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Hyperbole
Definition of Idiom
An idiom is a phrase that conveys a figurative meaning that is difficult or impossible to understand based solely on a literal interpretation of the words in the phrase. For... read full definition
An idiom is a phrase that conveys a figurative meaning that is difficult or impossible to understand based solely on a literal interpretation of the... read full definition
An idiom is a phrase that conveys a figurative meaning that is difficult or impossible to understand based solely on... read full definition
Idioms
Explanation and Analysis—Salt of the Earth:
In their initial conversation, the Bible Salesman accuses Mrs. Hopewell of not wanting to “fool with a country boy” like him, and Mrs. Hopewell defends herself, using an idiom in the process:
“I don’t know how to say a thing but to say it. I’m just a country boy.” He glanced up into her unfriendly face. “People like you don’t like to fool with country people like me!”
“Why!” she cried, “good country people are the salt of the earth! Besides, we all have different ways of doing, it takes all kinds to make the world go ’round. That’s life!”
When Mrs. Hopewell refers to good country people as “the salt of the earth,” she is using an idiom that is still commonly used today to describe people who are reliable, trustworthy, and humble. This idiom originally emerged from a passage in the Bible in which Jesus tells a group of common laborers that they are “the salt of the earth.” Salt was extremely valuable at this time, and this was Jesus's way of countering the classist notions that people with fewer resources were worth less as people.
Here, Mrs. Hopewell tells this lower-class man that “good country people are the salt of the earth” in order to defend herself against his assertion that she looks down on him for being poor and uneducated. Of course, readers are aware (from getting peeks into her mind) that she does look down on people from lower socioeconomic classes—she is just not very self-aware.
Related Themes:
