Thinking about Metaphor for a Category 3 Extended Essay

It’s a ‘literary device,’ right?  A comparison without using ‘as’ or ‘like?’  That’s what you’ve learned about metaphor as you have moved up from middle school reading and it’s very likely you can spot them, count them and talk about them when the occasion (an essay? a commentary?) demands.

But actually there are whole books written about metaphor as an important element of all human thought, used not just in literature but in many academic disciplines, in many facets of daily life. Some are culturally bound, some are fairly universal.  In Glasgow there are people ‘Mapping Metaphors,’ and in Amsterdam there’s a Metaphor Lab, and if you just google ‘metaphor’ you’ll find many, many more people thinking and writing about metaphor.  Have you given enough thought and respect to ‘metaphor’ beyond the hunt-comment method your literature class may demand?’  And what about ‘extended metaphors, ‘the prince of metaphors?’

Using metaphors in writing or in speaking is sometimes regarded as a sign of high intelligence. If you look at the link on metaphor-making in the speeches of Abraham Lincoln and others:

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/12/08/1305411/how-to-have-the-language-intelligence-of-abraham-lincoln-the-greatest-thing-by-far-is-to-be-a-master-of-metaphor/

you might be inspired to do some research on the way successful political speeches or writings use metaphor, even to the point of writing an Extended Essay on the topic about some figure who interests you.