The Metaphor

"The Metaphor" is a short story by Budge Wilson. It was originally published in the October 1983 issue of Chatelaine magazine.[1]

This article is about a short story by Budge Wilson. For other uses, see Metaphor (disambiguation).
"The Metaphor"
AuthorBudge Wilson
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s)Short story
Published inChatelaine (1st release),
Inside Stories II,
The Leaving,
Close Ups: Best Stories for Teens,
Fractures: Family Stories
Media typeMagazine (1st release)

The story has appeared in numerous collection books. First, it appeared in the 1987 collection Inside Stories II.[2] Next, it appeared in Wilson's own 1990 collection, The Leaving[3] (also known by the name The Leaving and Other Stories for some reprints).[4] It was also included in the 2000 collection Close Ups: Best Stories for Teens.[5] Lastly, it was featured in another one of Wilson's collections, her 2002 book Fractures: Family Stories.[6]

Plot summary

The story begins in 1965, following Charlotte and her seventh grade class. Their teacher, Miss Hancock, enthuses the class and encourages Charlotte to develop her writing. After being taught how to create metaphors, Charlotte compares her own mother to an office building: efficient but unfriendly. Charlotte's mother disapproves of Miss Hancock for her flamboyancy.

Once Charlotte is in the tenth grade, she again has Miss Hancock as a teacher. However, this new class doesn't respect Miss Hancock, and Charlotte distances herself from the teacher. Several months later, Miss Hancock is killed by a school bus. Believing this death to be a suicide, Charlotte is overcome with grief, feeling that she is partly responsible.

Receiving no sympathy from her mother, Charlotte returns to an old notebook. She creates a metaphor that compares Miss Hancock to a birthday cake filled with useful party favors; the contents of the cake are valuable, but they're overlooked by adults who only see the garish exterior.

Interpretations

Dr. John Noell Moore said of the story:[7]

Wilson's story reminds me that we are daily challenged to nurture, to mother, our students in the love of words, to help them understand how language enables them to read the existing world as well as write new worlds of their own. [...] Wilson's story gives us moments to pause and reflect on the significance of the lessons we teach.

Janice Kulyk Keefer said the story sought to "reveal the narrator's hidden hostilities and affections towards the two most important women in her life: her mother and her English teacher." Kulyk Keefer also claims that the story draws connections "between language and sexuality," citing the sensualness with which the story describes language.[8]

Reception

"The Metaphor" appeared in Chatelaine because it placed second in a competition hosted by the magazine.[9]

The story is considered to be among Wilson's most noteworthy,[9] and it is often incorporated into teaching curriculums.[10][11]

References
  1. "File MS-2-650.1994-020, Box 5, Folder 42 - The metaphor from Chatelaine Magazine". Dalhousie University Archives. Dalhousie University. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
  2. "Inside Stories II". WorldCat. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
  3. "The Leaving". Google Books. Google. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
  4. "The Leaving and Other Stories". Google Books. Google. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
  5. "Close Ups: Best Stories for Teens". WorldCat. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
  6. "Fractures: Family Stories". Google Books. Google. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
  7. Moore, John (1 May 1996). "English Teachers, Mothers, and Metaphors". The ALAN Review. 23 (3). Retrieved 19 November 2020.
  8. Kulyk-Keefer, Janice (1 October 1995). ""Brightly, aggressively golden": Verbal Agency in Budge Wilson's The Leaving". Atlantis. 20 (1). Retrieved 19 November 2020.
  9. Thompson, Hilary (25 July 2007). "Budge Wilson — a Profile of the Author and Her Work". Canadian Children's Literature (97). Retrieved 19 November 2020.
  10. "Classroom Notes Plus: A Quarterly of Teaching Ideas, 1999-2000" (PDF). Classroom Notes Plus. 17 (1–4): 68. April 2000. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
  11. Hadden, Kyla; Gear, Adrienne (14 October 2016). Powerful Readers: Thinking strategies to guide literacy instruction in secondary classrooms. Pembroke Publishers Limited. p. 60. ISBN 9781551389196.
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