Figurative Language In Four Directions By Amy Tan

V. SYMBOLISM The title of the short story, “Four Directions” is symbolic for Waverly’s inner misconceptions. As she goes about her life, she is pulled in different ways by her past and her present. She is torn between her Chinese heritage and her American life. She never thought that instead of being pulled in four directions, she could take all of her differences and combine them. In the end she realizes this with the help of her mother. “The three of us, leaving our differences behind...moving West to reach East” (184), thought Waverly. Her whole life she misconceived her mother’s intentions. Lindo never wanted Waverly to solely focus on her Chinese heritage, but rather combine it with her new American ways. The idea of being pulled in four

The novel is 288 pages and separated into four sections, four short stories in each. “Four Directions” is the second story in the third section, American Translation. It is eighteen pages long, 166-184 specifically.
VIII. IMAGERY
In this short, but charming story, Amy Tan uses imagery to bring the story to life. With figurative language, the reader is immersed into the Chinese culture and can better relate to the characters. Tan main use of imagery is to better explain each character. Often instead of a simple explanation, Tan uses metaphors, similes, or hyperboles to describe the person, this way they are more relatable and their feelings better understood.
An example of a metaphor in “Four Directions” is when Waverly relates her relationship with her mother to that of a horse and rabbit. “And that’s what she is. A Horse, born in 1918, destined to be obstinate and frank to the point of tactlessness. She and I make a bad combination, because I’m a Rabbit, born in 1951” (167).
Tan places two opposite statements together to create antithesis, “Her ability to make me see black where there was once white, white where there was once black” (169).
Many similes are incorporated throughout the plot, one of those being, “It was as though I had lost my magic armor”