Barth's use of metaphor in "Lost in the Funhouse" is anything but subtle. On several occasions the self-conscious narrator comments on the metaphoric and symbolic elements in the story. In the opening lines, for example, the narrator announces that Ambrose "has come to the seashore with his family for the holiday, the occasion of their visit is Independence Day, the most important secular holiday of the United States of America." This is an invitation to consider Ambrose's adolescent struggles as a move toward independence, from his family, from his paralyzing self-consciousness.
The dominant use of metaphor in the story, however, is the funhouse itself, an exceptionally rich and fertile device for Barth. According to critic Gerhard Joseph, "The funhouse becomes the excruciatingly self-conscious symbol for the many distorted perspectives from which he [Ambrose] views.....
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