Using Similes and Metaphors to Enrich Writing (Part 1)

Consider these two sentences from Leonard Gardners novel Fat City: The stooped forms inched in an uneven line, like a wave, across the onion field.Occasionally there was a gust of wind, and he was engulfed by sudden rustling and flickering shadows as a high spiral of onion skins fluttered about him like a swarm of butterflies. Each of these sentences contains a simile: that is, a comparison (usually introduced by like or as) between two things that are generally not alike--such as a line of migrant workers and a wave, or onion skins and a swarm of butterflies. Writers use similes to explain things, to express emotion, and to make their writing more vivid and entertaining. Discovering fresh similes to use in your own writing also means discovering new ways to look at your subjects. Metaphors also offer figurative comparisons, but these are implied rather than introduced by like or as. See if you can identify the implied comparisons in these two sentences: The farm was crouched on a bleak hillside, where its fields, fanged in flints, dropped steeply to the village of Howling a mile away.(Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm) Time rushes toward us with its hospital tray of infinitely varied narcotics, even while it is preparing us for its inevitably fatal operation.(Tennessee Williams, The Rose Tattoo) The first sentence uses the metaphor of a beast crouched and fanged in flints to describe the farm and the fields. In the second sentence, time is compared to a doctor attending a doomed patient. Similes and metaphors are often used in descriptive writing to create vivid sight and sound images, as in these two sentences: Over my head the clouds thicken, then crack and split like a roar of cannonballs tumbling down a marble staircase; their bellies open--too late to run now!--and suddenly the rain comes down.(Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire) The seabirds glide down to the water--stub-winged cargo planes--land awkwardly, taxi with fluttering wings and stamping paddle feet, then dive.(Franklin Russell, A Madness of Nature) The first sentence above contains both a simile (a roar like that of cannonballs) and a metaphor (their bellies open) in its dramatization of a thunderstorm. The second sentence uses the metaphor of stub-winged cargo planes to describe the movements of the seabirds. In both cases, the figurative comparisons offer the reader a fresh and interesting way of looking at the thing being described. As essayist Joseph Addison observed three centuries ago, A noble metaphor, when it is placed to an advantage, casts a kind of glory round it, and darts a luster through a whole sentence  (The Spectator, July 8, 1712).

Macbeths Downfall in Shakespeares Play Essay - 507 Words

Feelings of guilt run through his head. His victim’s blood fills his hands as unlawful proof of his crime. He just knows that he is one step closer to becoming king, after being hypnotized by the witches’ prophecies. Little does he know that this will lead to his downfall. Play writer William Shakespeare shows just how the witches prophecies impact the decisions that Macbeth makes in achieving power in a scene from his famous play Macbeth. With this in mind, Shakespeare suggests that the witches impact the play and its characters in a very destructive way. First of all, the witches are the source of the problem that is the topic for this play. They create chaos by nature and follow their leader, Hecate. They plan Macbeth’s†¦show more content†¦The witches contaminate Macbeth’s mind with prophecies and turn him into a completely different person. . In the same manner, after Macbeth learns that the first prediction comes true now he knows his future is to become king. He learns of this after he has an encounter with the witches. He does not know how he is going to become king but, he soon starts taking it upon himself to pave a path to achieve royalty. This is when the witches’ prophecies start influencing him into committing acts he would not have done before. His first unlawful act is when he murders King Duncan in his sleep. He has a hard time deciding whether to kill him or not and he ultimately takes away Duncan’s life with a dagger. Since Duncan’s sons flee the next morning when the murder of Duncan is discovered; Macbeth is next in line for the throne. As he becomes king, Macbeth starts going insane and feels deep guilt for murdering King Duncan. He also has his friend Banquo killed since his descendents will form a long line of kings. Macbeth does this in hope of no one taking away his kin gdom. Macbeth’s eminent downfall goes from bad to worse as he encounters the witches and asks for more information into his future. Everything they say sounds too strange to be true that Macbeth becomes very cocky and feels invincible. This is his biggest mistake throughout the play that ends up costing him his life. He is warned to bewareShow MoreRelatedThe Downfall of Macbeths Character in William Shakespeares Play714 Words   |  3 PagesThe Downfall of Macbeths Character in William Shakespeares Play At the start of Macbeth Macbeth is described with words such as noble, worthy and brave this shows him in a positive way. However at the end of the play he is described with words such as Hell-hound, coward and bloodier villain which shows him to be a completly different person.He is now shown in a negative light. Macbeths characteristics are turned around and the witches show this in theRead MoreMacbeth Appearance Vs Reality1245 Words   |  5 Pagesinteresting plot or characterize. 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Case Study Gambias Youthful Population Free Essays

As Gambia is an LEDC, they lack the funds to employ a vast amount of doctors to the area. This means that for every doctor, there are 14,536 patients meaning that the inhabitants don’t receive much healthcare. This has contributed to a relatively short life expectancy of just 54 years for a man and 57 years for a woman. We will write a custom essay sample on Case Study: Gambias Youthful Population or any similar topic only for you Order Now The lack of healthcare available has also meant that there is an extremely high infant mortality rate of 73 per 1000 people, even though it is lower than it has been in the past. As many children die at an early age, parents tend to have a large number of children to help with daily tasks, to bring a higher income to the family and to look after the parents when they reach ill health. Gambia has a high birth rate of 40 per 1000 people because of this and in 2003, the average fertility rate was 5.13. What are the positive and negative impacts? Due the high birth rate, falling infant mortality rate and improvements in the level of healthcare available, the population has been increasing rapidly. In fact, Gambia’s population doubles every 28 years and in 2009, it is estimated to be around 1.7million people. 63.55% of the population is estimated to be aged below 25 years and only 3.36% of the population is aged over 65 years. This had meant that there is a high dependency ratio of 86:100 working people. Each working person has to earn enough to support 1.86 people including themselves, which makes trying to earn a living in an LEDC an even harder task than it already is. In the future, it will become harder to find employment and accommodation and even more stress will be put on food resources, the infrastructure and the health service, which is already struggling. However, also in the future, there will probably be a large and cheap workforce. Overall, the Gambia’s youthful population is not an asset to the country. What are the policies/solutions being put in place to help the situation? One of the solutions to the youthful population of Gambia has been â€Å"The Gambia Family Planning Radio Project†. This was a 2-year education, information and communication campaign which used radio dramas (named â€Å"Fakube Jarra†) aimed at less-educated women in Gambia in order to better inform them about family planning options and change their attitudes to family life. This project was considered to be a success, based on the findings of a survey carried out on 400 randomly selected men and women in 1991. Those who had heard the radio drama could name more methods of contraception than those who had not and they tended to have more positive attitudes to family life. The most important observation was that those who had heard the radio drama were more likely to use a method of contraception than those who had not. The number of people using contraception increased from 10% to 27%, so it nearly tripled. The Gambia Family Planning Association were the ones who initiated this radio campaign and they have also made many further attempts to alleviate the problems associated with a youthful population, such as running 8 family planning clinics throughout Gambia. The association focuses mainly on increasing awareness of the contraception available and knowledge of how to use it, whilst also encouraging smaller families and changing the attitudes of the adults living in Gambia. All in all, the results have been very positive. How to cite Case Study: Gambias Youthful Population, Free Case study samples