Metaphor: AIDS as Humanization
Roy is the harshest character in the play. He doesn’t care about ethics and is willing to sacrifice everything to have more power. But his perception and his ideas change rapidly when he realizes that the power and money he has will not be able to save him from death and disease. For him, AIDS is a metaphor that is linked with his process of humanization because when he is faced with death, he becomes human and expresses his fear and regret. Because of this, AIDS and disease are metaphors for his internal transformation from a heartless person to an emotional human being.
Metaphor: "Because she carried the old world on her back across the ocean, in a boat, and she put it down on Grand Concourse Avenue, or in Flatbush, and she worked that earth into your bones, and you pass it to your children, this ancient, ancient culture and home" (10)
The Rabbi says this of Sarah. He is using a metaphor of the Old World—with all its history, traditions, values, kinship—as a burden or a bundle to be carried on one's back. He then equates the Old World with Sarah's hands working the earth, which will be the foundation from which future generations spring. This suggests the even the furthest descendants from those who came to America have something of the past deep within them. This is a lesson for Louis in particular, who needs to learn the value of self-sacrifice.
Metaphor: "This is—this is gastric juices turning, this is enzymes and acids, this is intestinal is what this is, bowel movement and blood-red meat! This stinks, this is politics, Joe, the game of being alive!" (71)
Roy proclaims this to Joe, who does not want to take the job in Washington. What he is doing in this metaphor of politics as the essence of life is (forcefully) telling Joe just how important the job is, how important what goes on in Washington is, and how vibrant and alive and necessary it all is. This is consumption and excretion for Roy; this is pleasure, energy, and vitality. He uses this metaphor to try to convince Joe to take the job.
Simile: "...then I see someone I want, and it's like a nail, like a hot spike right through my chest, and I know I'm losing" (81)
Joe says this in an effort to tell Harper how hard it is to feel desire for men when he is Mormon and ostensibly straight. He equates the pang of desire with a sharp nail going right through his chest, suggesting that it is not all pleasure but also pain: pain because he thinks it is wrong. The nail also has religious connotations, suggesting the Crucifixion and thus allowing viewers to see that Joe views himself as a martyr.
Metaphor: "But this...this is the spring of sweet water in the desert, the desert flower. Every step a Believer takes away from here is fraught with peril" (86)
Sister Ella Chapter tries to get Hannah to remain in Salt Lake City, the capital of Mormonism, by describing it in this way. She casts the city as an oasis, as an improbable flower in the vast, inhospitable desert. She suggests that wandering far away from this oasis means certain death and she fears that Hannah's move to New York will move her too far away to receive the sustenance and support she needs from the faith.
