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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
Part 1
Explanation and Analysis—The Orgy:
As Paul leaves behind the world of the silver stage and the German soloist, retreating back to his home, Cather makes ample use of both metaphor and imagery to describe his emotional state:
The moment he turned into Cordelia Street he felt the waters close above his head. After each of these orgies of living he experienced all the physical depression which follows a debauch; the loathing of respectable beds, of common food, of a house penetrated by kitchen odors; a shuddering repulsion for the flavorless, colorless mass of everyday existence; a morbid desire for cool things and soft lights and fresh flowers.
Through metaphor, the narrator compares Paul’s experience as an usher at Carnegie Hall to an orgy and his retreat back to Cordelia Street as the “physical depression” following the debauchery. This emphasizes the nearly sexual nature of the enjoyment Paul receives from living in an alternate reality. The “come down” is akin to that which addicts experience after a high. Off in his own fantasy world, disconnected from the harsh reality of Cordelia Street, Paul experiences a dream-like state of bliss not unlike a drug-induced ecstasy. The narrator frames Paul's desires in this state as "morbid," a word one might feasibly use to describe sexual or drug-related desires.
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Explanation and Analysis—Kings and Burghers:
The following two passages, which closely accompany one another, come together to produce an extended metaphor. In the first excerpt, the narrator characterizes Paul’s neighbors as “burghers”—a term used to describe local magistrates (middle-class citizens), typically in Europe:
On seasonable Sunday afternoons the burghers of Cordelia Street always sat out on their front stoops and talked to their neighbors on the next stoop.
These local middle-class men tell stories about the “kings” who rule over them, or the bosses of corporate America for whom they all work:
The men on the steps--all in their shirt sleeves, their vests unbuttoned--sat with their legs well apart, their stomachs comfortably protruding, and talked of the prices of things, or told anecdotes of the sagacity of their various chiefs and overlords. . . . and interspersed their legends of the iron kings with remarks about their sons' progress at school.
Cather aptly connects the hierarchies inherent within two different systems of socioeconomic governance: American capitalism and European monarchy. The "burghers" of Cordelia Street are, in some ways, no different than their medieval counterparts—living comfortable, complacent lives answering to their superiors. In a capitalist society, the financial bosses and CEOs are the true kings, particularly those who have an inordinate amount of power to influence government and policy. Cather's metaphor not only captures the servile attitude of Cordelia Street's "burghers," which Paul so clearly despises; it also solidifies the point that America's system of governance may not be so different than the monarchies it measures itself against.
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Part 2
Explanation and Analysis—Barriers to Entry:
After waking up in the snow alongside the railroad tracks, Paul contemplates his life and the impending doom facing him in Cordelia Street. He laments the fact that money exists at all as an obstacle, using metaphor to describe this dire situation:
The memory of successive summers on the front stoop fell upon him like a weight of black water. He had not a hundred dollars left; and he knew now, more than ever, that money was everything, the wall that stood between all he loathed and all he wanted.
In the above excerpt, Cather compares money to a physical wall that prevents Paul from entering the beautiful, elegant world of his imagination. This use of figurative language makes clear the very real ways in which class barriers manifest as physical barriers. Within the context of this story, Paul can only cross the threshold of an elite hotel when he has the money to pay for a room; he could not, by contrast, follow the German soloist into the building she enters, nor could he afford to attend her show as anything more than an usher.
In the broader context of early 1900s city life, money manifested as a physical barrier in various ways, preventing impoverished people from leaving the slums and tenements in which they were forced to reside. This became a particular problem in New York City, and Cather subtly nods to the problem here.
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