Characterization Of Miss Hancock In Budge Wilson's The Metaphor

Characterization of Miss Hancock

Life is a series of experiences in which each one of us grows into the individual we are now. Every move, each word and thought shapes our person.

Stories are the same. Their actions and reactions, the dialogue and their attitude morph a character.

The short story, “The Metaphor,” by Budge Wilson, engulfs its pages with a colorful woman named Miss Hancock, one of the main characters. She is presented through both indirect and direct presentation. Miss Hancock is defined as the “plump and unmarried and overenthusiastic […] teacher of literature and creative writing.” She decorated her face and body “nearly as always flamboyant as her nature,” showing off her “luminous frosted lipstick” and “brightly, aggressively,

golden” curls. The protagonist, Charlotte, describes to the reader outright who Miss Hancock is through direct characterization. Yet, she is also defined by what she says and does. Miss Hancock expresses her extravagant personality through these sentences: “Today,” she announced, clapping her dimpled hands together, her charm bracelets jingling, “we are going to do a lovely exercise. Such fun!” She raised her astonishing eyes to the classroom ceiling. “A whole new world of composition is about to open up for you in one glorious whoosh.” She stood there, arms now raised, elbows bent, palms facing up, enjoying her dramatic pause.

“This is an indirect presentation of the woman with “an excess of zeal.”

Miss Hancock is a strange yet charming character, who is classified as both round and dynamic. Miss Hancock is flashy, bizarre, with “too much enthusiasm.” But she is more than simply that. After a discussion on “The Metaphor”, she asks Charlotte talk about her own metaphor on her mother. Here, a different side of her is shown. “She

was sitting there soberly, hands still, eyes quiet.” Miss Hancock was, for once, expressing “sensible caution.” While discussing Charlotte’s mother, she “was feeling concerned and kind, not nosy.” Yet not long after the topic was closed, she “was suddenly her old self again.” Charlotte notes that the students “could not have said which we loved best, Miss Hancock or her subject. They were all of a piece. In the classroom, they “were free to respond positively to Miss Hancock’s literary excesses without fear of the mockery of [their] peers, and with an open and uninhibited delight.” Thus, “Miss Hancock was able to survive, even to flourish, in [their] unique, sheltered environment.” However, “her marked success with 15 years of grad 7 students had finally transported her to high places.” “She entered the classroom, wings spread, ready to fly,” ”eager to sample the gift of older and more perceptive minds.” Yet, her present teaching days were not completely pleasant. Even on her first day,” guffaws sprang up here and there throughout the room.” After being “used to success” in her middle school years and enduring such humiliation, her coltishness was overpowered by pressure, leaving a shell of her former person. “Week after week, she entered that room white with tension and left it defeated.” Miss Hancock drastically changed from the lively, whimsical women to a miserable, repressed soul. She was once a teacher, “almost to a person, loved” by her class. Now Charlotte, her “promising” student from both grade 7 and 10, was “caught in a strange hold somewhere between embarrassment and a terrible desire for concealment.” All the unfortunate circumstances, filled with “clear panic,” “rejection,” “humiliation” spun and spiraled into chaotic ball of yarn. “Like Charlotte’s mother said,”’ A woman like that can’t survive for five minutes in the high schools of today.”’ To much dismay, Miss Hancock did not. The chaos was too much to untangle, to unravel. Whether it was by choice, a lack of caution or an overwhelming illusion, “one late afternoon in March of that year, Miss Hancock stepped off the curb in front of the school and was killed instantly by a school bus. This was the end to “Poor old Whocock Hancock.”
Everything in life has something that counteracts it, even in literature.

Miss Hancock, her personality and beliefs were contrasted entirely by her character foil, Charlotte’s mother, “this civilized, this clean, this disciplined woman.” All through Charlotte’s life, her mother dictated her every move. A “small child [was] a terrible test to that cool and orderly spirit.” Her mother was “lovely to look at, with her dark-blond hair, her flawless figure, her smooth hands. She never acted frazzled or rushed or angry, and her forehead was unmarked by age lines or worry. Even her appearance differed greatly to Miss Hancock, who she described as,” overdone, too much enthusiasm. Flamboyant. Orange hair.” The discrepancy between the characters couldn’t escape Charlotte’s writing, her metaphors. Her seemingly perfect mother was “a flawless, modern building, created of glass and the smoothest of pale concrete. Inside are business offices furnished with beige carpets and gleaming chromium. In every room there are machines – computers, typewriters, intricate copiers. They are buzzing and clicking way, absorbing and spitting out information with the speed of sound. Downstairs, at ground level, people walk in and out, tracking mud and dirt over the steel-grey tiles, marring the cool perfection of the building. There are no comfortable chairs in the lobby.” By description, her mother is fully based on ideals and manners, aloof, running her life with “sure and perfect control.” Miss

Hancock, a free-spirited and comical woman, was “a birthday cake. The cake was frosted by someone unschooled in the art of cake decoration. It was adorned with a profusion of white roses and lime-green leaves, which dropped and dribbled at the edges where the pastry tube had slipped. The frosting was an intense peppermint flavor, too sweet, too strong. Inside, the cake had two layers – chocolate and vanilla. The chocolate was rich and soft and very delicious. No one who stopped to taste it could have failed to enjoy it. The vanilla was subtle and delicate; only those thoroughly familiar with cakes, only those with great sensitivity of taste, could have perceived its true fine flavors. Because it was a birthday cake, it was filed with party favors. If you stayed long enough at the party, you could amass quite a large collection of these treasures. If you kept them for many years, they would amaze you by turning into pure gold. Most children would have been delighted by this cake. Most grown-ups would have thrown it away after one brief glance at the frosting.” In all, Miss Hancock was a rarity, a person to be treasured, her gifts kept close and to handle with flair.
A person tends to have an effect on another. Miss Hancock did so with Charlotte. Her extravagant personality, her metaphors, her love of literature left an imprint of this young girl’s developing mind. Miss Hancock is one to remember with her joyous way of life to be practiced, her free-spirit running free. But in life, all things have a beginning and an end; the party was over.