I have found that a certain person I am around creates a toxic environment for me. It's poisonous because this person acts and talks in ways that are the antithesis of what I stand for. There is a figure of speech, metonymy, that is the perfect comparison for this person. Metonymy is the adoption of an object to stand for a person. It is a type of symbol, but symbol takes an object and lets it represent something more generally. Metonymy is personal. It lets an object represent physical features or a set of personal characteristics. Sometimes the object chosen to represent the person is an extension of what the person wears or where the person lives. For example, when the White House says something, it really means that Obama is saying something. If the crown of England is in the news, it's really the queen or someone in the royal family who is in the news. At other times, the object is just very representative of someone's characteristics. So, if I speak of "fang," it is really a reference to a particular person whose set of personal characteristics are repugnant and toxic.
But metonymy can be used in a positive manner too. I love the poem, Kubla Kahn, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It describes this beautiful, beautiful paradise. The poem starts off by calling this paradise by the name Xanadu. So, when I think of the person I enjoy being around the most in life, the one who inspires and refreshes me, I think of Xanadu.
Fang drags me down to the lowest level of living. Xanadu lifts me up and makes me better than I am. Metonymy is good because it makes life's contrasts easy to see. It helps in letting me know simply and starkly where to spend my energy in my world of thought.
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