Figurative Language Key Terms and Vocabulary Objectives By

Figurative Language Key Terms and Vocabulary

Objectives • By the time you finish taking notes on this presentation, you should understand the definitions of the following terms and be able to identify examples of each. Some of these terms will likely be review and others will be new to you. • • • Metaphor (extended metaphor) Symbol Personification Imagery Synecdoche and metonymy Apostrophe These are likely newer terms to you!

Metaphor • • A figure of speech in which one thing is equated with another. The purpose of a metaphor is to use the qualities of one thing to emphasize the qualities of another • Here are some very basic examples of metaphor: His eyes were burning coals. • • With this metaphor, you emphasize the intensity of the eyes by comparing them to burning coals. In the morning, the lake was liquid gold. • • With this metaphor, you subtly emphasize the effect the rising sun has on the water in the lake.

Metaphor • Here is a more advanced example of a metaphor, from William Shakespeare’s Macbeth: “Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. ” MACBETH Scene V • There actually three metaphors in this excerpt. Can you identify all three of them?

Metaphor • All three metaphors in that quote use “life” as the point of comparison. The three things that Macbeth compares “life” to are: • “a walking shadow” • “a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage” • “a tale told by an idiot” • By comparing “life” to three things that seem somewhat insignificant, trivial, or insubstantial, Macbeth is able to reflect on what he feels is the meaninglessness of his life.

Extended Metaphor • One important variation on the concept of “metaphor” is that of the “extended metaphor. ” • An extended metaphor is when an author introduces a metaphorical concept at the beginning of a work and then further develops that metaphor throughout the whole work. • You usually won’t see an extended metaphor stated as explicitly as the ones we looked at earlier.

Extended Metaphor Example Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. In “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, he uses the extended metaphor of ‘roads’ to represent the idea of the choices we make in our lives. Throughout the poem, he uses the roads to represent the difference between making the easy choice and making the more difficult one.

Symbol • A person, place, or thing in a work of literature that stands as what it literally is but ALSO stands for something more than itself. • This is different from a metaphor, because in a metaphor, the comparison is not usually literal. In the earlier examples, the person’s eyes were not literally burning coals and the lake was not literally made out of gold. • In a symbol, the object in question does exist in a literal sense, but it also represents a larger idea or concept.

Symbol • Many famous examples of symbolism in literature can be found in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. • One of these symbols is the billboard depicting the eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg that looms over the valley of ashes. • There is literally a billboard in the setting that depicts these eyes, but it’s not JUST a billboard. • The billboard represents other ideas as well. • For example, it could be seen as a symbol for the importance placed on consumerism in Modern America at the expense of God.

Personification • A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human qualities, or treated as though it is a human. • The last point is also sometimes called “anthropomorphism” • Why do poets and authors do this? • One major reason is that humans pretty much think of themselves as the most important thing in the entire world. • So, by giving something human qualities, you are emphasizing its importance!

Personification • One example of personification can be found in William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury: • “There were about a dozen watches in the window, a dozen different hours and each with the same assertive and contradictory assurance that mine had, without any hands at all. Contradicting one another. ” • Because the concept of time is bothering the character, Quentin, a lot, he makes it seem like the watches are intentionally being “assertive and contradictory” – something a watch is not actually capable of having!

Imagery • At its most straightforward, the use of words to create images. • Usually uses the five senses, but most often the sense of sight. • Can work together with other devices such as simile or metaphor to create images.

Metonymy • This is likely a newer concept – but one that’s important for AP Literature! • Metonymy is a figure of speech in which the name of something is replaced with the name of something else with which it is closely associated. • Check the next slide for some examples!

Examples of Metonymy ● England decides to keep check on immigration. ○ “England” actually means “the English government. ” ● The pen is mightier than the sword. ○ “The pen” actually refers to written words and “the sword” actually refers to military force. ● The office was busy in work. ○ The office is a metonymy as it stands for people at work in the office, not the actual physical office. ● Let me give you a hand. ○ Hand means help. He’s not literally giving someone a hand – he’s giving someone some help.

Practice! Explain why: 1. Saying “the suits all came to the meeting” is an example of metonymy. 2. Saying “lend me your ears” is an example of metonymy. (this is a line from “Julius Caesar” by Shakespeare, by the way!)

Answers 1. “The suits” actually refers to higher-up, important people at the meeting. 2. The speaker doesn’t want people to literally give him their ears – but he does want them to listen to him.

Synecdoche is a type of metonymy in which a part of something is used to refer to the whole. (Synecdoche can also be used to have the whole of something represent just a part, but this is fairly uncommon. Worry mostly about the definition above!)

Examples “The western wave was all a-flame. The day was well was nigh done! Almost upon the western wave Rested the broad bright Sun” – The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge In this example, “the western wave” is an example of synecdoche because a smaller part (a wave) is used to represent a larger object (the entire ocean).

Practice! Explain why the author’s use of the word faces in the following quotation is an example of synecdoche. “His eye met hers as she sat there paler and whiter than anyone in the vast ocean of anxious faces about her. ” -Frank R. Stockton The Lady and the Tiger

Answer • Stockton is not only talking about the “faces” around her – he is talking about all of the people. He is using the “face” to represent a whole person.

Apostrophe • The act of addressing an abstraction or personification that is not physically present. • For example, John Donne once wrote, “Oh, Death, be not proud” and King Lear says, “Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted fiend” • Obviously, death is not an actual person and ingratitude is an abstract concept. Neither thing really cares what Donne and Lear think, but they address it anyway and it does create a rhetorical effect.

Apostrophe • Another example of apostrophe: Collins is directing his poem at some unknown person from the future (so, an abstract concept, not an actual person). "O stranger of the future! O inconceivable being! whatever the shape of your house, however you scoot from place to place, no matter how strange and colorless the clothes you may wear, I bet nobody likes a wet dog either. I bet everyone in your pub, even the children, pushes her away. " (Billy Collins, "To a Stranger Born in Some Distant Country Hundreds of Years from Now")