While Billy was in the boxcar after arriving to their destination, the guards peeked in Billy's car owlishly and cooed. Billy pointed out that they have never dealt with Americans but understood the general sort of freight. He continued on saying that they were essentially a liquid which could be induced to flow slowly toward cooing and light. As the guards cooed like doves, "the liquid began to flow. Gobs of it built up in the doorway, plopped to the ground. Billy was the next-to-last human being to reach the door. The hobo was last. The hobo could not flow, could not plop. He wasn't liquid anymore. He was stone. So it goes."
The guards gained the attention of the Americans in the boxcar, compared to liquid metaphorically as it flowed to the doorway. The hobo, however, did not flow with the rest of the others. The hobo was dead, compared to stone, finalized with a "So it goes" to confirm his death. Vonnegut enhances his writing and makes it more interesting to read when comparing the Americans to liquid and the dead hobo to stone. Without the metaphor, the paragraph would have been boring and not as appealing to the senses.
Okay, Evan. Remember to talk about what makes this particular literary term and sentence example an effective use by Vonnegut for each LT example and quote. For example how does this "owlishly and cooed" characterize the guards? You incorrectly align the guards with doves when Vonnegut mentions "owlishly" therefore owls not doves via a metaphor - mot simile bc no like or as with that exact quote. The hobo "was stone" (is, are was indicate metaphor) and you are right..no life and dead. How is it better to cimpare liquid to life and stone to death in this passage for Vonnegut. How are these two words, liquid and stone, more apt for this description?
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