"My mother treated these eruptions like outbreaks of bad weather, waiting them out under some mysterious mental shelter."

— Roth, Marco (b. 1974)


Date
August 2012
Metaphor
"My mother treated these eruptions like outbreaks of bad weather, waiting them out under some mysterious mental shelter."
Metaphor in Context
After such dinners, he'd climb the stairs slowly and retreat to his bedroom. Sometimes I remembered to clear the table before going to scratch out Mozart's fourth violin concerto, in D major. I was always embarrassed to replace my mother's perfectly tuned phrases with my own halting notes, and even more embarrassed that she'd be listening. If she corrected me, I'd fly into a rage, destroying in this way two music stands, one fairly expensive bow, and three neck rests. My mother treated these eruptions like outbreaks of bad weather, waiting them out under some mysterious mental shelter. My father, upstairs, mostly ignored them.
(p. 12)
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Marco Roth, "The Scientists" Harper's Magazine 325:1947 (August 2012): 11-14. <Link to harpers.org>
Date of Entry
07/20/2012

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.