Figures of Speech Chapter 25

1. Figures of SpeechChapter 25 Jenna Adler, Nash Bulaong, Lila Ramirez, Irina Tolstova

2. “Chess” by Rosario Castellanos p. 903 Because we were friends and sometimes loved each other, perhaps to add one more tie to the many that already bound us, we decided to play games of the mind. We set up a board between us: equally divided into pieces, values, and possible moves. We learned the rules, we swore to respect them, and the match began. We've been sitting here for centuries, meditating ferociously how to deal the one last blow that will finallyannihilate the other one forever. The game of chess is used as a metaphor of the struggles in a relationship. This controlling metaphor is organized around these comparisons in order to emphasize what is being expressed. Chess being a game of strategy requires the players to predict what the other will do next and win. The diction implies the tension in the relationship which strengthens and distinguishes the comparison. Through the use of extended, controlled, and implied metaphors the reader better understands the message that the author wants to convey.

3. “Schizophrenia” by Jim Stevens p.915 It was the house that suffered most.It had begun with slamming doors, angry feet scuffing the carpets,dishes slammed onto the table,greasy stains spreading on the cloth.Certain doors were locked at night,feet stood for hours outside them,dishes were left unwashed, the clothdisappeared under a hardened crust.The house came to miss the shouting voices,the threats, the half-apologies, noisyreconciliations, the sobbing that followed.Then lines were drawn, borders established,some rooms declared their loyalties,keeping to themselves, keeping out the other.The house divided against itself.Seeing cracking paint, broken windows,the front door banging in the wind, the roof tiles flying off, one by one,the neighbors said it was a madhouse.It was the house that suffered most. The house is personified as a child who is experiencing neglect as a result of a troubled home environment. This connects the nonhuman with the human which allows for greater understanding.

4. The Hand That Signed the Paper by Dylan Thomas p. 905 The hand that signed the paper felled a city;    Five sovereign fingers taxed the breath,    Doubled the globe of dead and halved a country;    These five kings did a king to death. The mighty hand leads to a sloping shoulder,    The finger joints are cramped with chalk;    A goose’s quill has put an end to murder    That put an end to talk. The hand that signed the treaty bred a fever,    And famine grew, and locusts came; Great is the hand that holds dominion over    Man by a scribbled name. The five kings count the dead but do not soften    The crusted wound nor stroke the brow;    A hand rules pity as a hand rules heaven;    Hands have no tears to flow. The hand in the poem is a synecdoche for a powerful ruler because it is a part of someone used to signify the entire person. The metonymy “gooses quill” refers to the power associated with the rulers hand. Synecdoche and metonymy work together in this poem to dehumanize the ruler. The last synecdoche, “hands have no tears to flow” shows the audience the political power behind the hand as inhuman. Metonymy and synecdoche help create the overall tone of the poem by