Literature has a significant
influence on many aspects of human life. Dubey (2013) agrees that issues and phenomena
that occur in the society are reflected through literary works in various
forms. In the past, people went to libraries or bookstores to access literary
works such as novels, short stories, poetry, etc. Nowadays, thanks to the rapid
development of the internet and technology, people can easily access any kind
of literary works using their computers, tablets, or smartphones. This digital revolution,
however, affects the way authors, poets and linguists share their works. One of
which is Rupi Kaur, a well-known insta-poet who consistently shares her works
on social media, especially Instagram. She is acknowledged for her writing
styles which include lots of rhymes, repetition and figurative languages,
specifically metaphor, a writing technique that indirectly compares two things
by giving the thing a name that belongs to something entirely different but has
the same qualities (Aristotle, n.d., as cited in Zhang & Hu, 2009). In one
of her outstanding poems untitled Vacation,
Rupi Kaur uses many metaphors to deliver the intention of the poem implicitly in
a deep, elegant way.
The first metaphor that the writer
could find is when the character opens the poem by saying “did you think i was
a city / big enough for a weekend getaway”(1-2), she starts comparing herself
to a city which is commonly visited by a lot of people who take a short break
from their daily activities. This sentence illustrates that the character intended
to convey that she is not someone to run to when one’s got bored with their
life, she is not a place to escape to when one’s run away from something. Moreover,
in the tenth line, the character says “i am not street meat i am homemade jam”,
to contrast herself to street meat, which is a slang for prostitutes, who can easily
be found roaming on the streets and alleys; also to emphasize that she has the
same characteristics as a homemade jam which is more difficult to lay your hands
on and requires a lot of processes.
Another
example of metaphor can be seen when the character says “i am not the whiskey
you want / i am the water you need”(20-21) as an “analogy”. The word “whiskey”(20)
symbolizes one’s desire for something that one does not need, meanwhile “the
water”(21) symbolizes something so essential but sometimes forgotten. By using
these analogies, the character tries to declare that she is not a luxury but a
necessity; she is not what you wanted but what you need. After all of these
examples of metaphors, it can be concluded that the use of metaphor makes the
language of a poem more appealing, make a statement less offensive and more
abstract (Torgny, 1997).
In
conclusion, the use of metaphors in Vacation
by Rupi Kaur makes the expressions, feelings, and opinions can be conveyed
subtly yet bold. Instead of telling the intended meaning literally, which is
often considered impolite and might cause controversy, the character uses
metaphors to avoid saying something straight forward. Even though metaphors will
obviously take longer to process, it can not be denied that the use of
metaphors will cause a deeper and more remarkable effect for the reader.
REFERENCES
Dubey, A. (2013). Literature and
Society. Journal Of Humanities And Social
Science, 9(6). Retrieved September 28, 2019, from
http://iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/Vol9-issue6/O0968485.pdf?id=6191
Hu, J., & Zhang, F. (2009). A
Study of Metaphor and its Application in Language Learning and Teaching. International Education Studies, 2(2).
Retrieved September 28, 2019, from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1065692.pdf
Torgny, O. (1997). Metaphor - a
working concept. Contextual Design -
Design in Context. Stockholm, Sweden. Retrieved September 30, 2019, from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/43dc/c3ab2e657592e72820263fd0d95d24d90510.pdf
(The analysis was written by me to be submitted as an assignment for Scientific Writing Class, English Department, University of Pamulang)
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