READ: Figurative Language

Figurative Language

Metaphors

Metaphors are often confused with similes because they are used in similar ways when writing. But where a simile say something is like something else, a metaphor is saying that something is something else. For example:

Simile: The shirt was blue like the ocean.
Metaphor: The blue shirt was a deep sky-blue.

Simile: Love is like a flower blossoming in the Spring.
Metaphor: Love is never having to say you're sorry.

Simile: His chin was like sculpted marble.
Metaphor: He's a computer, only thinking logically.

A metaphor from Lord of the Flies is "For a moment the boys were a closed circuit of sympathy with Piggy outside..." (21)