The Y and X axes of language: Metaphor and metonymy in Antonio Enriquez's The Living and the Dead

• Main Author: Fadera, Orlando F.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1997
• Subjects: Metaphor; English language > Metonyms; Literature > Theory; etc; Authors; Filipino; Poetics; Enriquez; Antonio The Living and the Dead; The Living and the Dead (Novel)
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/1544
• Institution: De La Salle University

The paper identifies metaphor or metonymy in the characterization of Alberto Gonzales and his Papalolo, Don Flavio Gonzales and explores what these metaphors and metonymies signify in the characters' qualities, way of life, and personality. The object is to see if the characterization of Alberto Gonzales and Don Flavio Gonzales in the novel is mainly realistic (metonymic) or 'poetic' (metaphoric) in mode, or both. In Alberto Gonzales, metaphors are the street and the sala, the cock and the gang the watershed is metonymic, while the Rosita, the weapon, takes the form of both metaphor and metonymy. For Don Flavio the medal is a metaphor, and metonymies are the aroma of the tobacco, the horse and the cane, whip or rattan stick. Thus the characterization of Alberto Gonzales is metaphoric or poetic in mode, while Don Flavio's character is metonymic or realistic in mode. It is recommended that the theory of metaphor and metonymy be applied to other works of Antonio Enriquez, likewise other theories like Barthes' Semiotic Codes can also be used on the novel The Living and the Dead.