What examples of figurative language are in chapters 40-43 of Chains?
Throughout Chains, the author uses highly varied figurative language that is both highly varied and and appropriate to the distinct characters. Isabel use figures of speech that are appropriate for her age, experience, and education. In chapters 40–43, examples of metaphors, similes, and hyperbole can be found.
A complex metaphor can be found in chapter 43. Isabel thinks about the effects that evil has had on Madam Lockton. The initial metaphor compares the way evil enters to a corrosive liquid. She extends the metaphor to describing its effects and adds a comparison of poison to vermin:
Everybody carried a little evil in them, Momma once told me. Madam Lockton had more than her share. The poison had eaten holes through her soul and made room for vermin to nest inside her.
In chapter 40, when Isabel thinks about the differences in slaveholders, she considers the ways that owners she...
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has known have treated her. There is a strong contrast between the gentle Lady Seymour, who had wanted to buy her, and the cruel Madam Lockton. The girl concludes, however, that these differences are not the important ones. What matters is that they all share the view that it is acceptable to buy and sell people. Referring to herself and all enslaved people, Isabel compares them to eggs:
A body does not like being bought and sold like a basket of eggs, even if the person who cracks the shells is kind.
Hyperbole appears in chapter 41. Isabel is astonished but also bored by the endless discussions of the upcoming British commandant’s ball in honor of the queen. She uses hyperbole to indicate her disbelief that anyone could be that interested in the subject:
I’m sure even the Queen herself would have grown tired of hearing about it.
References
Can you provide an example of figurative language from the story 'Chains'?
Chains is full of really solid uses of figurative language. Isabel might not be that formally educated of a girl, but her story telling language skills are very good. Throughout the book, Isabel makes large usage of similes. One of my favorite similes in the book is when Isabel describes what somebody's wig looks like.
Looked more like a dead possum than a wig.
Similar to a simile is a metaphor. A metaphor makes a similar comparison between two different things, but a metaphor won't use the words "like" or "as" to make the comparison. Isabel uses a great metaphor to describe herself while she is closely listening in to Master Lockton's Loyalist plans.
I am a bookcase, I am a piece of furniture.
Isabel is willing herself to be as unnoticeable as a piece of furniture. That way she can hear the full details of the plan.
Another type of figurative language is hyperbole. Hyperbole is exaggeration for the sake of emphasis. I like the following example from Chains.
I feared my ears might drop off.
I'm quite certain that a person's ears are not capable of just falling off, but it effectively sells the point.