metaphoric or not metaphoric that is the question

[ericr]

Hello everyone, I'm 50 years old and I recently went back to collage. I have several live classes and one online class, participation in a discussion board is one of the assignments of the online class. A fellow student posted a response to a blog entry regarding the following sentence.

Not that we are doing this, but it’s so cold outside…that if we wanted, we could store the frozen (food items) outside.

The student described this sentence as "The last status post the owner published was a metaphoric joke, regardless of the cold weather outside I do not believe they would subject themselves to bankruptcy."
Is this description accurate ? I think of a metaphor as "cold as the devil " or "raining cats and dogs" If this statement is not metaphoric how should it be described ? Be advised this is not a graded part of the class its for my education only.
Thank you all in advance for any comments.

 

[emsr2d2]

There is no metaphor in that sentence. I have no idea what metaphor they might have been aiming for or what metaphor the student thought they found there but I can't make any connection with any metaphor I know. If I saw that sentence, I would assume the person was talking completely literally - it's cold enough to put frozen food outside without it defrosting but he/she doesn't plan to do so.

 

[Barb_D]

I wonder about the connection to bankruptcy as well. If I put my food outside and animals ate it, I'd lose the value of my food, but that would hardly lead to being impoverished.

Note, though, that "it's raining cats and dogs" is not really a metaphor. It's just an idiom. A metaphor would be "We're all in the same boat" when talking about a shared situation or ""She's an open book" to mean someone is easy to "read."

 

[Roman55]

"cold as the devil "

This is a simile, not a metaphor.

 

[ericr]

Thank you all very much , perhaps after a few English classes I will have a clue about these things.

 

[Barb_D]

Most of us can live long, happy lives without having to explain the difference between them. Don't let this stuff deter you from your goals.

 

[Tdol]

I wonder about the connection to bankruptcy as well.

I don't get that either unless there's something else in the text to explain it. If not, then the person commenting on it may well have misread the sentence.