Extended Metaphors.

In this session I will be learning how to write using extended metaphors and will find examples of extended metaphors and also be able to create some of my own for my own work.

How to write using an Extended Metaphor..

FACTORY – assembly line – industry – worker – union – product – outsourcing – work whistle – foreman

EDUCATION – guidance – learners/students – knowledge – experience – discipline – direction – rules – uniform – friendship – career

RELIGION – sacred – beliefs – fear – devotion – orthodox – commitment – good and evil – believing – conflicts – peace – judgement

Example ” The assembly line of students sit quietly as the foreman walks the factory floor, every worker waiting eagerly for the work whistle to blow. ” 

The believers lined up quietly as they walked in single file, with faith and belief in their eyes they put their head down in respect, for peace.

Every soldier to themselves, looking around all you would see is utter madness, the animals that were man made fighting for their survival, tearing each other apart with no sympathy. A battle, survival of the fittest, who would pounce first, who would walk away victorious, who would return to their kingdom in one piece.

“Strange Fruit”
Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees

Pastoral scene of the gallant South
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop 

In this song, we hear and learn the harsh reality of lynching through a colourful description of strange fruit. The imagery of fruit hanging in comparison to the death of young black men being hung and burnt on trees is haunting.

In this session I learnt that extended metaphors can be difficult but once you understand them they can be fun. It is a way of describing or referring to something in a more colourful approach. I learnt this by attempting to write my own extended metaphors, at first I struggled because I didn’t understand how to create an extended metaphor and I believe I still have room to grow and understand them further but from what I was taught I think I have a good enough understanding of what they are and how to create one. I believe that by knowing how to use an extended metaphor it will better my writing skills and I will be able to go that extra mile to make my writing more interesting and deeper.

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.”
~ Shakespeare has remarkably compared “earth” to a “stage” in the excerpt mentioned above.