Figures of Speech Simile, Metaphor, and Analogy

1. Figures of SpeechSimile, Metaphor, and Analogy • Simile = compares two unlike things by using the comparative words like or as to suggest they are one and the same thing. • Example: “Life is like a box of chocolates.” • Explanation: Life is like a box of chocolates because of the many choices one has to make. • Metaphor = compares two unlike things without using the comparative words like or as to suggest they are one and the same thing.

2. Example = “Life is a box of chocolates.” • Explanation = The choices we face in life are as varied and unknown as the flavors hidden in chocolates in a box. • Analogy = compares two things, which are alike in several respects, for the purpose of explaining or clarifying some unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar one

3. Example = “For answers successfully arrived at are solutions to difficulties previously discussed, and one cannot untie a knot if he is ignorant of it.” --Aristotle • Explanation = In order to arrive at a solution, we must know what the problem is

4. Types of Irony • Irony = is when one outcome is expected, but the opposite occurs, usually with a coincidental twist of events. • Example: An earthquake occurring during an earthquake drill

5. Verbal Irony = Where one thing is said, but another, opposite meaning is inferred. • Example: Hannibal the cannibal said, “I’d love to have you over for dinner.” • Dramatic Irony = occurs when the audience knows something a character does not and the outcome or meaning is the opposite of what the character expects.

6. Symbolism • A symbol has meaning in itself, but stands for something else. However, a symbol is not what it symbolizes. • For example, a dove is a bird, but when used as a symbol it represents peace. If the dove dies, peace does not die.

7. Likewise, the American flag is a piece of cloth with red and white bars and white stars on a blue field. It symbolizes the United States of America and, to some, freedom. However, if someone burned the flag, the only thing that has been destroyed is a piece of cloth. The United States still exists, as well as freedom.

8. Allegory • Allegory is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. The underlying meaning has moral, social, religious, or political significance, and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas such as charity, greed, or envy. Thus an allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.

9. Example: While the literal meaning of The Crucible focuses on the Salem Witch Trials, its symbolic meaning (or allegorical meaning) is about the Red Scare and McCarthyism.