Benjamin Versteegen, 10NW Buffy the Vampire Slayer uses metaphor and transforms it into reality.

Whedon uses the technique to comment on young peoples everyday struggles. Discuss using specific examples. Joss Whedon ingeniously transposes the younger generations typical metaphors into reality, in an effort to address the issues that confront them. Weve all heard the typical metaphors that are constantly used in our society such as my step-dad is evil! or theres skeletons in my closet!, but Whedon transforms these into reality in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This tactic is employed in an effort to exaggerate and bring into light the real problems that adolescents face, such as parental issues, a tense high school environment, and social alienation. Metaphor is also used to express in an abstract way subjects that otherwise couldnt be fully understood by society, whilst allowing the reader to make their own assumptions and form a personalised opinion on the topic. The ideal and most generalised example of one of the metaphors in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS) appears in the very first episode: Welcome to the Hellmouth. At one point or another, high school has seemed like hell to each of us. Although we use this term metaphorically, it takes on a literal sense in Welcome to the Hellmouth when Sunnydale High School a typical suburban school is found to be the centre of demonic activity. Buffy appears to be unconcerned that Sunnydale lies at the core of supernatural attraction, and instead is preoccupied with making friends and experiencing her new school as an average teenager would. This presents both sides of the metaphor in BtVS, the literal interpretation that high school is genuinely hell and also in the sense that most of us use the term today; maintaining friendships, coping with work and other typical problems. As Buffy is walking down a dark alleyway alone towards the end of the episode, she gets the feeling that there is somebody following her, and it turns out to be Angel, one of the reformed vampires. The feeling of being stalked by something supernatural is familiar to all of us whove walked down a dark street alone, but in BtVS this feeling does turn out to be truth for Buffy. Since BtVS is set in a high school environment, many of the stories motivators come from typical teen lifestyles. In The Pack, an episode depicting the harsh world of bullying, alienating and assertion, a group of teens including Xander, become possessed by hyenas, and take on the pack like characteristics of them. Throughout childhood, teenagers often gather and pick on people, much like a pack would, which is shown

literally in BtVS. The pack group together, pick out stragglers and aggressively seek things for their own benefit. Its devastating, hes turned into a sixteen year old boy. Of course you will have to kill him, Giles sarcastically explains to Buffy after she mentions of Xanders strange animalistic behaviour. This comments on both the literal, and metaphorical sense of the way teenagers reputedly act as a pack. The metaphor is finally amplified to the point where it no longer applies to real life problems when the pack inhumanely attacks Principle Flutie, which in no way can be correlated with the behaviour of any ordinary adolescent. Divorces, new boyfriends and other parental issues are rife in our modern society. In the episode Ted, Whedon cleverly utilizes this to create a strong storyline for the episode, and make a statement about current-age teenage life. The episode begins with tense music, as Buffy and her friends venture into her house and stumble upon Buffys mother kissing Ted. Although this scene was set up to appear that there was a more prominent evil inside the house, her mothers flamboyance is equally as frightening to a young teenager. From this point onwards in the episode, Buffy regards Ted as a bad person, and somebody not to be trusted. At the very end of the episode, his secret becomes apparent when part of his face is buffeted off to reveal his robotic core. At this point the metaphor is exposed; that Ted really is too good to be true and has some superhuman qualities. Another minor metaphor present in this episode is when Xander and Willow are exploring throughout Teds house and find skeletons in his closet. The term skeletons in the closet is widely used as a reference to somebody whos keeping secrets, but as often happens in BtVS this is made literal. The use of metaphor in BtVS reflects the constant struggles of every teenager to overcome the challenges that school poses. Whedon explores many different aspects of teenage life through the inspired transposition of metaphor into reality. In the pilot episode Welcome to the Hellmouth, Whedon first touches on the idea that metaphor can be used to describe adolescent conflicts. The Pack amplifies one of the main causes of teenage angst; the pack mentality possessed by many youths. Like many mothers, Buffys is embarrassingly open and falls for Ted, the embodiment of perfection, later discovered to be hiding skeletons in the closet. Utilizing these many different topics of metaphorical storytelling, Whedon succinctly embraces and illustrates teenage issues in an easily digestible manner. Benjamin Versteegen, 10NW