A Critical Metaphor Analysis of Jodi Picoult's "Nineteen Minutes": Unveiling Cultural Scripts of Femininity, Masculinity, and Violence

The growing concern surrounding school violence in contemporary Western societies has led various scholars to investigate this issue from different perspectives. Recent research has highlighted how gender dynamics and pervasive societal exposure to violence shape tragic events like school shootings. While Young Adult Literature (YAL) has emerged as a valuable pedagogical tool for enhancing empathy and social awareness regarding school violence, previous studies have mostly considered the thematic dimension of these texts. The present study investigates the linguistic mechanisms through which oppression is both reflected and challenged in Jodi Picoult’s “Nineteen Minutes” (2007). Drawing on Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), this work examines how conceptual metaphors are used to expose and deconstruct violence at different societal levels. Preliminary results suggest that the novel, on the one hand, employs metaphors that mirror dominant ideologies and, on the other, gradually unveils and denounces cultural scripts that legitimize the status quo presented in the book.