(back to Table of Contents)

Click here to go to the description of the metaphor

COPYRIGHT: John Barnden, 1997. This page of the databank may be freely copied for non-commercial research/instructional use provided this copyright notice is included.

MIND PARTS AS PERSONS or other ANIMATE BEINGS

Toward twelve o'clock he put the padlock on the door and (* WENT TO FEED HIS MEMORY SOMETHING.*)
[[Text: source p.172]]

[Woman in TV ad for a laxative says:]

       (* PART OF YOU WANTS something strong that works.
          PART OF YOU WANTS something gentle that comforts.*)

[Butler in a cereal ad on TV:]

       I can't deny that (* PART OF ME DESIRES frosting.*)
[[Speech: source]]

We eventually broke up for other reasons, but (* PART OF ME WAS THINKING, Do I really want to have a serious relationship with someone I have to hide part of my life from?*)
[[Text: source]]
{serial mixing with IDEAS AS INTERNAL UTTERANCES}

(* SOME CRAZY IRRATIONAL PART OF HER ALMOST EXPECTED *) to see Lyn waiting there, come to meet her train.
[[Text: source p.366]]

He could see, he thought, her terrible unhappiness, an unhappiness which made his (* SYMPATHETIC SENTIMENTAL (she had used that word) SOUL WINCE AND CRINGE,*) ...
[[Text: source p.510]]
{NB: nesting wothin thought}

Obviously religion rested on something real; (* SHE LET HER REASON SLEEP ON THAT.*)
[[Text: source p.491]]

After all, (* WHAT YOUR BEST SELF, YOUR MOST TRUTHFUL SOUL DESIRES *) must be real, and not to worry too much about what it's called.
[[Text: source p.489]]

The little infinitesimal spark of hope which she had gained simply from Jenkin's presence was extinguished. It was blackness again, ravaged, smashed, crushed, pulverised blackness, like the night after the earthquake, only the dark was silent, (* THERE WERE NO VOICES, NO ONE WAS THERE, ONLY HERSELF, HER VAST AWFUL SMASHED UP SELF.*)
[[Text: source p.485]]
{NB: mixing with COGNIZING AS SEEING and MIND-AS-BODY.}

Now (* COMMON SENSE, SUDDENLY ENTERING through some amazing hole in the mad argument, INFORMED DUNCAN THAT *) ...
[[Text: source p.464]]

Perhaps I shall be like that one day, he thought, perhaps sooner than I imagine, this must be (* MY ALTER EGO, SOMETHING HORRIBLE AND PROPHETIC WHICH HAD CRAWLED OUT OF MY UNCONSCIOUS MIND AND IS SITTING BESIDE ME!*)
[[Text: source p.432]]
{NB: nesting within IDEAS AS INTERNAL UTTERANCES}

(* HER FEELINGS *..) about this state of affairs, though not by any means as callous as those she had expressed to Gideon, were certainly (..* MIXED. PART OF HER WAS ACTUALLY PLEASED TO SEE HER DAUGHTER UNHAPPY, THE SAME PART WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN AFFRONTED TO SEE HER HAPPY.*..) There was, (..* TO THIS WAY OF THINKING,*..) a sort of justice in a miserable Tamar, and of injustice in a joyful Tamar. (..* NOR WAS VIOLET, IN ANOTHER PART, INDIFFERENT TO *..) Gideon's suggestion that she might be blamed for letting Tamar descend into depression, even perhaps into suicide. She did not want to be so blamed. She wanted to be the victim, not the killer. That Violet did not believe Tamar's sufferings to be all that serious was perhaps due to (..* YET ANOTHER PART OF VIOLET'S MIND WHICH CARED FOR TAMAR *) as her possession, her product, indeed her daughter.
[[Text: source p.342]]

(* ONE SIDE OF YOU CRAVES *..) for ... comfort, while (..* THE OTHER SIDE ITCHES *) for [speed].
[[Speech: source]]

(* SOME PART OF MYSELF which was almost A STRANGER to me was very very SORRY that Tommy was gone.*)
[[Text: source p.354]]

(* HIS MIND PRESENTED THE EXPLANATION TO HIM.*)
[[Text: source]]

He thought, she will be driven to steal again, ... and she'll go to prison. (* THE SELFISH SELF-PRESERVING EGO INSIDE HIM SAID *) that might be the best possible thing that could happen to her.
[[Text: source]]

It was as if (* CHRISTINE'S MIND STOPPED SHORT AT *) the stealing itself, giving no thought to what Cheryl stole for.
[[Text: source]]

In the region of his mind which was the place for Senta and himself he had at this moment no worries and no fears. But (* AS IF HIS CONSCIOUSNESS DIDN'T WANT HIM TO BE WITHOUT ANXIETIES, IT ALLOWED Cheryl to creep into it.*)
[[Text: source]]

He had never day-dreamed of himself as successful, ... (* HIS IMAGINATION NEVER EVEN TOOK HIM AS FAR AS THE CARPET *) in front of the ... managing director's desk, ...
[[Text: source]]
{mixed metaphor, w IDEAS AS MODELS?}

But no, her middle class (* UPBRINGING TOLD HER TO COMPOSE HERSELF. Be dignified, people were everywhere.*) ... She panicked as she caught sight of her reflection in a parked car window. Eyes sodden, cheeks red, a mass of tangled hair. (* `Pull yourself together,' SHE TOLD HERSELF.*..)
[[Text: source]]
{METONYMY: upbringing-FOR-effects-of-it}

I did love him. Well, (* AT LEAST PART OF ME DID.*)
[[Text: source]]

Suddenly I was having second thoughts. About us, I mean. (* Did I really want to get married and spend the rest of my life with Mick? *..) [NP] (..* Of course you do ONE SMALL VOICE INSISTED.*..) [NP] (..* Are you quite sure about that? ANOTHER NUDGED.*) (* SO MUCH WAS GOING ON IN MY HEAD,*) I couldn't sleep. My eyes refused to stay closed and I tossed and I turned.
[[Text: source]]

(* A PART OF ME WARNED:*) people who live unlisted don't all of a sudden list.
[[Text: source]]

When she made promises like that [i.e., that I would get into college], her eyes filled to the surface (* AS IF THE PART OF HER THAT WISHED CROSSED THE PART OF HER THAT LIED *) and gave a certain kind of smiling face with tears, like a rainbow.
[[Text: source]]

(* HALF OF ME WHISPERED THAT *) I'd drive all the way there.
[[Text: source]]

This allegation baffles me completely until (* I FORCE MY MEMORY BACK, ALONG THE WINDING LANES *..) of those sudden ups and downs of happiness and despair, (..* BACK TO THE AFTERNOON *) I am still embarrassed to recall, ...
[[Text: source]]
{METONYMY: THING FOR IDEA}

I sit waiting on my bed. (* A PART OF ME IS GLAD *) I have waited so long, for I sense now that I cannot fail; ...
[[Text: source]]

... (* REACHING BACK INTO MY MEMORY *) ...
[[Speech: source]]

Did (*PART OF YOU THINK,*) `Yes, ... I'm flattered ...'?
[[Speech: source]]

(* PART OF YOU WANTS *..) to talk [about the personal problem] but (..* PART OF YOU DOESN'T.*)
[[Speech: source]]

I (* CONVINCED MYSELF IN MY OWN MIND *) that [I really worked for the Theatre Department and not the English Department because of an unpleasant situation in the latter].
[[Speech: source]]
{connotation that she didn't *wholly* believe that she really worked in Theatre? Or is the "in my own mind" serving just to emphasize no overt speech?}

The work grows; I keep expanding it, conceiving it more and more clearly until I have the entire composition finished in my head though it may be long. Then (* MY MIND SEIZES IT *) as a glance of my eye a beautiful picture or a handsome youth.
[[Text: source p.423]]

(* CONVINCING MYSELF *) that I am setting a good example for my children, showing them how tireless i can be in the service of family and friends.
[[Text: source]]
{NB: most of passage is in upper case in the file}

Performer said: "My (* INTUITION TOLD ME *) this would a be a good piece to play."
[[Speech: source]]

In times of crisis, it [denial] allows us to function by (* SHIELDING US FROM INTERNAL PAIN.*)
[[Text: source]]

... she says. "In order to survive, (* I SPLIT INTO A DAY CHILD *...) who giggled and smiled (...* AND A NIGHT CHILD *) who lay awake in a fetal position, only to be pried apart by my father. Until I was twenty-four, the day child had no conscious knowledge of the night child." Only when her former minister voiced the suspicion that she had been abused did (* THE REALITY OF THE NIGHT CHILD EMERGE.*)
[[Text: source]]

"I got into trouble, primarily alcohol, some drugs. That was a very long haul. I had no idea what was wrong with me. I knew, (* BUT I KEPT IT A SECRET FROM MYSELF *) or (* THE INFORMATION DIDN'T GET TO THE PLACE WHERE IT SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN. ...*)"
[[Text: source]]