Figurative and descriptive writing

1. Figurative and descriptive writing AP Lexicon, Seventh Edition The Super LOL Christmas Special

2. Figurative writing

3. Figurative language Definition Example …So he went outside the box. • Writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative and vivid. • Context clues help indicate if you should read something literally or figuratively Though the puppy was excited to be a present, he didn’t want to miss Christmas, Tommy had purchased his mother a scarf every Christmas and knew she was bored of it,

4. Figure of Speech Definition Examples Apostrophe, hyperbole, irony, metaphor, oxymoron, paradox, personification, simile, synecdoche, metonymy, symbol, and understatement. No… He doesn’t mean that literally. He means I’m like Santa, because I make toys… • A device used to produce figurative language. Many compare dissimilar things. My dad’s SANTA!

5. Metaphor That golden harmonica is the holy grail of musical instruments! I want it!!! Definition Effect/Example Makes writing more vivid, imaginative, thought provoking, and meaningful “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning —— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (Fitzgerald). • Speaking of one thing as if it were another • An unlikely comparison between two things • A figure of speech using implied comparison of seemingly unlike things or the substitution of one for the other, suggesting some similarity • Tenor: the subject being explained • Vehicle: what the tenor is compared to

6. Types of metaphors • Descriptive metaphor -speaks of something concrete by referring to something else concrete. • "It was a fine day. The trees swayed like dancers lost in reverie. As they waltzed the afternoon away the breeze continued to wind its mournful tune." • Abstract metaphor - explains an abstract principle by comparing it to something more concrete. • "My cup runneth over." • With God, life becomes like a cup that is full past the brim. • Embedded metaphor - uses a verb or a noun in a non-literal fashion. • "The darkness threw itself upon the land with a sigh of relief." • Darkness cannot really throw itself upon the land-- it only seems to do so. • Suggests that the night is like a lover overwhelmed after a long absence or someone exhausted after a hard day at work.

7. Simile Definition Example “Like a great saw, teeth strung with lights, files of people walked zigzag across our land, tearing the rice” (Kingston 3-4). • A figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike.  • The comparison is made explicit by the use of some such word or phrase as like, as, than, similar to, resembles, appears, or seems. But as he was walking through the mall, the selfish little chipmunk saw a poor, sick bear, playing the golden harmonica as sadly and beautifully as snow falling from the heavens…

8. Conceit Definition Examples “Because I could not stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson Chillingworth as a leech in The Scarlet Letter And so, the greedy chipmunk courageously quested through the shopping mall, and with his plastic credit card of justice, he battled the fire-breathing-bitter-she-was-working-Christmas-Eve cashier, until he had the holy grail in hand. Then, like a true knight, he awarded his prize to the most deserving: the poor, sick bear who played as beautifully and sadly as snow falling from the heavens. • A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects. • A conceit displays intellectual cleverness as a result of the unusual comparison being made. • Extended Metaphor: a metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work.

9. Personification Definition Example Super LOL! Greedy chipmunks Excited foxes Musical, but poor bears "The road isn't built that can make it breathe hard!“ – Chevrolet ad Wordsworth describes daffodils “Tossing their heads in sprightly dance” • A figure of speech in which the author presents or describes concepts, animals, or inanimate objects by endowing them with human attributes or emotions. • Personification is used to make these abstractions, animals, or objects appear more vivid to the reader.

10. Metonymy Definition Examples A news release that claims “the White House declared” rather than “the President declared” “Doublet and hose ought to show itself courageous to petticoat” (Shakespeare, As You Like It) • From the Greek meaning “changed label” or “substitute name” • A figure of speech in which the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it. • The substituted term generally carries a more potent emotional impact. Of all the suits at the bank, the pig was the greediest and meanest!

11. Will you lend a hand? Synecdoche NO! Definition Example "One does not live by bread alone." Bread is representative of all categories of food. Shakespeare uses synecdoche when he says that the cuckoo’s song is unpleasing  to a “married ear,” for he really means a married man. • A figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent the whole or, occasionally, the whole is used to represent a part. Synecdoche - part equals whole. Metonymy - thing equals concept.

12. Symbol Definition Example The rose growing outside the prison in The Scarlet Letter symbolized… • Anything that represents itself and stands for something else. • Usually a symbol is something concrete -- such as an object, action, character, or scene – that represents something more abstract. These chains represent my sins on earth…

13. Types of Symbols • natural symbols - objects and occurrences from nature to symbolize ideas commonly associated with them • dawn symbolizing hope or a new beginning, a rose symbolizing love, a tree symbolizing knowledge • conventional symbols - those that have been invested with meaning by a group • religious symbols such as a cross or Star of David; national symbols, such as a flag or an eagle; or group symbols, such as a skull and crossbones for pirates or the scale of justice for lawyers • literary symbols - sometimes also conventional in the sense that they are found in a variety of works and are more generally recognized. • The woods in The Scarlet Letter and Huckleberry Finn

14. Descriptive Language

15. Lots of stuff happens! I wish I were never born. Analogy Definition Example “Pupils are more like oysters than sausages. The job of teaching is not to stuff them and then seal them up, but to help them open and reveal the riches within. There are pearls in each of us, if only we knew how to cultivate them with ardor and persistence.” - Sydney J. Harris • An analogy can explain something unfamiliar by associating it with or pointing out its similarity to something more familiar. • Rather than a figure of speech, an analogy is more of a logical argument. • The presenter of an analogy will often demonstrate how two things are alike by pointing out shared characteristics, with the goal of showing that if two things are similar in some ways, they are similar in other ways as well. I love my life and family and Christmas! Yay!

16. Caricature Definition Example “Oh!  But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind- stone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner!  Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.  The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice.  A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin.  He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dogdays; and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas.” • A verbal description, the purpose of which is to exaggerate or distort, for comic effect, a person’s distinctive physical features or other characteristics. If the U.S. Post office will send this ape Santa’s mail, we must admit that he is Santa Claus!

17. Imagery Definition Example “…and all at once he could see lights, and he recognized them now. Her knew they were shining through the windows of rooms, that they were the red, blue, and yellow lights that twinkled from trees in places where families created and kept memories, where they celebrated love” (Lois Lowry). • The sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent abstractions. • Relate to the five senses: visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory. • An image can represent more than one thing. • A rose may present visual imagery while also representing the color in a woman’s cheeks and/or symbolizing some degree of perfection. • Often combined with figurative devices • Term can apply to the total of all the images in a work. • Pay attention to how an author creates imagery and to the effect of this imagery.

18. Synesthesia Definition Example Red Hot Chili Peppers’ song title “Taste the Pain” “blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz…” (Emily Dickinson) • When one kind of sensory stimulus evokes the subjective experience of another. • Looking at spiders makes you itchy. • In literature, synesthesia refers to the practice of associating two or more different senses in the same image. Can taste the visions of sugarplums dancing in its head.