Title: What's the Purpose of Figurative Language? | Education - Seattle PI
Headings: What's the Purpose of Figurative Language?
What's the Purpose of Figurative Language?
Tools of the Trade
Abstract Becomes Absolute
Figurative or Fallacy?
A Familiar Image

Content: Writers of prose and poetry use figurative language to elicit emotion, help readers form mental images and draw readers into the work. Tools of the Trade
Figurative language takes many different forms in linguistics and literature. A simile is a comparison of two things using the words "like" or "as." A metaphor is a more direct comparison of two things. In "The Great Gatsby," author F. Scott Fitzgerald could have used a simile such as, "When she spoke it sounded like gold coins clinking together," to describe the seeming promise of riches in the character Daisy's voice. Instead he used a metaphor: " Her voice was full of money." Personification imparts animate qualities to an inanimate object, as in the phrase, "the laughing brook." Periphrasis uses a descriptive phrase in place of a simple noun. An example would be the phrase, "the heavy blanket of winter," which substitutes "heavy blanket" for snow.