Life is a Metaphor
The book makes an affirmative opening statement that is pure metaphor. Well, not purely metaphorical; there is quite a bit of literal truth behind the overarching symbolic summing up:
“You could say that Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life has been…one disagreement after another.”
Opera Buff
Ruth became, amazingly enough, an opera buff at an incredibly young age. She even tried to sing opera in school, but unfortunately suffered from a certain tone deafness not conducive to the heavy demands of the aria. That desire to sing become an expression of metaphorical determination:
“Ruth kept on singing—in the show and in her dream.”
Birds of a Feather
Ruth and Marty fall in love at college in an example of how on some very, very rare occasions two people who really need to meet just the right partner manage to do just that. Indeed, their relationship becomes more than a romantic coupling; it becomes a partnership of equals fighting against an unequal world by making the seemingly outlandish decision to both apply to law school:
“They fell in love and hatched a plan.”
The Scorpion of Discrimination
Bader’s lifelong commitment to equal rights is personal. Growing up in the 1930’s and 1940’s meant coming face to face with anti-Semitism out in the open. Hotel signs denying access to both Jews and dogs had its consequences, though certainly not the consequences that those putting up such signs could ever have expected. The metaphor speaks to the personal pain as well as the future retribution:
“She never forgot the sting of prejudice.”
Baseball
Baseball metaphors are rampant in the everyday discourse of Americans. Many of us regularly engage imagery from the national pastime without even really being aware of it. But it permeates deeply into the American lexicon:
“She was a woman…She was a mother….She was Jewish…Three strikes against her. But Ruth was not out.”
