Understanding Figurative Language

To make language clearer, more interesting, and more vivid, we all use expressions that are not literally true. We make comparisons in speaking and writing. We sometime use figurative language. Figurative language - language that compares - paints a picture.

Examples: "I worked like a dog last night.", " "Either spend that fifty ringgit or put it in the bank. You can't have your cake and eat it too." None of the expressions is literal - that is, not one means exactly what it says. In the 1st example the speaker tries to show how hard he worked, and he compares himself to a dog to achieve the effects he wants. In the 2nd sentence, the person is saying that you cannot both use something up and keep it to use later. He is comparing it to a piece of cake where it is impossible to eat it and save it for much later. In newspapers, magazines, and textbooks, you can expect to find figurative language to make a point clearer or more lively, and often both. As a reader, you must recognize figurative expressions so that you can understand a writer's point fully.

Here are more examples. Can you figure out the literal meaning?

1. The sun yawned through the trees.

2. An idea spoke within him, racing through his mind.

3. The moon looked as white as a skull.

4. His blackberry eyes darted nervously.

5. He roared with the force of a thousand lions.

Meaning:

1. The sun is being compared to a person yawning.

2. The idea has the quality of a living thing: It speaks and races.

3. The moon's color is being compared to the color of a skull.

4. The eyes are being compared to blackberries so that you can see the eyes as small and black.

5. The force of his roar is exaggerated by being compared to the roars of lions.

Let's look again at the sentence "The sun yawned through the tree". What is the writer trying to say about the sun? He is saying that the sun is emitting its ray through the trees just like in the picture above. When someone yawns his mouth is wide open and something is emitted from it. Similarly, when the sun yawns its bright ray is emitted through the trees.

Take some excepts (similes, metaphors, etc) from the short stories, novels, or poems that you have read in your Literature class or perhaps you may have found in any texts. Post them in your blog and attached a picture that best represents the similes, metaphors etc. Make sure you explain what the excerpts mean.