synecdoche


 * Synecdoche (pronounced "si-nek-duh-kee"):** A figure by which a more comprehensive term is used for a less comprehensive term or //vice vers//a; as whole for part or part for whole, genus for species or species for genus, etc. (Oxford English Dictionary, Online)

"I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas" - T.S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" Referring to something through its "ragged claws"
 * Examples:**

"Take your face hence" - William Shakespeare, "Macbeth" 5:3 Refers to "you" through "your face"

Chicago is referred to through the people living and working in the city. The entire poem Chicago by Carl Sandburg is synecdoche. Synecdoche is using part to refer to the whole, or using the whole to refer to the part. He talks about Chicago through the prostitutes luring innocent farm boys. This implies that Chicago lures people from the country. He also talks about mobsters who kill and then aren’t punished. This is referring to the corrupt Chicago politics. He also mentions the hungry. This is describing the poor, and implies that Chicago has many poor. Then Carl Sandburg uses metaphor to describe Chicago as a boxer who keeps on fighting, and is proud in his strength, but doesn’t realize that he will be surpassed, because he hasn’t lost so far. The boxer is also laughing, proud to be what he is. In this poem Carl Sandburg describes Chicago by using some of its many nicknames e.g. hog butcher for the world, tool maker, stacker of wheat, player with railroads etc. All of these refer to Chicago’s status as railroad transit hub for North America, and all of its slaughter houses.
 * Reference in "Chicago"**:


 * References**

"Synecdoche." Def. 1. __OED__. 17 Nov. 2008 .