Familiarity Breeds Similes
The secret ingredient to using a simile wisely is familiarity. No matter how perfect the construction of the symbolism, it’s of little use if people don’t understand it. This is why some similes have gone on to become cliches that continue to find their way into literature. Readers or audiences instantly understand the symbolism on an almost universal level:
“Maybe people don’t like having their leg pulled.”
Slowly Dying Familiarity
Some metaphors enter into the lexicon to the point of becoming proverbial phrases that almost attain the status of cliché. Almost, because the zeitgeist of society has a way of changing over time and what was once a phrase used very often becomes one used less and less frequently. The decline of religion as a staple of daily life has led this metaphor to becoming one in which the meaning was instantly understood by most into one that is slowly on the way to obscurity:
“There but for the grace of God.” (A metaphor meaning roughly, “wow, that could have been me!”)
One Thing Equals Another
Owning property has always been the foundation upon which power in America is based. At its inception, a white man who did not actually own the land on which he lived was essentially the same as a slave or a woman of any color. He had no right to vote and thus take part in the great experiment of democracy and thus, in this respect, he held as much power and influence as a slave or woman. (There were, of course, other vast differences which made him completely unlike a slave or woman.) And thus, the themes of racism and capitalism collide in this metaphor that is at the same time a literal truth:
“The history of America is the history of private property.”
“white male myopia”
Myopia is the specific vision condition which describes the ability to see things up close more clearly than things which are far away. Thus, one needs corrective vision adaptation in order to bring things farther away into the same clarity of vision naturally possessed without such correction. As a metaphor, myopia is engaged to describe, well, metaphorically speaking, some who sees the trees but not the entire forest. Add white male to this equation and do the math.
Everyday Discourse
With a few notable exceptions, the use of metaphor in the play is not really one steeped in poetic imagination. Most of the engagements with metaphorical imagery are comprised of familiar sayings. In fact, the play serves to reveal just how deeply rooted in metaphor everyday conversation really is. Even when we are not conscious of it, much of what we say every day is rooted in the power of familiar metaphors and similes:
“I tell you, I don’t know what I would do without a friend like Francine here, and on a Saturday, I mean she is just a treasure.”
