Blog Task #4: Extended Metaphor

Discussion Questions

Answer the following set of questions. Pay attention to the keywords in the question stem to plan your
answer, and to the grading indications of each to ensure you are meeting the requirements.

1. Define the term extended metaphor. Research an example to support your answer.
- The term extended metaphor means a comparison between two unlike things that
continues for a long time instead of only one sentence. It could last for as short as a paragraph
or as long as the whole book.
- EX: The poetry of The Road Not Taken is a good example of an extended metaphor.
The whole poem is a metaphor comparing travelling down a road to journey taken in life. For
example, Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both is a
metaphor to when you had to make a choice in life and that you can only walk your chosen
path.

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

2. Locate the extended metaphor in chapter 6. Break the metaphor down into smaller symbolic units
below, and next to each symbol, suggest both the meaning of the symbol in relation to the metaphor, as
well as the pertinence to TItas life.
- The extended metaphor in chapter 6 is Johns comparison of human soul to a box of
matches.
Symbol Textual Evidence
Oxygen In this case, the oxygen, for
example, would come from the
breath of the person you love
(Page 52)
Candle the candle could be any kind of
food, music, caress, word, or
sound that engenders the
explosion that lights one of the
matches. (Page 52)
Damped Unfortunately, she had to admit
Matches that her own matches were damp
and moldy. No one would ever be
able to light another one again.
(Page 53)
Frigid That's why it's important to
breath keep your distance from people
who have frigid breath. (Page 53)
Fire Each person has to discover what
will set off those explosions in
order to live, since the combustion
that occurs when one of them is
ignited is what nourishes the soul.
That fire, in short, is its food.
(Page 52)
Cure There are many ways to dry out a
box of damp matches, but you can
be sure, there is a cure. (Page
53)
Meaning and Connection to Titas life
Oxygen is the outside thing that would come in
contact with the match and help lights up the
match. In Titas life, Pedro was the oxygen,
helping to light up Titas match.
The candle would be the thing that supports the
match and that would cause the explosion to light
up the match. In Titas life, food is the candle that
supports her and forms a connection and
communication of love between Tita and Pedro.
Since a match symbolises human soul, a damped
match symbolises a soul that is wandering
around trying to find that fire that would light it up
again. Titas life is basically a damped match at
this point of time as she had pretty much given up
on everything and believed that her match would
never be light up again.
In this extended metaphor, the frigid breath is the
outside force that would blow out the fire that
had light up. In Titas life, Mama Elena is the frigid
breath that always blow out the fire that Tita
worked so hard to finally light.
The fire that was light up from the help of oxygen
and the candle would then become the food that
would light up the soul of the human. To get this
fire, we then need to find out the oxygen and the
candle that would set off the explosion inside us.
This related to Titas life in that she had found the
oxygen to set off the explosion and create the fire
that would light up her soul. However, every time
the fire was lit, it will be blown out by Mama
Elena.
The cure is what to do in order to prevent the
damped matches and to dry those matches that
are already damped. This relates to Titas life
because toward the end of the comparison, John
told Tita a way to fix her damped matches, which
include not lighting all the matches at once.