One Person’s Garden
Perspective is given the metaphorical going-over when thick, juicy tomatoes on the stem become a thing of labor rather than a delicious treat:
“Grandmother sighed. I never thought I’d live to see my family work the dirt like peasants.
Uncle says you loved the garden in Ream.
A garden is one thing. To slave in someone else's field is another.”
Literary Allusion
Literary allusions offer a treasure trove of metaphorical possibilities. The more well-known the allusion, the better, of course, but no matter how familiar the allusion, it loses its thump if the meaning is not clear. The allusion here is to Hamlet; the meaning is rather self-evident:
“Oh, what a sea of trouble. Better if she'd never spoken to Jonathan, never made a place in her heart for him. Now that place would be so empty.”
Darkness and Light
Darkness is especially useful as a metaphor and has really come into its own in light of the abominable cruelties of the twentieth century. The efficient thing about darkness, however, is that even when used for literal purposes, it can give way to a sudden metaphorical introduction of illumination:
“Sundara watched the wind-driven sheets of water ripple across the runway. She was glad Valinn would have family to meet her. Much better than the finish of her own long flight, in darkness, from the Philippines.
The harsh light had blinded her when the plane door opened that morning.”
Fire
Like darkness, fire is also one of the more efficient images used for metaphor. An example of how elastic it can be is introduced at one point to describe not the raging inferno produced by a fire, but the after aftermath once it has died down:
“Sundara placed her palms together at her forehead in obedience. I will forget him
This humble promise seemed to reduce the last embers of Soka's anger to ashen weariness.”
Previously in Chapter 15…
A judicious use of a metaphor or simile can prove quite handy in facilitating a transition from one chapter to the next. After all, chapter divisions are kind of like episodes in a TV series—a stopping place for many. To do one of those “previously on…” recaps just wouldn’t make sense, but the same effect can be accomplished with a well-worded opening line that brings the absent reader right back to where things left off, such as the opening line of Chapter 16:
“For the next few days, she wore Jonathan's love like a warm cloak around her.”
