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Metaphors, Similies, and Personification
Metaphors, similes, and personification belong to a class of language called figurative language.
Figurative language is any language that is not used in a literal (meaning exactly what it says) way. It's a way of saying one thing and meaning another. We use figurative language, or figures of speech, all of the time in spoken English. When we go to a baseball game, for example, we might make comments like these:
That catcher was the bomb!
That ball sat in the outfield.
Jimmy ran like a cheetah to first base.
If we look at these statements literally, they make no sense at all. A catcher is a person, not a bomb. A ball can't sit. Jimmy's not a cheetah and can't run like one— he only has two legs, after all. Even statements make no literal sense at all, we understand them completely. That's because we've speaking figurative language all of our lives! When someone says the catcher was the bomb, we know what it means: the catcher is skilled, practiced, and probably cute, too! When someone says the ball sat in the outfield, we don't have to try to picture the ball with legs, sitting down on a chair in a field what it means: that no one was quick to get the ball. And no one thinks that Jimmy turned into a cheetah. We know that Jimmy is a fast runner—the fastest—like the cheetah.
Why do we use figurative language? We use figurative language because it's a rich, strong, way to express meaning. By using figurative language, we are able to say much more in fewer wo Robert Burns, a famous poet, says, My love is like a red, red rose, he is saying many things: h beautiful, soft, and fragrant. The rose is red, the color of passion and love. This adds another The rose also has thorns, which says that there's a potential danger in loving her. She may hu comparing his love to a red rose, the poet is able to compress or squeeze many ideas into a sir Figurative language is useful, but it can be overdone, too. When a figure of speech is used or again, it loses its freshness and originality and becomes a cliché, a stale and overused express are some examples of figures of speech that have become clichés:
pretty as a picture
quiet as a mouse
Laughter is the best medicine.
Every cloud has a silver lining.
It happened in the dead of night.
There are many more. These overused figures of speech no longer get the reader's attention. As you learn to understand and write figurative language like a pro, search for figures of speech that you haven't heard a million times (that's figurative!) before. You will get better with practice. As you've probably understood by now, there are several different kinds of figurative language.
Metaphors and similes are used to compare things that are not usually seen as similar. Metaphors imply the comparison, and similes state the comparison directly. Suppose, for example, you've just taken an extremely hard test. To make this idea into a metaphor, you could say, "That test was a bear!" You are not saying that it was a literal bear but that it was unpredictable and hard to deal with. The comparison between the test and a bear is not directly stated. Instead, the comparison is implied or suggested. You identify the bear with the test. That's what a metaphor does. A metaphor implies a comparison in order to bring fresh, rich meaning to writing (and speaking).
A simile is a comparison, too. With a simile, however, the comparison is directly stated. To make the "test" metaphor into a simile, you make the comparison explicit: "That test was like struggling with a bear!" It is still non-literal language-taking the test is not really like struggling with a bear— but with a simile you come right out and state the comparison. Similes have signal words that give you a hint a simile is coming. These words include as, like, than, similar to, and resembles. Be careful, though. Inese words don't always indicate similes. If I say, "I look like my sister," I am not using a simile. It's a literal statement; I do look like my sister. To be a simile or a metaphor, the comparison must be of essentially unlike things.
Metaphors and similes have literal terms and figurative terms.
The literal term is what we are comparing to something else. It's what's real; it means what it is. (Tenor) For example, the literal term in the metaphor, "That test was a bear!" is test. We are really talking
The figurative term is what is being compared to the literal term. The figurative term means something other than itself, something non-literal. The figurative term in the metaphor is bear. (Vehicle) The test is not a bear, but it has some bear-like qualities that can help us understand just how hard the test was.
Consider:
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
— Martin Luther King, jr., I have a dream
Consider:
When I had waited a long time, very patiently, without hearing him lie down, I resolved to open a little—a very, very little crevice in the lantern. So I opened it—you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily—until, at length a simple dim ray, like the thread of the spider, shot from out the crevice and fell full upon the vulture eye. It was open—wide, wide open—and I grew furious as I gazed upon it. I saw it with perfect distinctness—all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones; but I could see nothing else of the old man's face or person: for I had directed the ray as if by instinct, precisely upon the damned spot.
— Edgar Allen Poe, Tell Tale Heart
Discuss:
Identify two examples of figurative language. Are they similes or metaphors? Identify the tenor and the vehicle.
What does the figurative language add to the passage?
What other literary devices are used here? How do they work together to create a spooky, creepy atmosphere?
Consider: When I had waited a long time, very patiently, without hearing him lie down, I resolved to open a little—a very, very little crevice in the lantern. So I opened it—you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily—until, at length a simple dim ray, like the thread of the spider, shot from out the crevice and fell full upon the vulture eye. It was open—wide, wide open—and I grew furious as I gazed upon it. I saw it with perfect distinctness—all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones; but I could see nothing else of the old man's face or person: for I had directed the ray as if by instinct, precisely upon the damned spot.
— Edgar Allan Poe, "The Tell-Tale heart," The Tell-Tale heart and Other Writings
Discuss:
Identify two examples of figurative language. Are they similes or metaphors? Identify the tenor and the vehicle.
What does the figurative language add to the passage?
What other literary devices are used here? How do they work together to create a spooky, creepy atmosphere?
Consider: Like sunshine after storm were the peaceful weeks which followed.
— Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
Discuss:
What are the tenor and vehicle?
How would the meaning and impact of the sentence be different if it read: The peaceful weeks that followed were sunny and there were no storms.
Apply: Write a simile using the sentence structure of the original describing the feelings one experiences after the start of summer vacation (break from school).
Consider:
I was seven, I lay in the car
watching palm trees swirl a sickening pattern past the glass.
My stomach was a melon split wide inside my skin.
— Naomi Shihab Nye, "making a Fist," Words Under the Words: Selected Poems
Discuss:
What is the metaphor? What are the tenor and vehicle? What does the metaphor mean?
How would the meaning and impact of these lines change if the line simply said: My stomach really hurt?
Apply: Rewrite the figurative language in the poem. Try to express feelings of anxiety and pain--both physical and emotional--with your metaphor.
Consider:
Now only the night moved in the souls of the two men bent by their lonely fire in the wilderness; darkness pumped quietly in their veins and ticked silently in their temples and their wrists.
— Ray Bradbury, "The Dragon," The golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
Discuss:
Is the word night literal or figurative? If it is literal, what does it literally mean? If it is figurative, explain why.
When Bradbury says, "darkness pumped quietly in their veins and ticked silently in their temples and their wrists" what does he really mean? This entire clause is a metaphor which means there has to be a comparison between essentially unlike things. What is the comparison? Identify the tenor and vehicle. What qualities of the vehicle are being applied to the tenor to give it a deeper meaning?
Apply: Using Bradbury as a model, write a sentence about very happy people. Use a metaphor to describe the people. The first thing you need to do is decide what you want to compare their happiness to.
Literal term: Happiness
Comparison word: is
Figurative term: ________
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