1.  “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

2. Figurative Language

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

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

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

7. 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.”

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

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

10. 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."

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

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

13. Kanye West over here keeps interrupting me.

14. 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, 209-212).  “You are a lover. Borrow Cupid’s wings and soar with them…” (Mercutio: I, iv, 17 & 18).

15. Caesar in “Mean Girls”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ovO boVwB7g

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

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

18. 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.

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

20. 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

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

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

23. 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.

24. 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.

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

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

27. 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.”