Both “A Corner of the Cloak” by Brian Doyle and “The Word” by Pablo Neruda use generally grim imagery and similes, along with several abstract metaphors, to describe how amazing and unique human life can be, and that nobody can fully understand its majestic hypnotic nature.
In “The Word” the author discusses the creation of the spoken word and how the first language, which would have allowed a species to be far more organized than any other, would have sent ripples out into the environment. It uses metaphors such as “words give ... blood to the blood and give life to life” to explain that human life, complemented by language, is a strange yet beautiful occurrence. Because of the accompaniment of language the human race has been able to evolve at a much faster rate than any other species ever has before on this planet.
In “A Corner Of The Cloak” Brian Doyle uses a very unique writing style to describe many of the random events that he has experienced in his life. The author starts off very broad, with a tone that suggests that he is in awe of his subject. However, the subject of his work isn’t quite evident until he starts with “for example,” and begins to tell his story. While he does hint at an ultimate coherence relating to life in the beginning his true intentions are made evident towards the end, after he has told his, incredibly detailed and nearly scientifically analyzed, story. Through his euphemistic phrases, such as “completes the life cycle of,” and gruesome similes, like “peels the squirrel like a banana,” he conveys a very interesting series of events that show that life truly is a “magical machine,” and that, no matter how much time one spends examining it, they can never truly understand this “endless thicket” of life.
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