If you were in my class last semester, recall the Simpsons episode "A Streetcar Named Marge." Recall the head of the nursery school. "What is a baby saying when she asks for a bottle?...She's saying, 'I am a leach'." "I am a leach" is an interesting conceptual metaphor. A leach is a creature that lives in certain types of waters. It attaches to animals and people and sucks out the blood of what it attaches itself too. How does that animal work as a metaphor? (The nursery school head means that a baby who uses a bottle will never learn to feed him- or herself.)
My wife today mentioned the "red cord" in Chinese mythology that is a metaphor for the way in which two people are connected by love. A couple has an "invisible red cord" that connects them.
In the introduction of Paper 5, most of you did a good job describing a metaphor or a group of related metaphors. If you just made a list, think about writing the introduction again, and concentrate on writing about just one or two metaphors.
For the body of Paper 5, you should explain why the metaphor makes sense. For example, "My love is a red, red rose." Why does this metaphor make sense? Red is a bright, beautiful color. Love is also bright and beautiful. The color red stands out; it is easy to notice. Likewise, it is easy to notice people who are in love, and if you are in-love, you notice everything about the person whom you love? Why a rose? Why not a different flower? A rose is considered an especially beautiful and valuable flower, and love is considered especially valuable and "beautiful". In a culture that thinks another flower is more beautiful than a rose, you are less likely to see the conceptual metaphor, "My love is a rose." (Perhaps instead you will see something like, "My love is a cherry blossom.")
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