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It was a dark and stormy night. I was afraid to leave the safety of the car because I knew that a monster waited in front of the headlights somewhere ahead and I would certainly be killed by it. OR
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It was a dark and stormy night. I was afraid to leave the safety of the car because I knew that a monster waited in front of the headlights somewhere ahead and I would certainly be killed by it. OR The rain reflected by the headlights deepened the shadows on the road like an ever-approaching void. I dreaded leaving the safety of the car, certain that to do so invited oblivion. I would be eaten by the blackness that hid an even worse terror. Figurative language is the language of us – we use it to make people see our ideas in unique, interesting, and clever ways – and it can make our ideas clearer, more specific. Figurative Language How to Recognize + Analyze
Tropes (reappear continuously in work) • Definition: Use of figurative language (metaphors, similes, personification, hyperbole, irony, litotes, metonymy, oxymoron, synecdoche, et al) • Tropes reflect life in clever and interesting ways that people like: “We muddied the waters by asking those awkward questions…” • Example: Motifs: things that reappear throughout a work that develops/becomes a theme (usually comparative to actual characters) • 1) Animals: tend to be gendered • - women: often cute, cuddly animals like kittens and bunnies (however, the cat can also be predatory) • - men: traditionally predatory animals like wolves and lions • 2)
LITOTES It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain. —J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye Deliberate understatement, especially when expressing a thought while denying its opposite What does this mean? Where do we see this in literature? In TV? In RL? BBC Sherlock
Metonymy • - referring to someone or thing by one of its attributes. • "He shall think differently," the musketeer threatened, "when he feels the point of my steel.“ (steel is an attribute of swords) • Examples: use of “Hollywood” to refer to entire film industry • Or The pen is mightier than the sword. The Defective Detective In TV and movies…
SYNECDOCHE • - whole named by a part of something or the part being named by the whole • The rustler bragged he'd absconded with five hundred head of longhorns. (head is a part of a longhorn cow) • Listen, you've got to come take a look at my new set of wheels. (wheels are parts of a car) • How is synecdoche different from metonymy? • So..ID the highlighted words: (Context: While watching a spy movie…) • “Wow! He just Mcgyvered his way out of that cell. But, I don’t know. When you’re born with the kind of green he has, you just don’t have the instinct to be a serious spy. Maybe he could eyeball a trained assassin out of the crowd, but he couldn’t BE one. Anyway, the law would have never let that scenario play out, especially after 911.” he Can you spot the use of metonymy here? How about a synecdoche - or two - here?
To Review: • Litotes: deliberate understatement; saying one thing while meaning its opposite • Context: it’s raining outside – buckets, in fact and right before we leave the house, you say: • Should I take an umbrella? • I can’t imagine why you would need one. It’s just a sprinkle. • Metonymy: referring to something by one of its characteristics - • Synecdoche: referring to the whole by a part or vice versa • I just can’t wrap my head around the idea that Bob might be a dirty cop. • Why use these forms of figurative language? • - to entertain, to enlighten, to clarify, to deepen understanding • TO CREATE MEMORABLE MOMENTS…THE GAME
