Authors use figurative language when they choose words or phrases that are not meant to be taken literally, just as you do when you say something like “I’m so hungry that I could eat a horse.” You are not literally going to eat a horse, but you are using figurative language (hyperbole, in this case) to communicate just how hungry you are. Some of the most common elements of figurative language are
metaphor: a direct comparison between unlike things, without the word “like” or “as”
simile: a comparison between unlike things using “like” or “as”
hyperbole: a deliberate exaggeration or overstatement (often for the sake of humor)
personification: giving human qualities to inanimate objects
allusion: a reference to something well known—