power of metaphor

Metaphor—a literary technique used to clarify the “darkness inside a cloud” (Selection 2). The power of metaphor is utilized throughout the world of language on a daily basis to clarify, explain, and act as a moral instrument. Metaphor can be described, as it was by Cynthia Ozick, author of The Shawl, as “the mind’s opposable thumb”: just as one cannot grasp objects without an opposable thumb, one can also not write successfully without the aid of metaphor (Selection 1). Metaphor evidently has great power in literature; it can define a problem, stimulate the imagination, manage change, and affect how a person thinks and interprets in reference to certain events. Metaphor possesses great literary power whether it is being used in a speech by a politician or by the Sumerians thousands of years ago, and because the fundamental tool is so powerful, it can have both negative and positive effects on a reader. To exemplify the power of metaphor, Cynthia Ozick wrote The Shawl, a touching story of holocaust survivor Rosa Lublin, showing how the broken woman copes with having her life taken from her after the tragedies she endured. These catastrophes include the death of her infant daughter, Magda, and most distinctly the loss of her happiness and will to live. Cynthia Ozick’s use of metaphor in The Shawl was very efficacious, providing the reader with a connection to the writing, a deeper meaning and understanding of the literature, and lastly evoking great emotion. First of all, Ozick’s use of metaphor is so successful in The Shawl because it made the reader feel a unique connection to the literature that would not have been attained otherwise. Just as a metaphor connects two differing objects to be related in a single comparison, a metaphor connects two different worlds: the reader and the writer. A descriptive metaphor allows the reader to relate something they have never experienced with something much more familiar to them, like a stick and an emaciated arm for