Beggars Figurative Language

As Orwell intends to campaign for beggars not to be shunned by society, this is shown in his use of imagery. He first states the general perception of beggars. For example, he uses a simile to draw comparisons between beggars and other derogatory terms in ‘a race apart – outcasts, like criminals and prostitutes’. His use of ‘outcasts’ draws out the idea that the beggars formed the fringe of society similar to ‘criminals’ and ‘prostitutes’. He further emphasises this when they are described as ‘a mere social excrescence’. The metaphor of ‘excrescence’ suggests that beggars are unattractive and are in turn seen as an abnormality, unable to fit in with society. Orwell then criticizes society’s perceptions by challenging what society thinks is …show more content…
For example, Steinbeck uses reverse personification when describing the tractor driver. He describes the ‘man sitting in the iron seat did not look like a man’ and noted ‘he was a part of the monster, a robot in the seat’. Steinbeck first describes the tractor driver as having lost his physical attributes that made him human. He then exemplifies it further through the use of a semantic field of inhuman characteristics through the nouns ‘monster’ and ‘robot’ which suggests the tractor driver has additionally lost his emotional attributes which made him human. Consequently, Steinbeck develops this further through the effectiveness of mechanization in eliminating the driver’s senses noting that it had ‘googled his mind, muzzled his speech, goggled his perception, muzzled his protest.’ Here, Steinbeck uses a submerged metaphor for dehumanizing effects of poverty. The verbs ‘muzzled’ and ‘goggled’ imply that the tractor driver is being further dehumanized by machinery. By using the submerged metaphor, Steinbeck shows his audience the process of dehumanization through implication rather than deliberately stating it. In doing so this reinforces how Steinbeck is able to subtly insert his own views that through mechanization, the big banks and corporations were successful in completely eliminating characteristics that are pivotal to humans and has allowed them to exploit the farmlands thereby causing suffering to