Analysis of an extract taken from David Lodge's Nice Work

The extract reports a conversation between Vic and Robin during a drive. While driving along the road some poster advertising the brand of famous cigarettes ( Silk Cut) is visible. It seems just an argument between the two protagonists. Indeed the writer's objective is to make the intelligent reader reflect on the way language works resorting to the use of metaphor and metonymy.
The advertisement was nothing more than a photographic depiction of "a rippling expanse of purple silk in which there was a single slit, as if the material had been slashed with a razor" that intrigued Robin. In addition there were no words on the advertisement. It was just an ubiquitous image.
The advertising language adopts both language and pictures and uses literary devices, like a "riddle" as the narrator suggests in order to reach its objectives so that the message may stick into the reader, or watcher's, mind. the material used in the advertisement suggests the idea of something slippery as the perpetual sliding of the signified under the signified. On the order side the razor, which is usually used by men suggests the presence of a male figure. Last but not least the cut is a metaphor for the vagina. All this is also reinforced by the use of colors such as red purple and white. In addition the definition of this image as an "ubiquitous image" makes even stronger the idea of sliding. As a matter of fact ubiquitous is something that is everywhere and thus may be seen slippery as the significant.
The narrator wants to make the intelligent reader understand that the discussion and conversation is just a pre text to  reflect on the way.
In order to do that he shows the work of metaphor and metonymy exemplified by Vic's answers to Robin. In fact, when Vic asserts that he smokes Marlboro ( as if it would make any difference) he reveals that he lives his life as a metonymy weather Robin, as her occupation implies, lives her life as a metaphor. The biggest difference is the criticism with someone looks at the world. Indeed in metaphor "you substitute something for the thing you mean itself” and so it requires comprehension skills; in metonymy you substitute some cause or effect of the thing with the thing itself.
The metonymy style of life of Vic Wilcox is even more underlined by the narrator. Indeed at a certain point he uses the direct speech and the narrative techniques of showing. Some of the words used in the first part of the extract such as "spluttered", "harmless" "ubiquitous" didn't even need an explanation for people like Robin. However the writer chooses the direct speech to make the situation more clear to common readers but at the same time to give a chance to the intelligent reader to have some “fun”.