Figurative language

1
Figurative language

• What is figurative language?
• By Mrs. Ferrell
• Mitchell Elementary

2
Figurative language

• Figurative language uses "figures of speech" - a
  way of saying something other than the literal
  meaning of the words.
• Literal meaning is what something actually says
  that it is.
• Figurative meaning is what something represents.

3
Idioms In the sentence,Its raining cats and
dogs,

• The literal meaning is
• Cats and dogs are falling from the sky.
• The figurative meaning is
• It is raining a lot.

4
Similes In the sentenceLife is like a box of
chocolatesyou never know what youll get next.

• The literal meaning is
• Life is really a box of chocolate candy.
• The figurative meaning is
• Life is uncertain because you do not know what
  will happen next.

5
Metaphors In the sentenceThat car is a bullet.

• The literal meaning is
• The automobile is some type of slug.
• The figurative meaning is
• The automobile is
• incredibly fast.

6
There are several types of figurative language.

• Metaphors
• Similes
• Hyperboles
• Personification

7
Metaphors

• A metaphor is a comparison.
• Comparisons associate two things that are usually
  unalike. They evaluate how they are alike.
• Metaphors compare two things that are usually not
  compared.

8
Metaphors compare two things.

• From Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, she writes,
• When you go owling you dont
• need words or warm or anything
• but hope. Thats what Pa says.
• The kind of hope that flies on
• silent wings under a shining Owl Moon.
• What two things are being compared in the
  metaphor?
• They are hope and flying with silent wins under
  an Owl Moon. How are they alike?
• Hope lifts your spirits, and flying lifts things
• in the air.

9
What two things are being compared?

• From White Snow Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt, he
  writes,
• Even the church steeple wore
• a pointed cap on its top.
• They are the church steeple
• and white pointed cap.
• How are they alike?
• They are both triangles
• pointing up.

10
What are the metaphors, and what do they mean?

• My love is a red, red rose.
• Happiness is a cheese pizza.
• - All the world's a stage,
• And all the men and women
• merely players
• They have their exits and their entrances
  (William Shakespeare, As You Like It, 2/7)

11
Similes

• A simile is a metaphor using the words like , as,
  than, seems, or as if.
• Most similes use like or as.
• They compare two things that are essentially
  unalike.
• Shes as busy as a bee,
• is a familiar simile. What
• does it mean?

12
More Similes

• Faith Ringgold writes in Tar Beach, Daddy said
  that the George Washington Bridge is the longest
  and most beautiful bridge in the world . . . I
  can wear it like a giant diamond necklace, or
  just fly above it and marvel at its sparkling
  beauty.
• What two things are being compared in the simile?
  How are they alike?

13
I could wear (the bridge) like a diamond
necklace.
14

• Poor as a church mouse. When people are talking
• strong as an ox, you know what theyll say
• cute as a button, as soon as they start
• smart as a fox. To use a cliché.
• thin as a toothpick,
• white as a ghost,
• fit as a fiddle,
• dumb as a post.
• bald as an eagle,
• neat as a pin,
• proud as a peacock,
• ugly as sin.

Pick a simile, and tell me what it means.
15
Hyperboles

• Hyperboles are bold, deliberate overstatements
  not intended to be taken literally. They are
  used as a means of emphasizing the truth of a
  statement.

16
From Robert Frosts poem After Apple Picking

• Of apple-picking I am overtiredOf the great
  harvest I myself desired.There were ten thousand
  fruit to touch,Cherish in hand, lift down, and
  not let fall.For all . . .
• What is over-exaggerated?

17
From Robert Frosts poem Stopping By the Woods
on a Snowy Evening

• Whose woods these are I think I know. His house
  is in the village thoughHe will not see me
  stopping hereTo watch his woods fill up with
  snow.
• Can the woods really
• fill up with snow?
• What does he mean?

18
Personification

• Personification is a comparison in which distinct
  human qualities like honesty, emotion, beauty,
  agility, etc., are attributed to animals, plants,
  or things.
•  

19
The Mirror by Slyvia Path

• I am silver and exact.I have no
  preconceptions.Whatever I see I swallow
  immediatelyJust as it is, unmisted by love or
  dislike.I am not cruel, only truthful
• How is the mirror personified?

20
Remember The Little Engine That Could?

• How was the train given human qualities?
• It showed persistence. It never gave up when
  trying
• to get up the hill.

21
Remember The Gingerbread Boy?

• He used problem solving skills by running away
  from the people
• who wanted to eat him.

22
Which statements show personification?

• Walking desks took over the school.
• We listen to the wind.
• The dog stares carefully at the visitor.
• My hamster loves food.
• The flowers dance in the wind.
• Fall leaves skipped down the sidewalk.
• My dog read my mind.
• His brother smiles at the sunshine.
• The wind whispers its secrets through the trees.

23
Dreams by Langston Hughes

• Hold fast to dreams
• For if dreams die
• Life is a broken-winged bird
• That cannot fly
• Hold fast to dreams
• For when dreams go
• Life is a barren field
• Frozen with snow.
• What is personified? Explain.

24
A symbol is one thing that stands for another.

• The U.S. flag is a
• symbol of our country.
• We know what it
• stands for when
• we see it.

25
More common symbols

• What do they mean?

26
Nothing Gold Can Stayby Robert Frost

• Nature's first green is gold,
• Her hardest hue to hold.
• Her early leaf's a flower
• But only so an hour.
• Then leaf subsides to leaf.
• So Eden sank to grief,
• So dawn goes down to day.
• Nothing gold can stay.

What does gold symbolize?
27
Works Cited

• Frost, Robert. 2006. Accessed 3 Noember 2006.
  lthttp//www.coldbacon.com/poems/frost.htmlgt.
• Lansky, Bruce. 2000. If Pigs Could Fly . . . And
  Other Deep Thoughts. Minnetonka, Minnesota
  Meadowbrook Press.
• Ringgold, Faith. 1991. Tar Beach. New York Crown
  Publisher, Inc.
• Shakespeare, William. 1939. As You Like It.
  Boston Ginn and Co.
• Teesselt, Alvin. 1988. White Snow, Bright Snow.
  New York Mulberry Books.
• Yolen, Jane. 1987. Owl Moon. New York Philomel
  Books.