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A common form of imagery is the simile. A simile is a comparison of two unlike things using like or as. For example, in the essay, the teacher tells Sedaris that he is “up and down like a flea.” She compares Sedaris to a flea, and with that comparison, she gives us a picture of Sedaris’s behavior in class. He doesn’t just get up a couple of times during class; he jumps in and out of his chair like a flea trying to jump on a dog.  Let’s look at some other similes from nonfiction texts.

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A common form of imagery is the simile. A simile is a comparison of two unlike things using like or as. For example, in the essay, the teacher tells Sedaris that he is “up and down like a flea.” She compares Sedaris to a flea, and with that comparison, she gives us a picture of Sedaris’s behavior in class. He doesn’t just get up a couple of times during class; he jumps in and out of his chair like a flea trying to jump on a dog.  Let’s look at some other similes from nonfiction texts.

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"Soon enough, I reeled in a fat sucker; it flopped onto the shore like a sack of mush."      —Bill Barish, “Steelhead on the Russian”   

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"Soon enough, I reeled in a fat sucker; it flopped onto the shore like a sack of mush."      —Bill Barish, “Steelhead on the Russian”   

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Barish describes fishing for steelhead trout on the Russian River in Northern California. He could have stopped his description after the word “sucker.” However, the detail of the fish flopping on the shore “like a sack of mush” helps us understand how the fish behaved when Barish plopped it onto the shore.

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"The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond; and must be polished, or the luster of it will never appear."             —Daniel Defoe, “The Education of Women”

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"The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond; and must be polished, or the luster of it will never appear."             —Daniel Defoe, “The Education of Women”

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This simile is from the essay “The Education of Women” written by Daniel Defoe in 1719. Defoe argues that women should be allowed the same educational opportunities as men.

Defoe includes this simile to explain the importance of education for all people. He could have just written “Education is important.” That wording, though, would not really illustrate how important Defoe considered education to be. By comparing the soul to a diamond and education as the polish for the diamond, he helps the reader understand what he is saying: that our souls will not reach their full luster without education.

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"The interior of the Earth is rather like an onion, made up of a series of concentric shells or layers."                                    —Martin Redfern, The Earth: A Very Short Introduction

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"The interior of the Earth is rather like an onion, made up of a series of concentric shells or layers."                                    —Martin Redfern, The Earth: A Very Short Introduction

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Similes and other figurative language aren’t used only in personal essays, narratives, and persuasive essays, but also in informational texts. A simple simile can help make a complex concept easier to understand, as demonstrated by the quote above, comparing the interior of the earth to an onion.

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Now, it’s your turn to write some similes. Use your notes to complete the similes below (add as a COMMENT to this post, with your name). Avoid clichés and be original! 

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Now, it’s your turn to write some similes. Use your notes to complete the similes below (add as a COMMENT to this post, with your name). Avoid clichés and be original! 

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Life is _________.
Love is _________.
My house is __________.
My hair is ____________.
My best friend is ______________.

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A metaphor is another form of imagery. A metaphor is a less direct way of comparing two things. Instead of using like or as, a metaphor says that one thing is another. Here’s an example.

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A metaphor is another form of imagery. A metaphor is a less direct way of comparing two things. Instead of using like or as, a metaphor says that one thing is another. Here’s an example.

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Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.         —Pablo Picasso 

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Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.         —Pablo Picasso 

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Let’s analyze this metaphor. Picasso says that art washes the soul, but the soul can’t literally get dusty, and art isn’t water. We know that art can’t literally wash anything, but if we think about how art enriches our lives, lives that are often mundane and automatic, then perhaps we can imagine that when we experience art, we "dust" off our souls in the same way we might dust an unused table. In this way we come to life again through art. Art metaphorically washes the soul.

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Let's look at another metaphor: "The world is a book and those who don’t travel have only read one page."                                   —St. Augustine  

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Let's look at another metaphor: "The world is a book and those who don’t travel have only read one page."                                   —St. Augustine  

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St. Augustine is telling his readers that travel is important. Why should they believe him? One answer is because he presents an image of a person reading only one page of a book and being finished with it. What a pointless act that would be! The image illustrates exactly how important St. Augustine believes travel is for knowing about the world.

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Now, Let’s analyze one last metaphor, this one is from President Barack Obama’s 2012 State of the Union speech. "As long as we maintain our common resolve, our journey moves forward, and our future is hopeful, and the state of our Union will always be strong."                     —Barack Obama, 2012 State of the Union Speech  

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Now, Let’s analyze one last metaphor, this one is from President Barack Obama’s 2012 State of the Union speech. "As long as we maintain our common resolve, our journey moves forward, and our future is hopeful, and the state of our Union will always be strong."                     —Barack Obama, 2012 State of the Union Speech  

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In this the closing of his speech, President Obama compares life as an American to a journey. It enables the audience to understand the time it takes for things to change in the country. It is a powerful metaphor in politics because it presents policies as a purposeful activity (you travel to a destination) which requires time and patience. The idea of a journey also evokes freedom.