Use Figures of Speech: Simile, Metaphor and Personification

Simile, Metaphor and Personification
 

Simile

A simile is a comparison between two things using 'as' or 'like'.

For example:

'She was as cool as a cucumber.' The relaxed attitude of the woman is compared to the low temperature of a cucumber.

'He ate like a horse.'

Metaphor

A metaphor makes a comparison between two dissimilar things but doesn't use the words 'as' or 'like'. The greater the difference between the two things being compared, the greater the effectiveness of the metaphor.

The comparison demonstrates that the different things actually have characteristics in common, in the writer's view. A metaphor that is used throughout a piece of text is called an extended metaphor.

For example:

'School is a prison.' In reality, school is not a prison, but in the writer's view, there are similarities.

'My cat is a teddy bear.'

Personification

Personification is used to describe when the writer assigns the characteristics of a person to something that isn't human.

For example:

'The Flu was walking down the corridor and sneezing in our faces.' Flu is an illness. It doesn't have emotions and cannot walk or talk. By using personification as if it were a real being, we have a sense of it spreading freely and mocking its victims.

'The fire roared.'

Now it's over to you.