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Significance of figurative language in literary writing
Figurative language for essays
The Importance Of Figurative Language
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In “First Rain” Billie Jo experiences the first rain in the Dust Bowl after a long time, as explained by the title. This poem includes sound devices such as hyperboles, metaphors, and similes to enhance the reader. The hyperbole, “Monday morning downs,/cloaked in mist.” exaggerates the description of the Monday morning, so that the reader will thoroughly understand the author’s thoughts. Another figurative language example would be when Billie Jo describes the sound of rain: “a concert of rain note,/spilling from gutters.”, the sound of rain is directly compared to a piano concert. This gives the reader a chance to imagine the rain slowly falling as if it were a concert. A comparison is made with an example of a simile, “I hear the first drops./Like
the tapping of a stranger/ at the door of a dream.”, here Billie Jo feels joy for the rain falling, expressing it by showing the relationship, in her mind, between the sound of rain and the tapping of a stranger. All of the figurative language & sound devices in the poem, “First Rain” help Karen Hesse describe the theme of the poem that, even through difficult times people should never lose hope and will eventually be rewarded for their hard work.
The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez and A Band-Aid for 800 Children by Eli Saslow both depict the subject of taking risks. The authors of these two texts use some similar techniques to portray the subject, but they also use some different techniques.
Life can sometime bring unwanted events that individuals might not be willing to face it. This was the conflict of O’Brien in the story, “On The Rainy River”. As the author and the character O’Brien describes his experiences about the draft to the Vietnam War. He face the conflict of whether he must or must not go to the war, in this moment O’Brien thinking that he is so good for war, and that he should not be lost in that way. He also show that he disagree with the consbet of the war, how killing people will benefit the country. In addition O’Brien was terrifying of the idea of leaving his family, friends, and everything that he has done in the past years.
Rawlings was given a Pulitzer Prize for The Yearling is her splendid use of figurative language. An infinite amount of similes, metaphors, and personification examples are present. On page 7, for instance, Rawlings wrote, “He lay absorbing the fine-dropped rain like a young plant”. This simile is especially strong due to its comparison with an aspect of nature, which the setting revolves around. Metaphors are also used throughout, including on page 225- “The rain was a solid wall, from sky to earth.” This metaphor gives the word “wall” a weather-related connotation that it normally would not have out of context. Moreover, on page 225, personification is also used. In regards to the wind, Rawlings wrote, “It reached down his shirt and into his mouth and eyes and ears and tried to strangle him.” Personifying the weather’s actions is a very powerful way to describe the treacherous conditions. Also found in this quote is a polysyndeton that enumerates the list of places the wind reached using excessive conjunctions. Marjorie K. Rawlings’ use of figurative language undoubtedly contributed to her Pulitzer Prize
Throughout the entire chapter, Morrison uses the rain as irony to depict the nature of loss and renewal through Paul ‘s experiences while in Alfred Georgia. At Sweet Home, Paul D
The use of symbols sets the tone of the piece. She personifies the rain in, “But the rain/ Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh/ Upon the glass and listen for reply.” She makes t...
Poetry conveys emotions and ideas through words and lines. Long Way Down gives the story about a boy named Will, who wants to avenge his brother. He believes that a guy named Riggs killed his brother. He takes his brother’s gun and leaves his family’s apartment on the eighth floor. On the way down the elevator, he is stopped at each floor and a ghost from his past gets on.
The rain used in the beginning of the story symbolizes sadness. The drunk man thought Andy was drunk laying in the alley. But Andy was really stabbed. "The boy laying in the rain bleeding. He was 16 years old," (1). The rain symbolizes sadness, and it is sad when the drunk man is too drunk to help Andy. If the drunk man wasn't drunk and would've helped Andy it would've prevented murder. The sidewalk is a
One example of this, from many, is Gatsby and Daisy’s reunion, for which it begins pouring with rain showing the awkward gloomy time they started to have but as their love starts to blossom again the sun begins to come out. On the hottest day of summer the weather foreshadows Tom and Gatsby’s showdown and Daisy’s reaction. The weather symbolises the atmosphere between the characters.
The Rainy River is a watercourse between Minnesota and Canada which tested O’Brien’s bravery to either enlist in or flee the Vietnam War. O’Brien states that the “The Rainy River… separated one life from another.” He also states that, “...Canadian waters, across... dotted line between two different worlds.” When he was in the river, he sees “hallucination” of his family and friends which reminded him of “ the embarrassment” he felt for running away. The Rainy River symbolized the rebirth of O’Brien into a new world. He also uses symbolism to portray the old man like a god. Tim O’Brien states that Elroy Berdahl “saved his life”. Tim was lost emotionally when he arrived at Canada. Elroy guided him and “offered exactly what(he) needed”. “He was there at a critical time.” Elroy knew O’Brien situation and wanted to help him make the right choice. On the 7th day, Elroy “guided(him) across the river” and “...must’ve planned it.” That day, the necessity of making a choice once and for all becomes clear to O’Brien.
On the other hand, poor weather in the novel was used to foreshadow negative events or moods. In the opening of the novel, when Jane was living in Gateshead, she was reading while an unpleasant visit of John Reed was foreshadowed: “After it offered a pale blank of mist and cloud: hear, a scene of wet lawn and storm-beat shrub” (2).
The figurative language that she uses in this poem is assonance and alliteration. In line 10 “shanty-fied shotgun is an example of alliteration (two words with the same constant sound). “ In the first stanza where it talks about her skin tone, “light bright…white” (3-4) is an example of assonance because there’s a rhyme scheme in those
Right after the line, “final uneasiness.” (16) the poem’s intended audience changes. The audience shifts from lovers and their experience with love to a more specific person/intended individual love to him. This is important to understand because it further demonstrates the emotions the speaker has. After the shift, the speaker says “Love, if you love me,/….Be for me, like rain,” (17-19). In this he is demanding that if someone wants to love him or be with him they need to be like rain. The image of rain falling outside is something simple and beautiful. Rain, to some people can be a calming sensation to feel on their cheeks. It is interesting how rain is used in a positive light to describe love because rain is not something one would typically assimilate to love. Rain is beautiful, like love, but to compare the two to illustrate a meaning is thought-provoking. Why would the speaker use rain to describe love? Possibly because it is beautiful like love and has characteristics one may desire in love? This may be true, but conversely it can be assumed that love is difficult to comprehend and that through the use of something out of the ordinary maybe some understanding of the abstract emotion can be facilitated. At the end of the poem the speaker leaves his intended audience with the final phrase of “Be wet/ with a decent happiness.” (23-24). This final phrase is significant because it tells the audience and those who desire
...o be correct. Hemingway uses rain as a sign of death, sadness or to give one of his characters the state of being afraid. The despair brought by rain, Frederic says „ good-bye to [Catherine], and then „[leaves] the hospital and walk[s] back to the hotel in the rain". The rain described as he walks home represents again a cleansing in which Tenente will be forced to start a whole new life now.
Although the title of the poem gives a positive feeling, the opening line Cloudburst and steady downpour now for days" gives the effect of a monotonous image and depressing persistance. He begins to sense weather by his skin" portrays nature and the sense of a survivor. The animal-like image continues for the rest of the first section and the rest of the second section. movement of that animal continues as the animal goes "uprooting" which gives the sense of nature being destructive. Heaney may have included this deliberately to show that nature is not as angelic as people may think.
The constant appearance of rain allows for sadness to be foreshadowed; the opposite can be inferred where there is more of a relief than sadness. The book says in the weather “…came the permanent rain and with the rain came the cholera” (Hemingway, 4). When the rain pours in the beginning of the book, it started to describe the scenery. The rain was signifies rain as death and as a tragedy for thousands of death soldiers follow along the cholera that comes with the rain. Usually when it rains in a novel or in a movie, the plot turns negative. Rain serves as a potent symbol of inevitable disintegration of happiness in life. Before Hemingway describes the rain, he says that “the leaves” on the trees “fell early that year” and this is not an example of rain, but it shows that not only does rain foreshadow sadness, but nature itself does. The nature aspect of this was that the leaves symbolize the soldiers and since they are falling early that year that means that they are dying as a young man. The death of them are sometimes forgotten with the permanent rain that falls o...