| METAPHOR AND MEMORABLE
By Billie A Williams © 2006 “Metaphor is a way of thinking which imaginatively transfers qualities of one thing to something else, to which they are not literally applicable. It was once memorably and metaphorically described as a tool left behind by God in the race of beings,--humanity—which He had created, as a form of expression that transcends basic description, it is one of the great conduits of wisdom. The wise value metaphor as a fisherman values his nets.” David Ross, Pearls of Wisdom. Usually in writing simile and metaphor are linked when it comes to description I suspect to differentiate between the two as comparisons are easier than separate elaboration. A Simile is a figure of speech in which two dissimilar things are compared to each other, generally using either the word like or the phrase as…It is generally used to make a strange thing familiar or to re-enforce the writer’s definition –showing instead of telling. Many times similes are great tools used in characterization. For instance: He was about as exciting as a wet washcloth draped over a shower rod. Metaphor on the other hand is a figure of speech that describes the qualities of one object by saying that it is something else, without the use of the words “like” or “as”. Jeff was a wet washcloth draped over a shower rod and didn’t interest Jade at all According to The Fiction Dictionary, by Laurie Henry, “Metaphors and similes, like other figures of speech, tend to bring the reader out of total involvement with the text and make them concentrate more on surface features of the writing—which is sometimes desirable and sometimes not.” The advice then is to use them sparingly because, while they can liven your writing a bit, they may be stopping the reader in your story to admire a phrase. There is always the chance that he will be pulled out of the story enough that he will set it aside and perhaps never even go back to it. You want to keep your reader engrossed in your story not interrupted by a turn of phrase. Some magnificent writers were able to use metaphor and simile to enhance characterization Such as John Fowles in The French Lieutenant’s Woman or Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. Pick up a copy of each at your local library or bookstore – and read how the masters do it before you clutter your writing with them. Sometimes the result are quite laughable. A case in point is High School grammar lesson gone awry when the teacher asked them to write similes and metaphors. Every year, English teachers from across the country can submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays. These excerpts are published each year to the amusement of teachers across the country. Here are last year's winners..... 1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master. 2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances. Like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free. 3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it. 4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef. 5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up. 6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever. 7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree. 8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine. 9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't. 10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup. |
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