What makes similes and metaphors effective?
Writers use figurative language to make a point. The use of poetic devices such as metaphors and similes allow an author to express ideas that appeal to the reader’s imagination. When we read a simile or metaphor, we need to ask ourselves: what point is the author making? And how is figurative language helping him or her to make that point? In other words, how are the similes and metaphors an author uses more effective than literal language?
Example: FIGURATIVE: “She fluttered like a bird from person to person.”
LITERAL: “She didn’t spend much time talking to one person; she spent a little time speaking with one person, then another, then another.”
Both of the statements above communicate the same idea---but the figurative version communicates it faster--and more visually. Why is this better for the reader?
Below you will find some of the best similes and metaphors ever written. For each one, identify
whether it is a simile or a metaphor
What is being compared to what
Why the simile/metaphor is effective at communicating the author’s point.
1. “. . . she tried to get rid of the kitten which had scrambled up her back and stuck like a burr just out of reach.” — Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
Simile or Metaphor?_____
What is being compared to what?
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Why is the comparison effective?
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2. “Time has not stood still. It has washed over me, washed me away, as if I’m nothing more than a woman of sand, left by a careless child too near the water.” — The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
Simile or Metaphor?_____
What is being compared to what?
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Why is the comparison effective?
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3. “. . . and snow lay here and there in patches in the hollow of the banks, like a lady’s gloves forgotten.” — Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor, by R. D. Blackmore
Simile or Metaphor?_____
What is being compared to what?
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Why is the comparison effective?
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5. “I would have given anything for the power to soothe her frail soul, tormenting itself in its invincible ignorance like a small bird beating about the cruel wires of a cage.” — Lord Jim, by Joseph Conrad
Simile or Metaphor?_____
What is being compared to what?
___________________________________________________________
Why is the comparison effective?
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6. “In the eastern sky there was a yellow patch like a rug laid for the feet of the coming sun . . .” — The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane
Simile or Metaphor?_____
What is being compared to what?
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Why is the comparison effective?
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7. “When he awoke, he was utterly absorbed by the curious experience that still clung to him like a garment.” — Magnificent Obsession, by Lloyd C. Douglas
Simile or Metaphor?_____
What is being compared to what?
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Why is the comparison effective?
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9. “She entered with ungainly struggle like some huge awkward chicken, torn, squawking, out of its coop.” — The Adventure of the Three Gables, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Simile or Metaphor?_____
What is being compared to what?
___________________________________________________________
Why is the comparison effective?
______________________________________________________________________________
10. “He looks like right after the maul hits the steer and is no longer alive and doesn’t yet know that it is dead.” — As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
Simile or Metaphor?_____
What is being compared to what?
___________________________________________________________
Why is the comparison effective?
______________________________________________________________________________
11. “Past him, ten feet from his front wheels, flung the Seattle Express like a flying volcano.” — Arrowsmith, by Sinclair Lewis
Simile or Metaphor?_____
What is being compared to what?
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Why is the comparison effective?
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12. “Her father had inherited that temper; and at times, like antelope fleeing before fire on the slope, his people fled from his red rages.” — Riders of the Purple Sage, by Zane Grey
Simile or Metaphor?_____
What is being compared to what?
_________________________________________________
Why is the comparison effective?
______________________________________________________________________________
13. “The very mystery of him excited her curiosity like a door that had neither lock nor key.” — Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
Simile or Metaphor?_____
What is being compared to what?
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Why is the comparison effective?
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14. “Elderly American ladies leaning on their canes listed toward me like towers of Pisa.” — Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
Simile or Metaphor?_____
What is being compared to what?
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Why is the comparison effective?
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15. “Camperdown, Copenhagen, Trafalgar — these names thunder in memory like the booming of great guns.” — Mutiny on the Bounty, by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
Simile or Metaphor?_____
What is being compared to what?
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Why is the comparison effective?
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16. “It was Françoise, motionless and upright, framed in the small doorway of the corridor like the statue of a saint in its niche.” — Swann’s Way, by Marcel Proust
Simile or Metaphor?_____
What is being compared to what?
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Why is the comparison effective?
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17. “The water made a sound like kittens lapping.” — The Yearling, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Simile or Metaphor?_____
What is being compared to what?
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Why is the comparison effective?
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18. “Kate inched over her own thoughts like a measuring worm.” — East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
Simile or Metaphor?_____
What is being compared to what?
___________________________________________________________
Why is the comparison effective?
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19. “He swung a great scimitar, before which Spaniards went down like wheat to the reaper’s sickle.” — The Sea-Hawk, by Rafael Sabatini
Simile or Metaphor?_____
What is being compared to what?
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Why is the comparison effective?
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