Blog 15 – Metaphor Paper
April 19, 2009
For my metaphor paper, I decided to examine the metaphors used in the musical “Into The Woods”. This show, partly known for its heavy metaphor usage, uses popular fairy tales to metaphorical portray the struggles and triumphs of real life.
I will be focusing on three metaphors in particular, all found in the lyrics of songs in the musical (with direct focus on the characters Little Red Riding Hood, Jack, and Cinderella). These metaphors aren’t one sentence statements, but instead whole concepts. For example, Jack’s encounter with giants (after climbing the beanstalk) leaves him feeling small and humble. This is used metaphorical to demonstrate that when people discover how much bigger the world is than they are, they may suddenly feel small in comparison.
Other metaphors used in the musical that I will be focusing on deal with the topics of not straying from the path and learning how to cope when someone leaves you “halfway through the woods”.
A possible thesis for my paper will include how the metaphors fail to show both negative and positive consequences of the characters’ actions, leaving audiences only one way to interpret the story (that is, if the audience doesn’t analyze this themselves).
April 21, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Your paper seems like it will be interesting; using material like fairy tales that we’ve all heard and giving them thorough examination will probably give you some interesting results. Your thesis is pretty much spot on as well, since metaphors really are just up to our own interpretation.
April 21, 2009 at 6:18 pm
I loved this musical! I think that this is going to be a great topic for you to look into because there are so many areas where the characters are discovering more about life and themselves.
April 21, 2009 at 7:12 pm
It looks like you have done a good amount of background on your topic already. There are quite a few metaphors in this play, and you should have a good amount of material to work with. Good luck.
April 22, 2009 at 12:22 am
I think this is a very interesting topic and very different from the choices that other people are doing. It looks like you have a lot of information so this paper will be easy for you!
April 27, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Great idea. I never even thought about using a musical as a whole to talk about in a metaphorical paper. I think the concepts and ideas that you presented in this blog are great for a paper, and you will give even more concepts since you are using a whole musical. nice idea.
April 27, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Although I have never seen this musical before I feel that this would be an interesting paper topic. You might even be able to expand your topic and talk about metaphors in fairy tales in general. This might give you more examples and expand your paper more.
April 27, 2009 at 11:51 pm
All three of the metaphors are great choices and I think it will give some individuality to the paper.
April 28, 2009 at 3:20 am
I read your paper and I think it turned out really well. I liked all of the specific metaphors you found and you did a good job connecting things in your paper.
April 28, 2009 at 3:29 am
I was in your group and I thought that you ran with this very well, I am sure your final copy will be good.
April 28, 2009 at 7:12 pm
This concept has extreme potential. You hear nursery rhyme metaphors in various random places, but everyone knows them and understands what they mean.
April 29, 2009 at 3:45 am
Wonderful choice. I particularly liked your example with Jack and the Beanstalk.
April 29, 2009 at 2:43 pm
I think this is one of the most interesting paper choices I have seen. Good luck with it.
April 30, 2009 at 1:18 am
Good luck with this paper. This topic seems like ti would be very fun and interesting to write about.