Michael Nzungize 9/15/15 Mrs. Renee
In the “The Metaphor” by Budge Wilson, Charlotte, who is coming of age is offered the ability to be like her controlling mother, her silent father Arthur and her uncontrolled excessive English teacher Miss Hancock. At the end she finds her own way.
Charlotte’s mother is someone who like everything to be perfect and to control everything around her. She has no patience for the mess of Charlotte’s toys, when Charlotte is very young. “I am sure” she tells Charlotte, she would say, evenly, “that you don’t want to have those blocks all over the carpet. Why not keep them all in one spot, over here behind Daddy’s chair.”(page3) Charlotte does not want to be like her cold mother and rejects her. “She does learn from her mother how to control herself.
Charlotte’s father is someone who is always silent, doesn’t have authority and is a controllable person. Arthur doesn’t have any authority in his house. When Charlotte’s mother says something he just obey without complaining. “I cried some more that day and I heard my father say, “I think I’ll just go up and see if I can help.” But my mother said, “Leave her alone, Arthur. She’s 16 years old.”(page5) Since that time, she learned how to face the truth. She rejected the idea of being like her father and wanted to take just the good part of him. Charlotte was betrayed by his own father the same way she betrayed Miss Hancock.
Charlotte’s English teacher is someone who is overenthusiastic and is a person who is has uncontrolled excessive. Charlotte's entire seventh grade appreciated Miss Hancock, and their lives were all affected because of her. As the student's acceptance towards Miss Hancock increased, they became more comfortable with her. As a result, they became much more open to what she was teaching them "We could have not said what we loved best, Miss Hancock or her subject. They were all of a piece."(Page1) When Charlotte went to grade ten she started wanting to be like everyone there in high school, showing that she doesn’t like studying but living her own secret of a great passion of writing. Miss Hancock came to tent grade as her English teacher. Charlotte refused to demonstrate her passion to Miss Hancock that she still writes “Still writing metaphors? She asked, with a tentative smile. Oh, I dunno, I replied.” Since that time Miss Hancock was betrayed by Charlotte leading the depression of Miss Hancock. At the end of one class day Miss Hancock gets out of the school and got killed with a bus. Charlotte went home after the sad news that Miss Hancock got killed and start blaming herself that she killed her. She talks to her mom what happened to Miss Hancock. Charlotte’s mom tries to convince her that Miss Hancock got what she deserved. Charlotte responded to her mom like that little kid she was in seventh grade when she came home and then she stopped acting like that little girl she was by sowing a perfect control she learnt by her mom. She understood that she didn’t have to be like her mom, Arthur or Miss Hancock to be a perfect Charlotte She understood no one between all the three models changed or learned from their past mistakes and it was her who should learn from their mistakes to make herself a better Charlotte. She went up to her room after understanding all that and she starts writing a metaphor about cake “Miss Hancock was a birthday cake,” I wrote. “The cake was frosted by someone unschooled in the art of cake decoration. It was adorned with a profusion of white roses and lime-green leaves, which drooped and dribbled at the edges where pastry tube had slipped. The frosting was of an intense peppermint flavor, too sweet, too strong. Inside, the cake had two layers- chocolate and vanilla. The chocolate was rich ad soft and very delicious. No one who stopped to taste it could have failed to enjoy it. The vanilla was the subtle and delicate; only those thoroughly familiar cakes, only those with great sensitivity of taste, could have perceived its true fine flavor. Because it was a birthday cake, it was filled with party flavors. If you stayed long enough at the party, you could amass quite a large collection of these treasures. If you kept them for many years, they would amaze you by turning into pure gold. Most children would have been delighted by this cake. Most grown-ups would have thrown it away after one brief glance at the frosting. “I wish that the party wasn’t over.”(page5)
Charlotte has tried and learned from each of the model adults in her life but at the end she finds that no one between them is perfect and takes the positive part of them to make herself a better charlotte.