The Use Of Metaphors In Dave Eggers 'What Is The What'

Imagine yourself shipwrecked upon an uninhabited island. The experience of being stranded will cause you to pose many questions, with the possibility of only one of those questions to being answered. One answered question is: what is the purpose of literature? Northrop Frye, within “Motive for Metaphor”, uses the analogy of being within an uninhabited island to examines the purpose of literature by connecting it to the purposes of language and their use within the different worlds and levels of the mind Frye sees present.

The author uses descriptive language to paint a vivid picture for the reader. This allows the reader to clearly visualize the gory scenes and deaths that occur on the island. For example, when the author first introduces the Lord of the Flies, he allows the reader to easily visualize the death of the pig by saying

The people in this story go through a great transformation from hating each other to being as close as brothers. These boys had very difficult decisions to make. This graveyard moment was a very clear message that could not be misunderstood. They learned tolerance for those of their loved ones that couldn 't or wouldn 't learn as quickly as they did. If we are to ever

A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a comparison is done by using words that would normally describe one thing, and apply to describe another. One can normally find metaphors in songs and poems as well as other instances where artistic writing might be suggested. In Silvia Path's short poem Metaphors she uses metaphorical language to describe what it feels like to be pregnant. Path describes herself as one big riddle, she proceeds to describe how she feels about her pregnancy with the use of numerous metaphors, she successfully paints a very distinct picture in the readers imagination on what she might of looked like while being pregnant. "One view is that metaphors make comparisons, the basis for the comparison being the features (or

Instability and uncertainty, though culturally subjective, are ubiquitous to humankind. The abstraction of life and death has engendered religions, music, art, and folklore. In Dave Egger’s What is the What?, a narrative recount of the life of Sudanese refugee Valentino Achak, the motif of the unknown, the enigmatic What, subtly guides the child and adult Achak in Africa and the United States respectively. Introduced by Achak’s father as part of a creation tale, the What serves as a mysterious and unseen force in the lives of the African refugees. It is the embodiment of variable ambiguity, with neither consistent definition nor closure. Achak’s lack of an understanding of the What parallels his lack of understanding of his surroundings

They tell you what is necessary to know what is going on while still using a metaphorical language. He uses enough detail in his writing to help the reader visualize what is occurring in the book. The author gives you hope that Horatio Hornblower will accomplish his goals, but also allows you to see the bad in Horatio. The writing style makes the reader feel like you are a part of the book, and you have an important role to play in the story.

The reasoning for descriptive content in books like Lord of the Flies is for the reader to imagine what is going on in the book, like in chapter 9 when Simon dies William Golding doesn’t just say “Simon dies as the storm rolled in.” He says Simon died from the boys in their

Descriptive writing transforms the writer’s words to life, often appealing to the senses, conveying information, and has either a subjective or objective tone. Through the writer’s descriptive word choice, the reader can paint the image in their head, as if it was an experience of their own. Description in a piece is so crucial it can make or break a good story. When a person can read a story and visually see what is happening, that is when one knows that the writer has done a successful job in using description. The way a writer inscribes his words can help to inspire the same feelings in a reader that the writer was feeling in that particular moment. Description creates a mood or atmosphere which can help contribute to the dominant impression. The dominant impression is usually a single word that gives an overall idea of the writer’s purpose. In the short story, There Will Come Soft Rains, the author Ray Bradbury uses superior description in this piece, which conveys the dominant impression of emptiness.

metaphor-"is a typical different method of expression that thinks about two things without utilizing any looking at words, (for example, like or as)." (Kirzner & Mandell, p. 208).

A metaphor is a comparison between two contrasting substances, ideologies, and individuals in order to intertwine the similarities in-between the meaning of objects being compared. In using metaphor properly you can effiencently displays the two different objects that are being compared share a quality that gives them a surprising compatibility ,and dissimilar to simile, a metaphor does not involve the use of like or as. In The Metamorphosis Kafka uses a metaphor to show the deficiency in the communication between the members of Gregor’s economically rock-bottom class family. To show that relationship he turns the main character, Gregor Samsa into an enormous dung

On the other hand, metaphors and similes are important to the tale as well. These literary devices help the reader connect to the text. “But they were running and turning their faces up to the sky and feeling the sun on their cheeks like a warm iron…” Similes and metaphors also produce a vivid image. “...With the sweet crystal fall of showers and the concussion of storms so heavy they were like tidal waves come upon the islands.”

or phrases. They can trick the mind’s interpretation of one thing into something more than what

Metaphors are used to clarify and strengthen the effect the meaning of our words. They are usually used when describing a subject felt strongly about. For example, when someone says that marijuana is Satan’s lettuce, they are using a metaphor to explain how the green leafy substance is bad in essence because it came from the devil. They are saying that marijuana comes from the devil because it is illegal and looked down upon in society. Obviously the devil didn’t physically put marijuana on this earth, but the metaphor used in this example helps explain the point against marijuana that the people who use this metaphor are trying to make. Metaphors compare the known to the unknown in order to explain or just simply entertain the audience. Most

He also used long, complex sentences to weave the readers’ minds in his stories to make it seem more interesting just like in this line from the excerpt, “The men swore piously at the rain, which drizzled upon them, compelling them to stand always very erect in fear of the drops that would sweep in under their coat-collars. The fog was as cold as wet

A literary trope is the use of figurative language for artistic effect such as using a figure of speech. The word trope has also come to be used for describing commonly recurring literary and rhetorical devices, motifs or clichés in creative works. Metaphors are rhetorical devices used to transfer properties of one concept onto another. In the process of elaboration of the metaphoric correspondences, cognitive, affective, and somatic ways of knowing may be involved.