Creative writing - Mike Sanders 2014
Synecdoche substitutions
Energetic figures of speech
Speech, voice, and point of view
An important kind of metonymy is synecdoche, in which the name of a part is substituted for that of a whole, or vice versa. An example of this relationship is farmhand and worker. The entire entity, the whole group of laborers, is represented by way of a faction of it (the single hand stands in for the larger group of workers) or a faction of the object is symbolized by the full (the larger group of workers stands in for the single hand).
DEFINITION
A synecdoche is a type of metonymy in which the name of a part is substituted for that of a whole, or vice versa.
Synecdoche also can be useful in designing memorable proper names of characters. Think of the pirate Bluebeard or the Marvel superhero Cyclops. Each name employs a distinguishing feature of the character (the former’s beard, the latter’s eyes) to capture the visual and conceptual essence of who they are.
The following constitute some examples of synecdoche, which you might want to employ in your writing or use as catalysts for the creation of your own combinations.
Part of something used to represent the whole sentence:
After the wreck, Jimmy got a new set of wheels. [a new car]
Nina has many mouths to feed. [many others to look after]
White-collar criminals. [upper-class villains]
Give us our daily bread. [a daily supply of food]
Another day, another dollar. [a daily supply of money]
Whole sentence used to deliver a part of something:
“At midnight I went on deck, and to my mate’s great surprise put the ship round on the other tack. His terrible whiskers flitted round me in silent criticism.”
—Joseph Conrad, “The Secret Sharer”
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears ….”
—William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
“Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them ….”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ozymandias”
“I should have been a pair of ragged claws.
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.”
—T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
As with metonymy, synecdoche easily can be overused in a piece of creative writing to the point of readerly distraction. Given that warning, try to focus on employing it at points where it seems consistent with the narrative voice and doesn’t threaten to disrupt pacing.