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Literary Analysis: Analyze Figurative Language: Simile and Metaphor
Academic Vocabulary

  • • analyze (a-nu-līz) verb When you analyze something, you study it closely.

What Is Figurative Language? Figurative language is words or phrases that say one thing but mean another. Writers use this language when they want you to think about things in new ways and create pictures in your mind.

Identify Figurative Language Two kinds of figurative language are simile and metaphor. A simile compares two things by using a word such as like or as. A metaphor compares two things by saying that one thing is the other thing. Look at these examples in the passage below.

Our chief said, “We must see if they are true men.” So I took one by the hand and pinched it. The hand felt like flesh and blood, but the skin was moon to my sun.

The stranger made a funny noise with his mouth, not like talking, but like the barking of a yellow dog.

Analyze the meaning of similes and metaphors by asking: What two things are being compared? How are they being compared?

Practice Together

Make a chart to help you analyze the metaphor and simile in the passage.

Comparison Chart
ExampleTwo Things Being ComparedHow They Compare
The skin was moon to my sun.stranger’s skin to narrator’s skinThe stranger’s skin is cool white like the moon. The narrator’s skin is warm yellow like the sun.
The stranger made a noise like the barking of a yellow dog.

Try It!

Analyze Figurative Language Make a chart like the one above to analyze this figurative language:

  • 1. My dream birds were three great-sailed canoes floating in the bay.

  • 2. Three great-winged birds with voices like thunder rode wild waves in our bay.

  • 3. I watched their chief smile. It was the serpent’s smile—no lips and all teeth.