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Definition of Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor can be stated explicitly, as... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other... read full definition
Chapter 2: Rash Advances
Explanation and Analysis—Children, Birds, Peaches:
In Chapter 2, Van, Terry, and Jeff first encounter Ellador, Celis, and Alima hiding in a tree. Van tries to describe them using two similes, and Terry uses a metaphor:
[T]hey in turn, with no more terror than a set of frolicsome children in a game of tag, sat as lightly as so many big bright birds on their precarious perches and frankly, curiously, stared at us.
“Girls!” whispered Jeff, under his breath, as if they might fly if he spoke aloud.
“Peaches!” added Terry, scarcely louder. “Peacherinos—Apricot-nectarines! Whew!”
They were girls, of course, no boys could ever have shown that sparkling beauty, and yet none of us was certain at first.
These women, though young, are not children. Van seems to sense that they are human adult women, but he can't resist the impulse to describe them as first childlike, then birdlike. Both of these similes suggest that the women are less fully developed than the men are. Jeff has no problem calling them "girls" rather than women. In a disturbing way, his word "girls" sexualizes them. Jeff believes that women should wait until they are married to have sex, and that marriage and sex turn girls into women. When he calls them "girls," he reveals that he sees them as still eligible for marriage—and, in fact, these women eventually become the men's wives.
Terry takes the objectification even further than Van or Jeff. He uses a metaphor comparing the women to fruit. He seems to become more excited and breathless as he spits out the string of fruits the women remind him of: "Peaches! [...] Peacherinos—Apricot-nectarines! Whew!" The abundance of fruit names tumbling out of his mouth suggests that he has an appetite and sees the women as so much fruit ready for him to bite into it. Terry's metaphor is the most obviously disturbing. He not only objectifies the women, but furthermore thinks of them as food whose sole purpose is for him to gobble up. But the way Van and Jeff also fail to describe the women as what they actually are (human adults) reveals that all of the men arrive in Herland with a distorted view of women.
Related Themes:
