The closcropped skull of new assistant (Metaphor)
When Anderton first meets Witwer, his new assistant, he is jealous with of Witwer's youth and self-confidence. It costs him an effort to become impassive, because Witwer is so enthusiastic and full of new ideas that it makes Anderton feel uncomfortable during their talk. And he couldn’t stop thinking “what was actually going on in that closecropped skull” - what was hidden deep in his mind, his real intentions and plans. Witwer will be his new assistant until he retires, but he can’t understand what motives this person has, maybe he wants to get his place, because he has all the advantages – youth, charm and promising outlook. It was obvious for Anderton that his new assistant is “nobody’s fool” and “obviously he had a great deal of ambition”. But he doesn’t want to retire and his new assistant makes him think how old and miserable he is.
Minds, lost in shadows (Metaphor)
Anderton is a scientist. He created “precog mutants”, human beings, “deformed and retarded” and as a result, “successfully abolished the post-crime punitive system of jails and fines”. He shows his new assistant these “mutants” – three idiots who were sitting and babbling: “Their physical needs were taken care of automatically. They had no spiritual needs.” These poor creatures didn’t live, they just existed. They were “vegetable-like” and “their minds were lost in shadows” because they were not able to think and didn’t understand what was going on with them. But these minds were gifted – they could predict future, the reality was alien for them, because their minds are in shadows of precognitions.
The Minority Report (Metaphor)
The minority report in the story represents the truth, because it gives an alternative future in which Anderton doesn’t commit a crime. The two other reports in which is said that he will kill Kaplan, are false majority reports. So, in order to keep his job and to prove himself that the majority report was falsified, Anderton is going to find the minority report where was said the truth. Here we can see that not always the truth is on the side of the “majority”, sometimes it may be hidden in the “minority report”.
Kaplan is a ruined bird (Simile)
Kaplan had a huge plan – to destroy the Precog system and get all the power in his hands, but he didn’t take into account that Anderton, who was going to be an alive proof that the system puts into prison innocent people, will prove that the system works properly. The author compares Kaplan to a “ruined bird” whose intentions failed and will never come true.
