Isomorphism
I looked up isomorphism is the merriam webster dictionary, but its definition didn’t convey the meaning I was looking for in terms of a metaphor. When you construct an isomorphic metaphor, what you are doing is essentially making a one-to-one comparison. You take a real situation with real people and apply it to a story in the same sequential order. A Disney movie with talking animals and a moral message is a good example. The recent series of Harry Potter movies is a perfect example. Didn’t you know you were being persuaded, even programmed when you watch such movies? Ah, that’s a different story for a different time.
So, I will take a real problem with real people, changing the names to protect the innocent, and construct a very simple isomorphic metaphor using animals as an example. Keep it simple in the beginning, one or two paragraphs at the most and slowly build on it.
Real-life situation:
Frank and his young son Jacob have just moved to a new town. Jacob was forced to leave his school and friends, leave everything he knew for unfamiliar territory. Jacob is having problems feeling comfortable in a new school, surrounded by many unfamiliar faces. What to do?
Isomorphic metaphor:
Once there were two Brent Geese, Father and son, migrating from Taymyr Peninsula to the Wadden Sea. The younger goose asked his Father, “Why do we have to leave the Peninsula? I’m afraid of this place called the Wadden Sea.”
Then just as his Father replied, “But you’ve never been there.” a huge gust of wind came and blew the younger goose away, separating him from his Father. He was startled but he managed to keep flying. He looked around, but no longer saw his Father. He was alone, nervous and a little scared. It was getting dark. He kept his wings flapping, but his fear caused him to tense up, and he began losing altitude fast.
Suddenly another younger goose, perhaps a little older than himself, flew beside him maintaining the same speed. The older goose asked, “Hey man, are you going to Wadden Sea? You’re going the wrong way. You can follow me, but you need to relax, let go of your fear. You’re losing altitude!”
The young goose didn’t know how he could relax. He saw the older goose barely flapping his wings, while he was in a panic flapping as hard as he could. He let go a bit and let the wind carry him.
“That’s it, just let go of the fear and let the wind carry you.” And the young goose began to gain altitude.
As they were approaching the Wadden Sea, the older goose said, “I have to leave now, so you’ll need to fly in on your own.” He showed the young goose again how to relax and let the wind carry him. He even showed him a few trick moves.
The younger goose was feeling confident at this point and arrived at the Wadden Sea without fail. When he landed, his Father ran up to him and asked, “Are you ok? How did you manage to fly in?”
He stood up confidently, ruffling his feathers and said, “All by myself of course.”
Ok, well that wasn’t award winning prose or anything, but I wrote it up quickly to give an example of isomorphic metaphor. I must say I was a bit lax on sequence. I included both Father and son, but introduced an outside character which wasn’t really there. A true isomorphic metaphor maps one-to-one, but if it works, use it.
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