Vivid Description of People and Places: Using Figures of Speech

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 Analyze 
Use the basic features.

Writers often use figures of speech based on comparison to enrich their descriptions. Comparisons make descriptions more evocative by associating characteristics from one thing with those of the thing to which it is being compared. You’re probably familiar with similes and metaphors. Here are two examples from Brandt’s essay:

I felt like Hester Prynne being put on public display for everyone to ridicule. (par. 18)

The shopping center was swarming with frantic last-minute shoppers. (par. 2)

Simile

Metaphor

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In comparing herself to Hester Prynne, a character in a novel, Brandt also uses a kind of comparison called an allusion, an indirect reference to a literary work.

Finally, in the next example, Brandt combines simile with hyperbole, a figure of speech that uses exaggeration:

Next thing I knew, he was talking about calling the police and having me arrested and thrown in jail, as if he had just nabbed a professional thief instead of a terrified kid. (par. 7)

Hyperbole

ANALYZE & WRITE

Write a paragraph or two analyzing Ruprecht’s use of figures of speech in “In Too Deep”:

  1. Reread Ruprecht’s story, looking for places in which he uses simile, metaphor, allusion, hyperbole, or another figure of speech.
  2. Consider the role that figurative language plays in making the description in this selection vivid. What effect does it have on you as a reader? How appropriate is it given the target audience for this selection? (Remember that it was originally published in the New York Times Magazine.)

    Question