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Life Is Fine Figurative Language Essay

558 Words3 Pages

Justin Chalissery
Ms. Camarda
ENG 207
12 October 2017
Death is Not the Only Answer to Reality
“Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!”(27). When people think of wine, they think of something valuable, precious, and something to be taken care of. The relation of wine to life is cleverly used to translate into the theme of the poem being that life is valuable and shouldn’t be thrown away. Throughout the poem, the persona attempts to end his life on multiple occasions because of heartache in life. In the poem “Life is Fine” by Langston Hughes, diction, figurative language, and poem structure to emphasize that death is not the only answer to reality.

The author employs colloquial diction to provide a relatable experience of overcoming heartache. The diction that Hughes utilized provided a comfortable and engaging read for the audience to experience such as “gonna”(25). This informal diction provides an experience that readers can relate to as it is everyday language. Colloquial diction is also used in the second stanza to shorten common phrases, for example, “If that water hadn't a-been so cold”(7). Hughes recognizes these common phrases adjusted and generalized by people and incorporates them …show more content…

Similes are used in the last line of the poem which creates the general theme of the poem: “Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!”(27). In this simile, life is compared to wine and the value of it. Wine is considered valuable and precious and the author relates how fine life and wine are. Personification is utilized in the first two refrains to indicate what stops the speaker from committing suicide: “Cold”, “High”(9,18). Both refrains describe the failure in the speaker ending his life and the words “Cold” and “High” are capitalized. Hughes personifies these words in refrains using the structure of them poem to describe the speaker’s

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