When it comes to the topic of metaphors, most of us will readily agree that they are everywhere and have become a way of communication to humans. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of how and when it is appropriate to use them. Some writers are convinced that they should be specifically used for poetry and books, whereas others maintain that metaphors should be used freely to anyone who chooses to use them. In today’s society, metaphors are used daily and not just specifically for books, poems or other forms of literature. Metaphors psychologically affect our views and how we perceive our bodies and our life.

The standard way of thinking about metaphors is that they are basic comparisons using the creative part of the brain to create a similarity between two things. We are introduced to the idea of these comparisons through fables as young children all the way through high school. For example, “slow and steady wins the race” from the fable “The Tortoise and the Hare”. This fable created a metaphor between any type of project and a race. Meaning, when you take your time, you will win and succeed in your task. Creating and identifying these comparisons with the intent to better understand essays and text being read in class has strengthened our knowledge on metaphors too. They have become such a key part of our language that it has now become common today for the brain to skim over them.

Metaphors are a psychological way to compare objects or ideas together, creating an understandable idea or lesson. How we view our bodies and describe our lives are embedded between the lines of reality and the pseudo-mistakes we call metaphors. Some use them to create hope or determination for illnesses, whereas others tend to create a poetic and beautiful way to describe someone or something. Substantially, metaphors are a way of communicating at a comparative level at the audience’s discretion.

Over the hundreds of years metaphors have been around, we have come to the realization that the meaning to these metaphors gets morphed into what could be socially acceptable to present day society. The example of “S/He broke my heart” is an example of a metaphor that has been around for hundreds of years. Although it has stayed constant through the years for how it has been interpreted, there are certain metaphors that have been created that is interpreted differently in the present day. The saying “get off your high horse” is a quote used back in the day when horses were a way of transportation. This was interpreted quite literally to get off their horse and stop acting like they own everything around them. Now, it is interpreted as a way to tell someone to stop acting like royalty and act humbler. Over the past 100+ years, this metaphor has shifted its meaning to the general public, creating a connection between two different things in an effort to create commonality as a way to communicate.  

A sterile medical building and metaphors do not seem to have a commonality amongst each other, but this would be due to how commonly used metaphors are in relation to sickness and disease. Ever heard of cancer as a battle? Fighting a cold or illness? Those are all common metaphors dating back hundreds of years ago, created when countries or empires at war was normal. These metaphors were a way for doctors to create similarities between illness and war to make the patients feel better and determined to live. The metaphors created a psychological way for patients to understand that it was possible to “win” over an illness or disease. Creating these metaphors let patients feel powerful over a disease even though it could be long and hard fought.

Doctor Dhruv Khullar, a physician at Harvard Medical School and a resident physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, describes metaphors in the context of medicine and its impacts. He did not quite stand for the impacts of metaphors used in the medical community due to the results it had on the patients mentally. Using the war terms to describe an illness could cause patients to use more drugs. This, in turn, could cause the patients greater pain and suffering which leads to a damaged mental state. Khuller argues metaphors should be carefully used according to the situation, “The words we choose to describe illness are powerful. They carry weight and valence…”. Using these metaphors to create comparisons between illness and war have doctors that seem more personable and better communicators to the patients and their families. But the question is, did it damage their mental state or encourage create the patients to suppress their emotions and push through an array of tests and drugs? Due to my personal background, my opinion is that these metaphors between illness and war creates a tough mentality and helps people through their fight. Five of my family members on my father’s side have passed away from cancer and throughout all their fights, pushing them and encouraging them through chemotherapy and treatments have proven to help them stay positive. I also have a lot of service men and women in my family so using these war terms help power them through these difficult times. Whether it is cancer or just the flu, I believe that pushing oneself or patients to create metal strength against illness or disease builds character and hope. This brings the conversation back to how metaphors are more psychological than anything else.

Typically, when someone thinks about metaphors, you think of comparing two things or ideas together. Two essay authors both have two distinct ideas about metaphors. James Geary, an American writer formally from Europe, views metaphors as a way to communicate information in a complex way utilizing poetry. He views metaphors as a beautiful, upper-class writing technique, emphasizing how special metaphors are and creates a type of halo around them. His perception creates more of a poetic viewpoint and should portray multiple levels of meaning. Some paint an image in your head to create common ground between two things whereas some of his other metaphors create a similarity between two things in order for people to learn and develop from them. He has a purpose to create metaphors to grow the readers understanding ranging from beauty and peaceful ideas to learning objectives and humans own personal growth in knowledge. Michael Erard, on the other hand, is an author, journalist, and linguist originally from the Netherlands, but now resides in Portland, Maine. He views metaphors as a simplistic and alphabetical way to compare two things together, almost similar to that of a minimalist. He tries to simplify and create straightforward comparisons between two ideas or things. He treats and talks about metaphors as just another writing technique. To him, metaphors are ordinary and bland. They are just another way to create a comparison.

Metaphors have greatly affected our views on how we perceive our own bodies. Ever heard of the hourglass shape? Or that the human brain is a computer? All of these are types of metaphors humans use to compare our bodies and organs. Whether it is for the better or for worse, it has become the stereotypical way of viewing our bodies. Without even realizing it, we have created this perception of how these metaphors describe our body to create this “perfection”. What would happen to society and people’s confidence if these metaphors were never created? Have metaphors really maintained that much power over our daily lives and how we live life to the extent that we, as humans, do not even realize it anymore? Creating these metaphors to find similarities and connections between our bodies and objects have been around for hundreds of years. Psychologically, metaphors have been creating an ideal body type shown through magazines and advertisements. This can have a tough impact mentally on a person and can create a depressed state of mentality.

Metaphors are used in every type of advertisement or magazine possible to get buyers hooked on the products. Magazines, advertisements and online websites consistently have posted about how to create a better hourglass body, how to trim down a few extra pounds and or even just displaying people’s bodies. We have been trained by advertisements of men or women in barely any clothing to grasp our attention and draw in buyers. Models have to go through extensive training and barely eat to maintain these ideal bodies just because we, as a society, have created comparisons between objects and the shape of our bodies. The better the similarity, the better you look. It creates stress and these ideal magazine bodies have been so edited to show the “ideal look” that we have failed to realize that these images are not attainable. “Shedding those few extra pounds” is an excellent metaphor that is used every spring to get the summer body. People pour millions of dollars into buying products and weight loss supplements just to achieve this perfect body. But, as easily as metaphors can create psychologically negative feelings, it also creates psychologically positive feelings.

Humans strive to create patterns and comparisons between ideas and things. It creates happiness and pleasure within our brains. The saying, “I am seeing stars”, is a metaphor with a very symmetrically pleasing image. It creates a type of pleasure in our brains when we use patterns and images to visualize or create comparisons through metaphors. As Geary said, “Metaphor is not just the detection of patterns; it is the creation of patterns”. The creation of these patterns is key to pleasing the human imagination. Creating this hourglass body comparison has created a symmetrical shape and connected it to the human body. It is a pattern that humans love and try to attain. It creates a pleasing image in our heads that are now desired in society. It is a metaphor that creates a certain depth of meaning to society that Geary was intrigued in. He aimed to create metaphors that had a strong meaning to the people reading them. He liked to create a metaphor with purpose and strength that is morphed to the intended audience. A huge piece of how metaphors are created is to figure out who the intended audience is. Creating a metaphor that is poorly created to an audience will create confusion, or in other words, it will psychologically challenge the human brain to comprehend what the metaphor is intended for.

The intended audience is a key part of how metaphors are created. Either the metaphor is going to be a slogan for the company or purely for an English paper, all metaphors are created with a purpose to create a comparison between two things. In order to effectively create a metaphor, you have to understand where your audience is coming from. You have to understand their background and account for the reasons for writing this metaphor. It could be a hooking metaphor to purely get people’s attention, or it could be creating an important comparison to get an idea across. Either way, you have to understand why you are creating this metaphor and who your intended audience is. Erard claims, “Metaphor designers create these pseudo-mistakes deliberately”. His meaning behind this is that metaphor designers deliberately make mistakes when comparing two things together. You are intentionally making a mistake and comparing, let’s say, a brain and computer. This comparison has been around for ages, yet these two things have almost nothing in common. Whoever created this metaphor wanted to get an idea across and the human brain was able to interpret and understand it. Creating these types of metaphors, deliberately knowing they do not quite compare, is creating a blurred line between reality and your imagination.

With all the great metaphors and comparisons out there, there is always those couple of bad apples in the barrel. Either it is created poorly for the intended audience or the metaphor simply does not make sense, there is definitely a few metaphors that do not create a good and useful metaphor. Khuller writes, “Evidence suggests they do more than explain similarities – they can invent them where they don’t exist and blur the lines between literal and the figurative”. Based on Khuller’s opinion on metaphors, he believes that some metaphors are created poorly. They can blur the lines between what is the reality and what is interpreted based on your background and past experiences. For example, “The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t” (www.writersrelief.com). This metaphor can be interpreted in as many ways imaginable based on where the reader comes from and how knowledgeable they are on the subject. Who knows, maybe whoever created the comparison between a body and an hourglass wasn’t trying to portray the actual shape comparisons, but more how bodies age beautifully through time. It is all based on how you interpret the metaphor and how easily the viewpoint spreads.

Metaphors create this psychological connection between two things or ideas based on the metaphor writer’s way of portraying it. They can also be interpreted psychologically based on the reader’s background and where it originates from. With the three authors, Geary, Erard and Khuller, they all demonstrate their own ideas on metaphors and how this type of language impact society according to them. They all follow the same theme of how metaphors affect our daily lives and how they surround us, no matter how important or plain they may be. It is up to our imagination and our background of opinions to figure out just how much the metaphors surrounding our daily lives will affect us. But then again, it is all just words on a page or screen, all up to your interpretation.

 

Works Cited

“Get Published: We Help With Publishing A Novel, Story, Poem, Book.” Writer’s Relief, Inc., www.writersrelief.com/.