Figurative Language

simile imagery Figurative Language personification irony tone metaphor Allusion onomatopoeia

Figures of Speech A figure of speech is a specific device or kind of figurative language, such as hyperbole, metaphor, personification, simile, or understatement. Figurative language is used for descriptive effect, often to imply ideas indirectly. It is not meant to be taken literally. Figurative language is used to state ideas in vivid and imaginative ways. Figurative language is the OPPOSITE of literal language.

Simile: a way of describing something by comparing it with something else using "like" or "as"

I am hungry as a horse. You run like a rabbit. She is happy as a clam. He is sneaky as a snake.

Metaphor: A way of describing something by comparing it to something else

The girl was a fish in the water. The clown was a feather floating away.

Personification to compare something that is not human to something with human characteristics

The flowers danced in the wind. The friendly gates welcomed us. The Earth coughed and choked in all of the pollution.

Onomatopoeia: Words that are sounds

YeeeeeeAhhhhhhhh Swish swishswish Chug chugchug!! GlipppGlupppGluppp

Imagery • Language that appeals to the senses. Descriptions of people or objects stated in terms of our senses. • • Sight • • Hearing • • Touch • • Taste • • Smell

Denotation The denotation of a word is its dictionary meaning.

Connotation The connotation of a word is the ideas associated with it in addition to its dictionarymeaning. Words can have positive, negative, or neutral connotations.

Denotation versus Connotation Cheap, stingy, and inexpensive have the same denotation (“low in cost”). Which word is the most positive? Which word is the most negative?

Think about the word HOT. The denotation of HOT is: having a temperature higher than normal. However, when you say “Man! She is hot!”, are you saying “Man! She has a temperature higher than normal!”? No!! You are intending to use the CONNOTATION of HOT – which could mean a variety of things – She is cute, attractive, beautiful, and many other meanings thatcome from personal experiences and cultural meanings, etc. Always remember that the words you use may have different meanings (connotations) to different people, so be careful!

Tone Tone is a reflection of a writer’s attitude toward a subject of a story. Tone may be communicated through words and details that express emotions and that evoke an emotional response from the reader. For example, word choice or phrasing may seem to convey respect, anger, lightheartedness, or sarcasm. Do your homework. Whatever. What do you want for dinner? Whatever. I’m sick of fighting. I’m leaving. Whatever.

MOOD Mood, or atmosphere, is the feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage. Writers often create mood by using imagery to describe the setting with many details and descriptive words.

DURING the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was -- but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment, with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible. I looked upon the scene before me -- upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain -- upon the bleak walls -- upon the vacant eye-like windows -- upon a few rank sedges -- and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees -- with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium -- the bitter lapse into everyday life -- the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart -- an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime. What was it -- I paused to think -- what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher? It was a mystery all insoluble; nor could I grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as I pondered. I was forced to fall back upon the unsatisfactory conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there are combinations of very simple natural objects which have the power of thus affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies among considerations beyond our depth. It was possible, I reflected, that a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to annihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression; and, acting upon this idea, I reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled lustre by the dwelling, and gazed down -- but with a shudder even more thrilling than before -- upon the remodelled and inverted images of the gray sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, and the vacant and eye-like windows. I looked upon the scene before me -- upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain -- upon the bleak walls -- upon the vacant eye-like windows -- upon a few rank sedges -- and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees -- with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium -- the bitter lapse into everyday life -- the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart -- an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime. (from the Fall of the House of Usher by E.A. Poe)

Tone and Mood are often confused Remember the difference! tone = a character’s attitude or feeling (sarcastic, angry, happy) mood = atmosphere (creepy, scary, depressing)

allusion • A reference to a person, place, or event, or to another literary work or passage. • The writer assumes the educated reader will recognize the reference. • Like all figurative language, allusions just add more meaning to a story, song, poem, etc. • "Christy didn't like to spend money. She was no Scrooge, but she seldom purchased anything except the bare necessities.” • What is the allusion and what does that tell you about Christy?

What happens when an author refers to something that you’ve never heard about? • That is why it is important to READ and be informed about the world around you. Listen to this song and make a tally mark in your notes every time you recognize something… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR-A4QFHZBA

Irony • Irony is a deliberate contrast between two levels of meaning • Verbal – implying a different meaning than what is directly stated • Situational – the opposite of what is expected happens • Dramatic – the audience knows something that one or more of the characters does not

Irony—which kind? • The beautiful woman lawyer walked into the courtroom wearing a visibly stained suit that frayed at the edges. • “Oh, and there’s a thrilling shot of one of the kids being sick on a small fishing boat off the coast of Florida and we are hovering over him offering him salami and mayonnaise sandwiches. That one really breaks us up.”—Erma Bombeck • Juliet is actually not dead, but asleep with the help of a strong potion. Romeo sees her lying in the tomb and kills himself because he believes her to be dead.

A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling, and then rippled over the wine-colored rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea. (from The Great Gatsby)

Name that literary term! • “The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor.” • I heard the swishing of her skirts as she walked up the stairs. • "Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.“ • The pen is mightier than the sword. • “My love is like a red, red rose.” • Julie wears so much make-up she has to use a sandblaster to get it off at night. • My desk is groaning underneath the mountains of papers to grade.

Stan the strong surfer saved several swimmers on Saturday. Tiny Tommy Thomson takes toy trucks to Timmy’s on Tuesday. Click here to read more alliterations.

Figurative Language