The use of simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification.

Ernie Watson  
Are metaphor and simile becoming less frequent used in modern writing? It seems to me that they are, but is it merely a trick that my memory plays on my mind? I remember this being a subject at school when I was about twelve years old. Is this subject still taught, or is it considered old fashioned and not worth teaching the modern pupil?

Are metaphor and simile becoming less frequent used in modern writing? It seems to me that they are, but is it merely a trick that my memory plays on my mind? I remember this being a subject at school when I was about twelve years old. Is this subject still taught, or is it considered old fashioned and not worth teaching the modern pupil?

I decided to download this worksheet to test myself.

http://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/language_arts/figlang/fig1.pdf

I thought it may provide an interesting subject for discussion at my writers group so I printed copies off so everyone could test their own ability using it. Try it for yourself and see how much you remember.

I handed a copy of the test which everyone complete and asked how many of us got everything correct. The result was two out of seven experienced writers.

I then asked everyone if they could identify the same figures of speech in the following extracts from popular modern writing that I chose at random:

Station Eleven

This is an award winning science fiction novel by Emily St. John Mandel that was originally published by Harper Collins in September 2014.

THE KING STOOD in a pool of blue light, unmoored. This was act 4 of King Lear, a winter night at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto. Earlier in the evening, three little girls had played a clapping game onstage as the audience entered, childhood versions of Lear’s daughters, and now they’d returned as hallucinations in the mad scene. The king stumbled and reached for them as they flitted here and there in the shadows. His name was Arthur Leander. He was fifty-one years old and there were flowers in his hair.

“Dost thou know me?” the actor playing Gloucester asked.

“I remember thine eyes well enough,” Arthur said, distracted by the child version of Cordelia, and this was when it happened. There was a change in his face, he stumbled, he reached for a column but misjudged the distance and struck it hard with the side of his hand.

“Down from the waist they are Centaurs,” he said, and not only was this the wrong line but the delivery was wheezy, his voice barely audible. He cradled his hand to his chest like a broken bird. The actor portraying Edgar was watching him closely. It was still possible at that moment that Arthur was acting, but in the first row of the orchestra section a man was rising from his seat. He’d been training to be a paramedic. The man’s girlfriend tugged at his sleeve, hissed, “Jeevan! What are you doing?” And Jeevan himself wasn’t sure at first, the rows behind him murmuring for him to sit. An usher was moving toward him. Snow began to fall over the stage.

The Girl on the Train

by Paula Hawkins - Contemporary, Fiction, Literary, Romance, Suspense, Thrillers. Published on 20 September 2016 by the Penguin Publishing Group

There is a pile of clothing on the side of the train tracks. Light-blue cloth—a shirt, perhaps—jumbled up with something dirty white. It’s probably rubbish, part of a load dumped into the scrubby little wood up the bank. It could have been left behind by the engineers who work this part of the track, they’re here often enough. Or it could be something else. My mother used to tell me that I had an overactive imagination; Tom said that, too. I can’t help it, I catch sight of these discarded scraps, a dirty T-shirt or a lonesome shoe, and all I can think of is the other shoe and the feet that fitted into them.

The train jolts and scrapes and screeches back into motion, the little pile of clothes disappears from view and we trundle on towards London, moving at a brisk jogger’s pace. Someone in the seat behind me gives a sigh of helpless irritation; the 8:04 slow train from Ashbury to Euston can test the patience of the most seasoned commuter. The journey is supposed to take fifty-four minutes, but it rarely does: this section of the track is ancient, decrepit, beset with signalling problems and never-ending engineering works.

Barkskins

by Annie Proulx – General literary fiction published by Harper Collins in 2016.

In twilight they passed bloody Tadoussac, Kébec and Trois-Rivières and near dawn moored at a remote riverbank settlement. René Sel, stiff black hair, slanted eyes, yeux bridés—in ancient times invading Huns had been at his people—heard someone say “Wobik.” Mosquitoes covered their hands and necks like fur. A man with yellow eyebrows pointed them at a rain-dark house. Mud, rain, biting insects and the odor of willows made the first impression of New France. The second impression was of dark vast forest, inimical wilderness.

The newcomers, standing in the rain waiting to be called to make their marks in a great ledger, saw the farmers clumped under a sheltering spruce. The farmers stared at them and exchanged comments.

At his turn René made not only an X but the letter R—marred by a spatter of ink from the quill—a letter which he had learned in childhood from the old priest who said it was the beginning of René, his name. But the priest had died of winter starvation before he could teach him the succeeding letters.

We all had difficulty with this, and there were several disagreements. Someone said this was something that a writer does subconsciously because it comes naturally when one writes and therefore does not need to be studied. I don’t know if this is true, surely we should be aware of everything we write. The whole thing has left me with more questions than ever. What’s your opinion?

 

1 Comments

Aventurist

I find it quite easy to write effective similes, but metaphor is the most difficult thing and for me, it’s an enormous mental effort. I really admire JG Ballard and Ma Jian in this respect, they are incredible with metaphor.
I decided today to try writing one for my work in progress. Does it work?
We walk north, passing under the columns of the pier. The smell of marine life lies thick here, and green kelp hangs from the tie rods; mustard gas in the hollows and holes, and green flesh draped in folds on the barbed wire. My mouth opens on its own and I shout, “Ginger!”

Sep-24 2022
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