Discovering Polar Metaphors

by

Mark Hoskisson

Introduction

Now that you have read a selection of polar literature and made personal responses, the next step is to explore what characteristics of your genre uniquely portray the polar environments and the perceptions of those that explore and inhabit them. How are the polar regions perceived? How and why do they capture people's imaginations? By examining the language used to describe these regions, you will better understand how they act as powerful metaphors for endurance in both physical (external) and mental (interior) landscapes.

The Task

This week's lessons will begin by defining metaphor, both as a literary device and as a tool to record the way we view the world everyday. You will then examine how the metaphors and perceptions used in the polar literature you and your fellow students read create a sense of a polar landscape. Once you have defined and identified these metaphors, you will work in groups to produce a presentation to share your findings with the rest of the class.

Resources

You will need a video cassette of the movie "The Thing." Either the Howard Hawk or John Carpenter version will do.

You will also need your journal and materials to make a group visual representation of metaphors you discover for the polar regions. (See Step 5 below).

View pictures of the Arctic
View pictures of the Antarctic

The Process

Step 1

You will begin by forming a group with three or four other students who have read material from the same genre as yourself. For example, if you read poetry, form a group with other students who chose poetry to read. Begin by summarizing what you read. Next, share entries from your reading journals, including some favorite passages and your final entry reflecting back on the work you read.

When everyone in the group has had an opportunity to talk about their reading, take five minutes to brainstorm a list of words, ideas, feelings, and descriptions, you associate with the polar regions based on what you have read and heard from others. Write them down in your journal. Share your list with the rest of your group, explaining the choices you made. After everyone in the group shares their list, hold a discussion using the following questions to guide you:


-What ideas did you have in common?
-What images and descriptions appear the most? Why?
-What do you think these common ideas say about our relationship to the polar regions?
-How have your feelings and perceptions of these regions changed since you began reading the literature?
-Are these ideas unique to the genre you have chosen? If yes, how? If not, how do you think they are relevant to other genres of writing about the polar regions?

Choose a member of the group to record the answers you agree upon in your discussion.

Step 2

As a class, watch the first twenty minutes of the movie "The Thing." Meet with your group again to discuss the film clip and make any additions generated from this discussion to your group list.

Step 3

Now you will need to explore the concept of metaphor and how it reflects the way we use language to explain how we perceive the world. If you are uncertain about exactly what a metaphor is click here or here for information.

Now take a sheet of paper and fold it vertically in thirds. On one side write down any ten nouns. Try to come up with a wide and unusual variety. Now turn the paper to the middle third and think of any occupation and write it at the top of the paper. Try to think of ten verbs that apply to that job. (For example, if the job is a cook, verbs might include "fry" "broil" "chop" "peel," etc.). On the last third write down another list of ten random nouns. Next, open the sheet of paper. The three lists should all be visible. Combine the noun on the first line from the first list with the verb and noun on the same line from the other two lists to form a sentence. (For example, "The elephant peels the kite.")

You have just come up with ten new metaphors--ways of connecting things in the world, that you might not naturally connect. Another similar exercise to try is to cut out the verb list and connect the two noun lists with the words "is a" in the middle. (For example, "the elephant is a kite.")

Step 4

Go back to the list you brainstormed in your journal and the list from your group discussion in Step1. Play around by randomly combining different words and ideas. Do not worry whether they make sense or not at first, just try to generate as many combinations as possible. What metaphors can you see developing from these combinations? Make a list of some metaphors you develop about the polar regions.

Step 5

The final assignment for the week is to create a group representation of your findings to present to the class. This will include:

1) A 1-2 page typewritten report explaining the metaphors your group found in their readings and came up with yourselves to represent the polar regions. The report should also explain how you feel these metaphors shape our perceptions of the polar regions.

2) A visual representation of the polar regions based on the metaphors you have found. This may be a poster, collage, shadowbox, painting, sculpture, video montage, or any other form of visual representation you choose.

On Friday, each group will make a group presentation to the class. As you listen other groups' projects, record any new or interesting ideas you hear in your journal next to the brainstorming and metaphor work you did in your own group.

Evaluation

You will be graded on this week's lessons based on three criteria:

1) The brainstorming and notes recorded in your individual journal.
2) Active participation in your group discussions and project. This will determined partially by the teacher and partially by how other members of your group feel about your contribution to all group activities.
3) The overall thoroughness and quality of your group presentation. This grade will be the same for all members of your group.

Conclusion

After completion of this lesson, you should have a better sense of how metaphors shape our perceptions of the world around us, in general, and of the polar regions, specifically. Also, you should begin to see how the polar regions have served as metaphors of the human condition and have captured the imagination of people since they were first discovered.




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