Myra’s Men
In “The Wrong Man” there is a singular passage about the kind of man that Myra Redmon gravitates toward. Larsen engages a metaphorical term which will pop up again to describe Axel Olsen in her novel Quicksand. A term synonymous with powerful and influential males:
“Myra always had a lion in tow, but why that particular man?”
Passing
Unless one wants to argue in favor of also-deserving Quicksand, the most famous work Larsen ever published features a metaphor as its title. The word “passing” has multiple meanings—fleeting, death, unthinking, conveying, etc.—but in this particular instance it is a metaphor for a very specific act: light-skinned blacks revealing the hypocrisy of white society by fooling members of that society into accepting them by passing as white.
Twice as Nice
A metaphorical impression that a reader can wrap their heads around or almost grasp into their hands is effective and efficient for conveying character. But two metaphors enhanced with imagery within the same thought can be even better:
“The woman laughed, a lovely laugh, a small sequence of notes that was like a trill and also like the ringing of a delicate bell fashioned of a precious metal, a tinkling.”
Colors
Color imagery is one of the go-to tools for crafting effective similes. The more precise the shade or hue, the more potent the power to draw a metaphorical analogy:
“Her fright was like a scarlet spear of terror leaping at her heart.”
Place
In Quicksand, Naxos is a school based on Tuskegee Institute where the heroine briefly teaches. Later, Naxos has transformed in her mind from a place to a thing through the use of metaphor:
“Naxos? It’s hardly a place at all. It’s more like some loathsome, venomous disease.”
