One example of figurative language in Laurie Hale Anderson’s book “Speak” is when Melinda decides to rid her garden of all weeds, and does some spring cleaning after it finally stops raining during May. Around the same time, Melinda is realizing that she wants to make some new changes in her life and in this figurative language example, Melinda’s life is her garden. She decides first to rake the leaves “suffocating the bushes” ; Melinda is ridding the demons from herself on the first layer of her skin. She says that she has to “fight the bushes (her problems)” and the bushes don’t like getting cleaned out but it is something one has to do if one makes
In the Shipping News, Proulx uses figurative language to reveal how Quoyle’s differences affect himself. The figurative language in the passage enlightens us to the fast that Quoyle, a very insecure person is unsure of himself and doesn’t fit in. Proulx says Quoyle “stumbled through his twenties and into his thirties learning to separate his feelings from his life, counting on nothing” which unveils a lack of trust in himself and that in many ways is shown through his father as he keeps trying to get Quoyle to succeed. Quoyle’s father is described as pushing Quoyle to be successful, Quoyle’s father as Proulx states, “Again and again the father had broken his clenched grip and thrown him into pools, brooks, lakes, and surf.”
James Maloney’s 1996 novel, A Bridge To Wiseman’s Cove, is a creatively crafted and achingly honest exploration of the transformative power of love that continues to be relevant to young Australians. James Maloney uses the main character Carl to show us some problems that people are facing in their everyday life. James Maloney has creatively crafted this book using figurative language and has wonderfully used a range of other literary devices to explore his characters and themes. His use of imagery, for example, is used frequently throughout the book and is based around water and animals, ‘a black snake ready to pounce…’ (p. 54).
In Timmy Reeds short story, “Birds and Other Things We Placed in Our Hearts,” there is a significant amount of imagery and symbolism through the authors use of style, characterization, and theme. The profound use of symbolism in the authors style of writing greatly captures the use of imagery throughout the story. The beginning sentence of the story reads, “As our chests hollowed out, we filled them with birds” (Reed). This beginning sentence is simply stating that the hearts of humans have withered away, leaving them feeling empty, and to fill that emptiness they filled their cavity with birds.
Most well written and descriptive stories use many disparate tools to make it better. The author of the story The Veldt used figurative language, imagery, and diction to foreshadow the tragic ending of the story. In the end the children use the lions from Africa to slaughter their parents ,and you can kind of guess that the children are planning something evil because of the descriptions and figurative language in the story. The children give off a very negative aura throughout the whole story that leads you to believe that something cynical is occuring.
1. The line “We lived on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear, and government surplus food” is a hyperbole and zeugma. The word that creates the zeugma is the word lived, as the narrator uses the word lived to mean different things in the same context. The narrator actually lived off of paychecks and government food, but did not literally live off of hope and fear like the line suggests. The line is also a hyperbole because the author did not literally live off of the hope and fear, as you cannot sustain yourself with emotions.
The night was cold and desolate like an arctic tundra stretching out for miles with nothing to see on the horizon. That is figurative language, how you can make a piece of text better while still displaying the same scene as, the night was cold and empty. Figurative language can include similes, metaphors, hyperboles, personification, and many more. Figurative language enhances writing by making it more interesting, helps you visualize a scene taking place, and helps you understand what a character is feeling. Figurative language can make writing more interesting as it keeps the reader engaged with the words you add to it.
In Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger appeals to his audience’s sense of emotions in order to persuade his readers that the obsession with high school football negatively affects everyone’s future in Odessa, Texas. Bissinger relies on emotional appeals by employing devices and techniques to present individuals’ personal stories and experiences. His searing portrayal of Odessa, and its Permian High School football team, exposes the side of sports that severely impacts the people living in this society. Bissinger shows the long term consequences of this delusion on the people who are directly and indirectly associated with Permian football. This demonstrate how detrimental the burdens are for the children, which touches the reader’s heart.
Macy Scharpf Chin Honors English 9, Period 4 23 January 2023 Past events can often define the actions someone takes and who they are in the present. If society takes the time to analyze these actions, individuals can figure out the feelings of one another in a certain moment. “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson delineates the thoughts and feelings of a teenage girl, Melinda, as she navigates the highs and lows of high school, while carrying the weight of a past traumatic event. In the passage from the book, “Speak”, author Laurie Halse Anderson uses different types of figurative language such as similes and metaphors, as well as repetition to reveal Melinda’s negative thoughts on her past and current feelings about high school.
The experiences and struggles of Indigenous peoples in Canada have been a recurring theme in many literary works. Rita Joe's "I Lost My Talk" and Basil H. Johnston's "The Prophecy" are two such works that explore the impact of forced assimilation on Indigenous culture and language. Both works demonstrate how the loss of language and culture can have a lasting impact on Indigenous peoples and their identities. While both works share similar themes, they differ greatly in terms of structure and literary devices. In "I Lost My Talk," Joe uses free verse and repetition to convey the confusion and chaos experienced by Indigenous children, while in "The Prophecy," Johnston uses structured prose and dialogue to make his story more engaging and understandable for readers.
Throughout the novel Tuesday’s With Morrie, the author, Mitch Albom, reflects on his Tuesday meetings with his old professor, now consumed with a terminal illness, and, using many rhetorical choices, reveals “The Meaning of Life,” which they discussed profusely and divided into several categories. Topics such as Death, Emotions, Aging, Money, Culture, and more are all discussed in their weekly conferences, Morrie passing his wisdom on to one of his favor students. And Albom, writing about their talks, uses numerous rhetoric devices to discuss this wisdom. As Morrie Schwartz, dying of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), speaks with Albom, the two talk about Death.
3 The story of “A&P” by John Updike adopts the uses of figurative language to embellish the critical moments of transitions of people’s lives, particularly in the life of Sammy. Updike utilizes crafts of plot, character, setting, point of view, theme, and symbol to constitute the story, and to project the idea of "life passages. " Also, Sammy undergoes a series of events that enables him to transition as a person in his life. 3
Every human being is born into this world with one guaranteed fact: that the life they were just given will one day end. Another guaranteed fact is that it will not be easy, and we will face struggles every day. Claude Mckay’s poem, “If We Must Die,” expresses the idea that since we are all going to die one day, we should go down fighting for what we believe is right. Mckay uses figurative language and literary devices to convey the oppression African American’s faced in the early 20th century.
The reader can acknowledge how Singer believes that the primary source of living a meaningful life, is love. Within his novel, the Pursuit of Love, Irving Singer discusses how love is the central definition of what meaning is, as well as further analyzes how love is not a desire to be loved. Nonetheless, Irving Singer would claim that life is not meaningless because humans search for meaning within all aspects of our existence. By solely being alive, individuals find the things that matter to them; therefore, whatever we as individuals believe “matters,” is a prerequisite for our life because it will bring happiness. Irving Singer’s optimistic theories make him an ideal philosopher because he offers an immense amount of insight by discussing how we can add meaning to our lives.
