 “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter - it's the difference between the lightning bug and lightning. ”  -Mark Twain

Figurative Language

Imagery: Language that creates pictures in the mind and excites the senses.

Metaphor: A figure of speech, not using the words like or as, that compares two usually unrelated things.

Example:  The Rain Came Down in Long Knitting Needles.

Example from Lord of the Flies:  " The afternoon sun emptied down invisible arrows.”  “The whole space was walled with dark aromatic bushes, and was a bowl of heat and light.”

Love9 to 5 Job HungerHighway PainTV Dinner HappinessFlower SleepCloud DesireHammer FriendsClock LifePark

Simile:  Uses like or as to compare usually unrelated things.

Example:  “ The water bounded from the mountain top, tore leaves and branches from the trees, poured like a cold shower over the struggling heap on the sand.”  “Then the clouds opened and let down the rain like a waterfall."

“Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.” -Forrest Gump

Allusion:  Reference to a well known person, place, thing or idea.

Kanye West over here keeps interrupting me.

Allusions in Romeo and Juliet  “Well, in that hit you miss. She’ll not be hit with Cupid’s arrow…From Love’s weak childish bow she lives uncharmed (Romeo: I, i, ).  “You are a lover. Borrow Cupid’s wings and soar with them…” (Mercutio: I, iv, 17 & 18).

Caesar in “Mean Girls”  boVwB7g

Contrast Imagery: “Ask not what your country can do for you: Ask what you can do for your country.” -John F. Kennedy

Antithesis: The specific balancing or contrasting of one term against another, which is the opposite.

Example: It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, experienced or inexperienced, rich or poor, you can make a difference in this organization.

Oxymoron:  Places words that are in opposition directly side by side

Examples:  She is the momentary love of my life.  My parents want me to have such boring fun.  Because I always fall graciously, my friends say that I have athletic clumsiness.  Civil War

Hyperbole:  Overstatement; saying more than what is true for the sake of emphasis.

Examples:  “I called you a million times!”  “Mom, I don’t have anything to wear to school!”  “I laughed my head off.”

Understatement:  Makes less of something; uses language that “draws the listener in” because it cleverly “distorts” in its own way and makes us see an absurdity more clearly.

Example:  The winner of the basketball slam dunk competition can jump a little.  Families out of work and without a paycheck can experience some economic discomfort.  Michael Jordan is a pretty good athlete.

Personification:  Giving human characteristics to non-human things.

Examples:  Don’t allow dishonesty to sneak up on you!  Crime can dress up in a number of disguises when it is at work.

Examples in Lord of the Flies:  “ The breezes that on the lagoon had chased their tales like kittens were finding their way across the platform and into the forest.”