Opening Pages
The opening pages of the novel is a long, imagery-laden description of the effects of a cold wind. The wind is personified into a living, breathing being through the occasional introduction of metaphorical language which emphasizes that personification through hyperbolic sentience:
“There was a cold November wind blowing through 116th street…It did everything it could to discourage the people walking the street.”
The Street (Personally)
The street is not just the titular avenue, it is an essential character. And as such, it is endowed through metaphorical with properties typically reserved for humans.
“the street outside played nursemaid to your kid. The street did more than that. It became both mother and father and trained your kid for you, and it was an evil father and a vicious mother, and, of course, you helped the street along by talking to him about money.”
The Street (Politically)
The street is not just a substitute for parents. The power goes beyond the personal to stretch to the collective. It is also—metaphorically speaking—a political entity:
“Streets like the one she lived on were no accident. They were the North’s lynch mobs…the method the big cities used to keep Negroes in their place.”
A Dangerous Choice
A character comes to a sudden realization that she might have made a particularly bad decision through interpreting context and nuance. Through this interpretation of words not actually spoken, metaphor is unleashed and runs rampant:
“She hadn’t walked into this situation. She had run headlong into it, snatching greedily at the bait he had dangled in front of her. Because she had reached such a state of despair that she would have clutched at a straw if it appeared offer the means by which she could get Bub and herself out of that street.”
The Train of Life
As Lutie Johnson boards a train to take her from 59th street to 125th street, she notices the passengers crushing up against each other in the crowded confines of the constricted space. Something strange then appears to take place as each passenger creates their own private little bubble that becomes a metaphorical space to stretch themselves out:
“the passengers settled down into small private worlds, thus creating the illusion of space between them and their fellow passengers. The worlds were built up behind newspaper and magazines, behind closed eyes or while staring at the varicolored show cards that bordered the coaches.”
