High school is hell was an interesting read by any standard. The analysis was not terribly succulent but the reasoning was sound. As a general read the article analyzed the first season with the primary intention of identifying the use of metaphor and its evolution. The metaphor focuses on the high school life of a regular American teenager and the hellish periods they go through.
I will focus on how metaphors are implemented in the Buffy series and the different dimensions of problems that get converted to a bloody vampire metaphorical mess. Negative emotions are transformed into powerful evil metaphors. Hate and jealousy take the form of monsters and the bastions of goodness become the vampire slayers. The metaphors do however play on the irony of the situations. Metaphors have the ability to display realities on both sides of scales, seemingly serious or very hilarious. This switch can make the entire sentence extremely ironical. This is the exact sort of irony that Buffy plays on and thereby creates a tension. These metaphors are sometimes based on public perceptions and expectations and when they are violated they trigger responses of surprise. The ultimate purpose of any episode is after all to sell itself.
These metaphors are however not without evolution. The evolution that occurs is partly due to the evolution of the storyline and the change of character. However it is mostly as a result of the change in society with time. As societal expectations change so do the metaphor.
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