Figurative Language

Figurative Language = language used by writers to produce images in readers' minds and to express ideas in fresh, vivid, and imaginative ways

• simile:  a comparison of two things using "like" or "as":  Example: "My legs, arms, torso, underarms, and parts of my eyebrows have been stripped of the stuff, leaving me like a plucked bird, ready for roasting."-- From "The Hunger Games", Chapter 5, Pg. 61.
  
• metaphor: a direct comparison of two different things, where one thing is used to refer to another [without using "like" or "as"] to show that they are similar; Example: ""Katniss, the girl who was on fire.""-- From "The Hunger Games", Chapter 5, Pg. 67.
  
• hyperbole:  extreme exaggeration;  Example: "Attendance is mandatory unless you are on death's door."-- From "The Hunger Games", Chapter 1, Pg. 16.
• personification:  giving human characteristics to non-living things; Example: "We have to stand for a few minutes in the doorway of the train while the cameras gobble up our images, then we're allowed inside and the doors close mercifully behind us.  -- From "The Hunger Games", Chapter 3, Pg. 41.
• alliteration:  repetition of initial consonant sounds; Example: "I noticed him, a boy with blond hair peering out from behind his mother's back.-- From "The Hunger Games", Chapter 2, Pg. 30.
• onomatopoeia: the use of words that sound like what they mean, such as "hiss", "plop", "gurgle", "boom";  Example: "R-i-i-i-p! I grit my teeth as Venia, a woman with aqua hair and gold tattoos above her eyebrows, yanks a strip of fabric from my leg, tearing out the hair beneath it."-- From "The Hunger Games", Chapter 5, Pg. 51

examples from http://thehungergames2012.wikispaces.com/Figurative+Language