SIMILE A direct comparison between two dissimilar NOUNS using the words like, as, or resembles. TWO very different NOUNS The words like, as, or resembles By comparing ONE NOUN with a totally different NOUN, an idea is implied about the first noun. The implication is that the first noun possesses some of the characteristics of the second noun. NOUN 1 = NOUN 2 It is not simply a description of a noun. There must be two nouns named in the sentence. 1. Life is like a box of chocolates. 2. My brother eats like a vacuum cleaner. 3. Through the hazy smoke, the sun shined like a bronze medallion. 1. LIFE = BOX OF CHOCOLATES means that in life there is variety, much of it sweet and surprising, but sometimes there are pieces we don t like. 2. BROTHER = VACUUM means that my brother eats fast and seems to suck up his food and leave nothing behind; he might also be a noisy eater. 3. SUN = BRONZE MEDALLION means that the sun has a orange or bronzy color and shines like polished metal.
DIRECT METAPHOR A direct comparison between two dissimilar NOUNS using a be verb. TWO very different NOUNS The be verbs: am, is, are, was, were, will be, etc. By comparing ONE NOUN with a totally different NOUN, an idea is implied about the first noun. The implication is that the first noun possesses some of the characteristics of the second noun. NOUN 1 = NOUN 2 It is not simply a description of a noun. There must be two nouns named in the sentence. 1. To me, math is Mt. Everest. 2. The lion is king of the grasslands. 3. Since my lawnmower is broken, my lawn is a jungle. 1. MATH = MT. EVEREST implies that doing math is supremely difficult and challenging. 2. LION = KING implies that the lion has power over the domain, just as a king would. 3. LAWN = JUNGLE implies that the overgrown lawn is tall and green as if a jungle of trees.
IMPLIED METAPHOR An implied comparison where one NOUN is described in terms that are usually used to describe another very different NOUN, though that second noun is not stated. A NOUN that is being described in a way that is unusual. ADJECTIVES or other modifiers which describe a very specific NOUN, but that NOUN is not actually stated. By describing one NOUN in terms which are usually used to describe a different NOUN, an idea is implied about the first noun. The implication is that the first noun possesses some of the characteristics of the second unstated noun. NOUN 1 = [unstated NOUN 2 ] It is not simply a description of a noun. The describing words must seem to better fit a different, unstated noun. 1. After the long nap, she emerged from her cocoon of blankets, stretched her wings, and greeted the world with new color and energy as she fluttered off to face her day. 2. The car shot out of the tunnel with a loud report and ricocheted down the road toward its target. 1. GIRL = [BUTTERFLY] words like emerged from her cocoon, stretched her wings, new color and energy and fluttered off are all words that are associated with a butterfly hatching from its cocoon. Therefore, the girl is being compared to a new, beautiful butterfly. 2. CAR = [BULLET] words like shot out, report, ricocheted, and target are all words that are associated with a bullet being shot from a gun. Therefore, the car is being compared to a speeding bullet.
PERSONIFICATION The description of a non-human NOUN by using human characteristics. Personification can be a simile or a direct metaphor only if the first noun is nonhuman and the second noun is human. Personification can also be an implied metaphor. Something not human being given a personality, human-like actions, or human-like behaviors. By comparing a non-human NOUN to a human, personification implies an idea about the non-human noun. Personification NEVER describes a person. If the NOUN that is being described is a person, you do not have personification. 1. The mountain waited for us in the distance, mocking us, beckoning us to attempt the climb. 2. Empty for years, the house sat lonely at the end of the road, slumped over in defeat. Interpretation of examples 1. MOUNTAIN = PERSON the mountain is being described as waiting, mocking, and beckoning, as if it is a person who is challenging the climbers. Since a mountain cannot do these actions, it helps the reader see the mountain as somehow drawing the climbers toward it. 2. HOUSE = PERSON the house is lonely and slumped over in defeat. Since a house cannot have feelings, it helps the reader see the house as quiet and perhaps starting to fall down.
IMAGERY Vivid descriptions which stimulate one of the five senses: sight, hearing, sensation, taste, or smell. ADJECTIVES which are vivid; similes or metaphors which use sensory descriptions. By describing a NOUN with vivid language that stimulates a sense, the reader can picture in the idea more effectively. A judgment or identification: saying I see a dog is not imagery; saying that smells horrible is not imagery. Imagery must include figurative language OR vivid and well articulated description. Imagery is not simply a statement of a sensory VERB or the identification of a NOUN. 1. The scent of pine trees and campfire smoke hung around us for days after we returned home. 2. Across the sky the sunset painted vivid and luminescent oranges and purples which chased the sun away. 3. After I crashed my skateboard, my skin burned from the sun-heated and gritty pavement. 1. SENSE OF SMELL: The distinctive smells of a pine forest and campfire smoke appeal to a reader s smell sense memory. 2. SENSE OF SIGHT: The colors of the sunset appeal to a reader s sight sense memory. 3. SENSE OF TOUCH: The description of burned skin from hot pavement, and the idea of a gritty surface appeal to a reader s touch sense memory.
MOOD The atmosphere or feeling evoked by the word choice. Words which evoke a sense of a scene being implied, even if the content is not describing a place. This is easy to confuse with TONE. Through vivid word choice, the writer creates an atmosphere, such as spooky or joyful. The MOOD is not a judgment about an idea, whereas TONE is often a judgment. Example During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was --but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment, with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible. I looked upon the scene before me --upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain --upon the bleak walls --upon the vacant eye-like windows --upon a few rank sedges --and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees --with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveler upon opium --the bitter lapse into everyday life --the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart --an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime. What was it --I paused to think --what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher? (from The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe) Interpretation of example above Consider these word and phrase choices that Poe made in this excerpt above: dull, dark, soundless, autumn, clouds hung oppressively low, alone, singularly dreary, shades of the evening, melancholy, insufferable gloom, desolate, terrible, bleak walls, vacant eye-like windows, decayed, utter depression of soul, bitter, hideous, iciness, sinking, sickening, torture, unnerved All these words are distinctly negative, ominous, almost evil sounding. This creates a specific mood or atmosphere for this story, which ends up being about a haunted house. The author isn t taking on an attitude, but these words help create the setting and feel of the story.
The attitude or personality implied by the word choice. TONE What emotion is being projected by the word choice? Is the writer sarcastic? Reflective? Angry? Tone is sometimes hard to distinguish from MOOD. Through individual word choices, the tone is communicated. Consider the difference between saying a class is long versus a class is intolerable. Consider the difference between saying a movie was interesting versus mesmerizing. The TONE is often a judgment about something, whereas MOOD is not. How YOU as reader feel about the subject. Example Lucinda Matlock --Edgar Lee Masters I went to the dances at Chandlerville, And played snap-out at Winchester. One time we changed partners, Driving home in the midnight of middle June, And then I found Davis. We were married and lived together for seventy years, Enjoying, working, raising the twelve children, Eight of whom we lost Ere I had reached the age of sixty. I spun, I wove, I kept the house, I nursed the sick, I made the garden, and for holiday Rambled over the fields where sang the larks, And by Spoon River gathering many a shell, And many a flower and medicinal weed-- Shouting to the wooded hills, singing to the green valleys. At ninety-six I had lived enough, that is all, And passed to a sweet repose. What is this I hear of sorrow and weariness, Anger, discontent and drooping hopes? Degenerate sons and daughters, Life is too strong for you-- It takes life to love life. Interpretation of Example This poem is about an old woman at the end of her life, looking back. One might think that the tone or attitude will be sadness, but it isn t. There are various examples of clear attitudes or tones in this poem. Here are just two examples of tone in this poem there are many other good examples in addition to these two: Consider the lines At ninety-six I had lived enough, that is all, / And passed to a sweet repose. The tone here is not sadness, but instead is kind of content with having lived a good life. Her tone is satisfied, and she is accepting of the fact that her life is over and she can die in sweet repose. The tone then changes when she talks to her children who, instead of loving life are anger, weary, and drooping. She calls them degenerate which implies a scolding tone or attitude; she is scolding her children from wasting their lives with anger and sorrow when they should be living life happily.