identify and explain the extended metaphor in the sentence below:

Question

because every book you read as a child becomes a room in your head, and I want them to live in a mansion of people, universes centuries. There's an air about someone who's gallivanted joyously through a library in their early years that I revere far more than I revere someone who's travelled the world, been born beautiful or wears a fur coat.

Answer 1

The extended metaphor in the sentence compares the books a person reads in childhood to rooms in a mansion. This metaphorual mansion represents the vastness and richness of a person's imagination, memories, and experiences shaped by literature. Each room symbolizes a different story or book, contributing to the overall complexity and beauty of the mental space.

1. Rooms in a Mansion: The idea that each book becomes a room suggests that stories provide unique, distinct experiences and viewpoints. Just as a mansion comprises various rooms, each offering different functions or atmospheres, each book contributes uniquely to a person's understanding of the world.

2. Living in a Mansion of People, Universes, Centuries: The phrase expands the metaphor by suggesting that this mental mansion is not merely filled with stories; it is populated with characters, diverse settings (universes), and timelines (centuries). This illustrates how literature expands our minds and experiences, enabling us to traverse different lives and times.

3. Comparison to Other Forms of Experience: The speaker values the experience of reading over other experiences like traveling the world or possessing physical beauty. This reinforces the notion that the richness of one's intellectual and emotional engagement through literature is more significant and nuanced than superficial or material achievements.

Overall, this extended metaphor emphasizes the lifelong impact of reading, illustrating how literature can build a vast and dynamic mental landscape that deeply enriches one's life.