Simile

Simile

Definition of Simile

Simile is an explicit comparison between two unlike things through the use of connecting words, usually “like” or “as.” The technique of simile is known as a rhetorical analogy, as it is a device used for comparison. The other most popular rhetorical analogy is metaphor, which shares some traits and is often confused with simile. We explain the difference in greater detail below.

Difference Between Simile and Metaphor

As stated above, simile and metaphor are often confused. Though the difference is simple between the definition of simile and that of metaphor, it can be profound. While simile compares two things with the connecting words “like” or “as,” metaphor simply states that one thing is the other. For example, a simile would be, “He was as aggressive as a tiger in that argument,” whereas a metaphor would be, “He was a tiger in that argument.” Metaphors are thus subtler and can be stronger in a rhetorical sense, because they equate the two things in comparison rather than just present them as similar. Similes, however, allow for truly bizarre comparisons that make the reader stretch to understand the connection between them.

Common Examples of Simile

There are many clichéd similes in the English language that we use regularly. Here are some examples:

• Strong as an ox
• Fit as a fiddle
• Bright as the sun
• Sweating like a pig
• White as a sheet
• His heart was as cold as ice
• Sleeping like a log
• Fast as lightning
• Dance like no one is watching

Significance of Simile in Literature

Simile can be an excellent way for an author either to make an unusual thing seem more familiar (i.e., “The planet Zenoth was as cold as ice”) or a familiar thing seem more unique (i.e., “Her smile was jagged like a broken zipper”). In this way, similes can help the reader imagine the fictive world of a piece of literature. Good similes can also make readers think about things in a new way, and can sometimes create a lasting effect. Scottish poet Robert Burns’s declaration that his “luve’s like a red, red rose” forever linked the concepts of love and red roses in our minds.

Simile can also sometimes be used to show a comparison, though with the conclusion that these two things really are unalike or even at odds with each other. This can either be a negative simile, which might come in the form of “A is not like B” (see Example #1 below) or an ironic simile, which communicates the opposite of what is expected at the beginning of the statement. For example, the famous feminist quote popularized by Gloria Steinem, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle,” ultimately concludes that a woman has no need for a man.

Simile can help to make new connections for the reader. One of literature’s purposes is to help better explain the world around us, and the technique of simile is one of those ways in which we are able to see things in a new way. All types of analogies are cognitive processes of transferring meaning from one thing to another, and thus the use of simile in literature has real synaptic effects. For this reason, and for aesthetic purposes, simile has been a popular literary technique for many hundreds of years.

Examples of Simile in Literature

Example

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

(“Sonnet 130” by William Shakespeare)

This excerpt from Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” is an example of a negative simile. Shakespeare goes against the expectation praising his mistress’s beauty and instead says what she is not like. Her lips are not as red as coral, her skin is not pure as snow, and so on. This striking simile example plays with both the tradition of sonnets as well as the usual function of similes.

SIMILES AND METAPHORS COMBINED

Ralph Fletcher has entered the blog again! Years of great writing by Fletcher give added credibility to his book Pyrotechnics on the Page: Playful Craft That Sparks Writing that I mentioned earlier this week. The following excerpt shows some of Fletcher’s creds.

My brother Tom swoops in

like an F5 torado (SIMILE)

and destroys by bedroom.

He’s a human wrecking ball (METAPHOR)

that crashes through my room

leaving trampled toys behind.

From: A Writing Kind of Day: Poems for Young Poets by Ralph Fletcher, p. 12

It’s Your Turn!

1. Try some similes of your own. If you need idea starters, use the ideas below. If not, just get busy creating.

_________________ is smart as ___________________.

_______________ is mean like  __________________.

___________________ is as strong as _________________.

_________________ is fast like  ____________________.

2. Now try some metaphors of your own making!

3. Feel free to click CONNECT and add your creations!

htt http://literarydevices.net/simile/

http://robsanderswrites.blogspot.co.id/2011/03/similes-and-metaphorscomparisons-r-