Penelope is straining under the weight of these expectations. Junior believes that she wants to do something unexpected. Specifically, she wants to "smudge" the perfect White veneer she has worked so hard to project to the world.
Junior thinks that he is the metaphorical "smudge." This comparison captures the complex racial dynamics of Junior and Penelope's relationship. It plays on the color of their skin but delves beyond the surface into the layers of meaning society attaches to those colors. Junior has the distinct sense that his brown skin makes people like Penelope see him as the dirty opposite of pure white. Penelope is drawn to Junior because she sees him as something to mar her perfect image in a way she finds liberating. Conscious of the way she is using him, Junior also sees himself as only halfway desirable. He is not convinced that any of his White classmates could ever want him for him, thinking they only value him for what he represents.
The damage Penelope does to Junior's self-image could come off as tragic, except that Junior doesn't quite allow this reading. Instead, he emphasizes the way he uses Penelope in his own right to become a bit more popular. He doesn't want her just for her, either. Their mutual exploitation mixes with their tender feelings for one another, and this young high school relationship begins to look like many others. There happens to be a racial component to their dynamic, but at the end of the day, they are just another young adult "semi-couple" navigating tumultuous emotions and a difficult social hierarchy at school.
Related Themes:
