All 25 Uses of
metaphor
in
How to Read Literature Like a Professor
- We ask, Is this a metaphor?†
Chpt Intr. *metaphor = a figure of speech in which a similarity between two things is highlighted
- That same punch in the nose may be a metaphor.†
Chpt 11
- That act is personal and literal, but it is also a powerful metaphor of the horrors of slavery and the outcomes when people's capacity for self-determination is stripped away utterly.†
Chpt 11
- The latter parts of the novel are filled with images of birds, feathers, and flying, all of which, while not referring to literal flight, evoke thoughts of metaphorical flight, of escape.†
Chpt 15
- You can opt for the soft-core approach, describing parts and movements in a haze of breathy metaphors and heroic adverbs: he achingly stroked her quivering skiff as it rode the waves of her desire, etc. This second sort is hard to write without seeming (a) quaint, (b) squeamish, (c) hugely embarrassed, (d) inept.†
Chpt 17metaphors = figures of speech in which a similarity between two things is highlighted
- There are a lot of scenes that jump from the first button being undone to a postcoital cigarette (metaphorically, that is) or that cut from the unbuttoning to another scene entirely.†
Chpt 17
- What Lawrence does, really, is employ geography as a metaphor for the psyche—when his characters go south, they are really digging deep into their subconscious, delving into that region of darkest fears and desires.†
Chpt 19metaphor = a figure of speech in which a similarity between two things is highlighted
- Now to the nuts and bolts: Shakespeare didn't invent this metaphor.†
Chpt 20
- First, the obvious but nonetheless necessary observation: in real life, when people have any physical mark or imperfection, it means nothing thematically, metaphorically, or spiritually.†
Chpt 21
- Sameness doesn't present us with metaphorical possibilities, whereas difference—from the average, the typical, the expected—is always rich with possibility.†
Chpt 21
- In literature there is no better, no more lyrical, no more perfectly metaphorical illness than heart disease.†
Chpt 23
- In real life, heart disease is none of the above; it's frightening, sudden, shattering, exhausting, but not lyrical or metaphorical.†
Chpt 23
- The writer can use heart ailments as a kind of shorthand for the character, which is probably what happens most often, or he can use it as a social metaphor.†
Chpt 23metaphor = a figure of speech in which a similarity between two things is highlighted
- It should have strong symbolic or metaphorical possibilities.†
Chpt 24
- If there's a metaphor connected with smallpox, I don't want to know about it.†
Chpt 24metaphor = a figure of speech in which a similarity between two things is highlighted
- In her study Illness as Metaphor (1977), Susan Sontag brilliantly discusses the reasons for the disease's popularity as a subject and the metaphorical uses to which it was put.†
Chpt 24
- In her study Illness as Metaphor (1977), Susan Sontag brilliantly discusses the reasons for the disease's popularity as a subject and the metaphorical uses to which it was put.†
Chpt 24
- His choice, while no doubt carrying a strong element of verisimilitude, also very likely houses symbolic or metaphorical intentions.†
Chpt 24
- This fourth consideration—the metaphorical possibilities a disease offers—generally overrides all others: a sufficientlycompelling metaphor can induce an author to bring an otherwise objectionable illness into a work.†
Chpt 24
- This fourth consideration—the metaphorical possibilities a disease offers—generally overrides all others: a sufficientlycompelling metaphor can induce an author to bring an otherwise objectionable illness into a work.†
Chpt 24metaphor = a figure of speech in which a similarity between two things is highlighted
- Malaria works great, metaphorically: it translates as "bad air."†
Chpt 24
- James is a literary realist, hardly the most flamboyantly symbolic of writers, but when he can kill off a character in a highly lifelike way while employing an apt metaphor for her demise, he doesn't hesitate.†
Chpt 24metaphor = a figure of speech in which a similarity between two things is highlighted
- AIDS is the mother lode of symbol and metaphor.†
Chpt 24
- The way it has visited itself disproportionately on young people, hit the gay community so hard, devastated so many people in the developing world, been a scourge in artistic circles—the tragedy and despair, but also the courage and resilience and compassion (or their lack) have provided metaphor, theme, and symbol as well as plot and situation for our writers.†
Chpt 24
- Birds and Flight Mansfield uses the metaphor of birds and flight as a strategy to show how the Sheridan insulate themselves from the lower classes.†
Chpt 27
Definition:
a figure of speech in which a similarity between two things is highlighted by using a word to refer to something that it does not literally denote -- as when Shakespeare wrote, "All the world’s a stage"
When Shakespeare wrote, "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players." he was not saying the world is really a stage and all people are actors. But he was pointing to the similarities he wants us to recognize.
When Shakespeare wrote, "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players." he was not saying the world is really a stage and all people are actors. But he was pointing to the similarities he wants us to recognize.
While metaphors and similes are both techniques of figurative language. The distinction is that a simile explicitly shows that a comparison is being made, by using words such as "like" or "as". A metaphor simply substitutes words assuming the reader will understand the meaning should not be take literally. "She is like a diamond in the rough" is a simile; while "She is a diamond in the rough" is a metaphor.