Physical Description
The novel offers plenty of examples of creative use of metaphorical language to convey the physical description of character. One particularly imaginative portrayal occurs late enough in the narrative to linger long afterward:
“Her head was as rough as her language…She’d a big round face and angry red skin like a crust.”
Significance Through Repetition
One particular bit of metaphorical imagery takes on more significance as a result of recurring multiple times across the expanse of the narrative:
“Brown eyes and some slivers of hair that had escaped from a bun that shone like a lamp behind her head.”
Men: Crooks, Warriors and Victims
The metaphorical consideration of what makes a man a certain thing in society also relies upon a rhetorically repetitive device:
“A man with a gun is a criminal.
A man with the gun and a uniform is a soldier.
A man with a uniform is a target.”
The Unclear Metaphor
Sometimes an author will use a metaphor more for the sake of how the words sound together than for any rational or logical connection to be made. And it can be effective when there seems to be some rational or logical meaning lying beneath the phrase:
“She was small and ancient and partly hidden in a shawl that might have had more colours than black.”
Ireland
The novel is steeped in Irish culture and the most interesting metaphorical description of the country is one that serves as commentary upon that very aspect:
“Ireland was something in songs that drunken old men wept about as they held onto the railings at three in the morning and we homed in to rob them; that was all.”
