Figurative Language in Literature
• Why do authors use figurative language?
• Some types:
• Imagery, alliteration, personification, hyperbole,
onomatopoeia, Metaphor (metaphor, simile)
Metaphor and Simile
• Metaphor and Simile draw comparisons between two
unlike things. (Not just two things that are similar) The
goal is to evoke an image in the reader’s mind that helps
them understand how the speaker is feeling.
Metaphor
• Metaphor is a direct comparison. When you use a metaphor,
you make a statement that doesn’t make sense literally. It only
makes sense when the similarities between the two things
become apparent or someone understands the connection
between the two words.
Examples:
• The world is my oyster.
• You are a couch potato.
• Time is money.
• He has a heart of stone.
• America is a melting pot.
• You are my sunshine.
Simile
• Simile uses like and as, so that the comparison is like an
analogy.
• Busy as a bee.
• Clean as a whistle.
• Brave as a lion.
• He stood out like a sore thumb.
• It was as easy as shooting fish in a barrel.
• My mouth was as dry as a bone.
• It was as funny as a barrel of monkeys.
• They fought like cats and dogs.
• It was like watching grass grow.
Personification
• Person –ification: Giving Human characteristics to a non-
human thing/animal.
• This helps the readers to add purpose and intention to
non-human things.
• When you are identifying personification always try to
identify what non-human thing is acting like a human.
Personification
• Examples:
• Opportunity knocked on the door.
• The sun greeted me this morning.
• The sky was full of dancing stars.
• The vines wove their fingers together to form a braid.
• The radio stopped singing and stared at me.
• The sun played hide and seek with the clouds.
Hyperbole
• A hyperbole is an outrageous exaggeration that
emphasizes a point, and can be ridiculous or funny.
Hyperboles can be added to fiction to add color and depth
to a character.
• The purpose behind hyperbole is to add emphasis and
emotional affect to the language in literature.
Hyperbole
• You snore louder than a freight train.
• It's a slow burg. I spent a couple of weeks there one day.
• She is so dumb, she thinks Taco Bell is a Mexican phone
company.
• I had to walk 15 miles to school in the snow, uphill.
• You could have knocked me over with a feather.
Apostrophe
• Apostrophe is when a speaker addresses someone or
something that isn’t there (and really can’t be there).
• Apostrophe (like the punctuation: ‘ ) is used to take the
place of a missing person or thing
Examples: Death, be not proud - John Donne
O cunning Love! with tears thou keep’st me blind,
Lest eyes well-seeing thy foul faults should find Shakespeare
Alliteration
• The repetition of sounds at the beginning of words.
Alliteration helps to add style to language.
• Examples:
• “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes;
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life.”
• “His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling
faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the
descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.”
Imagery
• Descriptive language that evoke the five senses: sight,
sound, smell, taste, and touch.
• Used to add detail to the reading experience and to paint
a clearer and richer experience to the reading.
• Imagery can also involve other kinds of figurative
language too
Imagery
• Examples:
• He could hear the footsteps of doom nearing.
• She was like a breath of fresh air infusing life back into him.
• The pot was a red as a tongue after eating a cherry flavored
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ring pop.
Though I was on the sheer face of a mountain, the feeling of
swinging through the air was euphoric, almost like flying
without wings.
Her blue eyes were as bright as the Sun, blue as the sky, but
soft as silk.
The music coursed through us, shaking our bodies as if it came
from within us.
The giant tree was ablaze with the orange, red, and yellow
leaves that were beginning to make their decent to the ground.
Onomatopoeia
• Type of imagery (sound) – adds memorable imagery to
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language
The words are the literal sounds they are describing. (All
animal sounds are types of onomatopoeia)
Examples:
The buzzing bee flew away.
The sack fell into the river with a splash.
The books fell on the table with a loud thump.
He looked at the roaring sky.
The rustling leaves kept me awake.