Can someone find the literary term for this sentence, and then explain it?

Question

"There is a sprinkling of losers like me scattered among the happy teenagers, prunes in the oatmean of school."

Answer 1

The term you're likely looking for is metaphor:

"prunes in the oatmeal of school."

Metaphors are when you play with language by describing something in a way that is NOT literally true to help create a vivid image in someone's mind via a comparison.
A metaphor is created when a speaker/writer says that S is P (word meaning) while communicating that S is R (speaker meaning).
In a way, it is not saying (literally) what you mean. It always involves a discrepancy between word meaning and speaker meaning.

1. Sally is a block of ice.
Speaker meaning (Metaphoric meaning): Sally is emotionally unresponsive.

2. Richard is a gorilla.
Speaker meaning (Metaphoric meaning): Richard is big, fierce, nasty, and prone to violence.

The writer is comparing the "sprinkling of losers" to "prunes" in the "oatmeal of school."
By doing so, he/she is trying to create a vivid mental picture in the reader's mind.

Answer 2

Well, I'd say the second half of the sentence is a metaphor for how people like the narrator, were viewed by their fellow students. Their losers, nobody popular or cool really seems to want them around. And who really wants prunes in their oatmeal. So saying the losers are like "prunes in the oatmeal of school" is basically saying the popular and cool folks didn't care for them.

Answer 3

I'm not POSITIVE, but the second part of the sentence "prunes in the oatmeal of school" sounds like a metaphor or an allegory.

You can look at all the terms here to find out though:
http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/