"Special Topics" Post 7a

Vocabulary
Irish tweed (437): a sturdy woolen fabric of light warp and dark filling, made in Ireland and used in suits and coats
wino (438): a person who is addicted to wine, esp. a derelict

Figurative Language
Metaphor: "Dad's voice was a pack of ice on a sprain" (438). Blue tells us how her father's voice or presence has a calming and pain relieving quality for her, as talking to him on the phone calms her down. The ice may also relate to how it cools her and makes her think more logically about the situation regarding Hannah's death.
Simile: "Dad always purchased five copies of any Federal Forum issue in which he was featured, not unlike a paparazzi-hungry starlet when her picture graces 'Around Town' in Celebrastory Weekly" (438). Not only does Blue wittingly depict part of her father's vanity with this simile, she also shows her understanding of her father as not one of the main stars of the academic world but one on the fringes, which complements her sometimes obsessive praise and defense of him. She has a lot of respect for him, but she definitely doesn't idolize him quite as much as she used to, nearer to the beginning of the novel.
Metaphor: "My heart thumping excitement was not simply because I knew so much about The Nightwatchmen I felt oddly confident I could deliver a Dadified lecture on them, my voice a tidal wave, rising up, up over the shabbily combed heads of his students..." (439). I enjoyed this sentence not only because of the metaphor comparing Blue's hypothetical lecture voice and a tidal wave, swamping and with immense power, but the use of the adjective "Dadified" as a high standard, the standard. It was nice to see Blue still holds her father at a high level.

Quote
"My heart-thumping excitement...and not because, incredibly, Ada Harvey's information had held up heroically upon further examination like hte British blockade against the Germans... My exhilaration wasn't even because Hannah Schneider- all that she'd done, her strange behaviors, her lies- had suddenly come crashing open at my feet like the outer stone sarcophagus of Pharaoh Heteraah-mes..(For the first time, I could crouch down, take my oil lantern directly to Hannah's bone-smooth face, see, in startling detail, its every angle and plane.)" (439). This quote was funny because Blue's use of figurative language increases exponentially when she is excited. Although most would be reduced to shorter words, Blue combines five allegories/metaphors into a short paragraph describing her exhilaration over discovering the cause of Hannah's death.

Theme
Sometimes irrational thinking can lead to the answer.