Who don't like 'a nice pinch a skoal or copenhagen from time to time? Erybody does. I've been spittin tobacca as long as I can remember as a matter 'a fact. My wife has been naggin' me lately tryin to git me to quit, so don't tell 'er that I've been hidin' it from 'er.
Now, I'm gunna take a shot inna dark and guess most of ya'll rednecks out dere don't know what "metaphor" means, or maybe y'all just cain't remember from yer schoolin' days. That's why I'm here though, to remind ya. A metaphor is used to compare to completely diffrent thangs. I'll give ya'll some examples that ya might understand. Ya know that Zac Brown band song, "Whatever it is"? The openin' line is, "She got eyes that cut you like a knife." Now, the perrty little country gurl that Zac is talkin' 'bout don't actually have eyes that could physically cut ya; It's just a metaphor for how ya might feel when that perrty girl sets her eyes on ya. Ya'll understand now?
Metaphors are used a whole buncha times in Gothic Literature. I'll give ya'll an example that I know ya'll can relate to. I was readin' a book called Beloved, It's about a couple of slaves who were able to escape and gain nere freedom. The house that the black woman lives in is haunted by 'er daughter that she killed in order to protect 'er (I know that sounds a bit goofy but that aint what this particular post is about; I just wanted to give yall some background info). Anyway, that black woman had a male friend named Paul D. As ya'll may have guessed, he went thru some awful, awful tuff times as a slave. He got to the point where eryone he loved, would get killed or he'd lose 'em for ever somehow. Because of this, he promised himself that he ain't gonna love nothin anymore. He even calls his heart "a rusty tin of tobacca." Now why would he compare (remember that metaphor word) to a rusty tin 'a chew? What might that mean? Well, the way I see it, as much as I hate to admit it, tobacca is poison and harmful. Us rednecks are bound to lose our teeth cause of it. So Paul D is sayin that he's been hurt so much that his heart has turned inta a can of poison. Ya'll may have not known this one, but if it wasn't for tobacca, America ain't even have ever survived. It was our main crop and our first and foremost way to make some money back in da colonial days. As a nation, we thrived on tabacco; it kept us alive. What in the human body keeps us people alive? The heart! However, when tobacca grows, it can kill the soil frum where it came if not cared fer correctly. So this "rusty tin of tobacca" killed the spot where Paul D's heart used to be. It is filled with poison frum all the daggum hard times he's been thru. Yet at the same time it's the only thing keepin' him alive. This metaphor works on many different levels and reveals a whole lotta things about Paul D as a man and a character. Gothic Literature is filled wit' metaphors, so I hope ya'll found dis useful.
Ya see the similarities?... No ya don't, that's why it's a metaphor....
Turn em and Burn em,
Sean Prince
