The language in Fahrenheit 451 contains many similes and metaphors that help the reader visualize and
understand the characters & concepts in the novel. (Remember that a simile is a figurative comparison
that uses the words “like” or “as”: The yellow daffodil was like sunshine in the room. A metaphor is a
direct comparison that doesn’t use the words “like” or “as”: The man has muscles of steel.)
Directions: Read the following expressions from the novel. Label the expression “S” if it contains a simile and
“M” if it contains a metaphor. Underline the simile or metaphor (what’s being compared) in each.
_____ 1. With his eyes all orange flame with the thought of what came next, he flicked the lighter.
_____ 2. He stood there, very cold, his face a mask of ice.
_____ 3. He opened the bedroom door. It was like coming in to the cold marbled room of a mausoleum after the
moon had set.
_____ 4. His wife stretched on the bed, like a body displayed on the lid of a tomb.
_____ 5. Her face was like a snow-covered island upon which rain might fall.
_____ 6. She was like the eager watcher of a marionette show.
_____ 7. And in her ears, the little Seashells, the thimble radios tamped tight, and an electronic ocean of sound.
_____ 8. The books lay like great mounds of fishes left to dry.
_____ 9. Magazines became a nice blend of vanilla tapioca.
_____ 10. He saw her there, her hair burnt by chemicals to a brittle straw.
_____ 11. The electronic thimble moved like a praying mantis on the pillow.
_____ 12. A book is a loaded gun in the house next door.
_____ 13. Montag sat like carved white stone.
_____ 14. He felt that, in the morning, the earth would be covered with their dust like a strange snow.
_____ 15. It (the Hound) was like a great bee come home from some field where the honey is full of poison
wildness.
Personification is a literary technique that authors often use. Personification involves giving human
characteristics to inanimate objects or animals or describing such objects or animals in human terms.
Directions: In the following sentences from Fahrenheit 451, identify the personification but underlining it and
explain the meaning of each sentence.
1. Her (Clarisse’s) dress was white and it whispered.
Meaning:
2. The train radio vomited upon Montag, in retaliation, a great tonload of music made of tin, copper, silver,
chromium, and brass.
Meaning:
3. The twin beds went up in a great simmering whisper.
Meaning:
4. The train door whistled open. Montag stood. The door gasped, started shut.
Meaning:
5. The book has pores. They show the pores in the face of life.
Meaning:
6. …he shouting at her and she shouting back and both trying to hear what was said, but hearing only the
scream of the car.
Meaning:
7. The city rolled over and fell down dead.
Meaning:
8. Out of the black wall before him, a whisper… The night looking at him. The forest, seeing him.
Meaning:
9. The mind drinks less and less.
Meaning:
How is an Elephant Like a Tree?
Directions: Read the following questions. Find at least two likenesses for each. They can be
basic, surface-level similarities or deeper, more abstract similarities. Be creative!!!
1. How is a pencil like a railroad?
A. .
B. .
C.
2. How is snow like an hourglass?
A. .
B. .
C.
3. How is a soaring eagle like a lightbulb?
A. .
B. .
C.
4. How is a mirror like a book?
A. .
B. .
C.
5. How are wildflowers like stars?
A. .
B. .
C.
6. How is moonlight like jewelry?
A. .
B. .
C.
7. How is a teddy bear like a cookie?
A. .
B. .
C.
8. How is a bird like a heart?
A. .
B. .
C.
9. How is spring like death?
A. .
B. .
C.