Trinity

Natural Metaphors February 22, 2009

When I read David’s vignette, I found it very similar in tone to several of the submissions in the class, including my own.  The obvious connections between the image of a foreboding natural phenomenon and the condition of living under the shadow of the opposing forces of the Cold War make those forms of figurative expression particularly powerful.  In this case, the choice of a hurricane is especially appropriate, because the specific threat that it represents on the geographic level mirrors the particular geopolitical implications of the Cuban Missile Crisis; also, the mounting “red darkness” of a hurricane is a natural link to the Soviet threat, as is the fact that a hurricane forms far from shore but approaches in an unpredictable but inexorable way to threaten the coast.  The repeated representation of the Cold War experiences of individuals on both sides of the Iron Curtain as natural disasters is indicative of a broader pattern within the literary tradition of figurative expression:  namely, that the most frightening threat is not a horrifying monster that is actively seeking to harm you, but the primeval forces of nature that can engulf and destroy you in their utterly inhuman and totally impersonal savagery.  That is, lions and tigers and bears are certainly scary, but how much more terrifying is the prospect of being caught in a raging storm, consumed in a blazing inferno, lost in an impenetrable jungle, or swallowed in an endless sea?