Figurative Language Word or phrase that describes one thing in terms of another and is not meant to be understood on a literal level. Always involves some sort of imaginative comparison between things that seem like they are different.

Simile Figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things, using a word such as like, as, resembles, or than. “Blood streamed till it was dried on the road, and the bodies were stuck there, like driftwood after the flood.” What is being compared? Why is this a good comparison?

Metaphor Figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things, in which one thing becomes another without the use of the word like, as, resembles, or than. “The houses were almost like lepers. At the very least, they were infected sores on the injured German terrain.” What is being compared? Do you notice the difference in comparison in sentence one and sentence two?

Personification Figurative language – kind of metaphor – where a nonhuman thing or quality is talked about as if it were human. “As the book quivered in her lap, the secret sat in her mouth. It made itself comfortable, it crossed its legs.” Why is this better than saying “Liesel kept her secret to herself”?

Practice “I traveled the globe as always, handing souls to the conveyer belt of eternity” (23). Markus Zusak uses a ______________________ (type of figurative language) to compare our human fate of death to ______________________________________. This comparison emphasizes the narrator’s attitude toward death, which is ________________________________. The comparison is effective because_________________________________________.