Discourses are the ways that people talk about different topics such as politics, professions, workplaces, social groups, and cultures. Discourses use linguistic shortcuts like metaphors, tropes, synecdoche, metonymy, and allegory to communicate ideas. These devices allow complex concepts to be explained and understood through comparisons to other concepts. Metaphors in particular can help open doors to new understandings by explaining one thing in terms of another.