U3 The People Could Fly - Blast

Background

“The lights were suddenly snuffed out and the furniture stood like an obstacle course, trying to trip us.”

“The lights went out and we tried not to trip over the furniture.”

Which of the sentences above is more powerful? If you picked the first one, you picked the one that uses figurative language.
When language is literal, it states the facts simply as they are. When language is figurative, or non-literal, it uses words in a
way that isn’t exactly realistic, but that appeals to the senses. It creates a stronger picture in the reader’s mind.

Look at the sentences above again. The second sentence states exactly what happened. The furniture wasn’t really an obstacle
course, and it wasn’t trying to trip anyone. But the first sentence creates a clearer picture in your mind, and it also gives you a
stronger feeling about what’s happening. It helps to create a mood.

Background

Figurative language falls into a few different categories. Simile is when two things are compared using the words like or as. For
example, “My dad snores as loudly as a lawnmower” is an example of a simile. Personification is when non-human things are
given human attributes, as in, “The stars danced above us.” (Can you find an example of personification in one of the example
sentences above?) Other types of figurative language include metaphor, hyperbole, alliteration, and symbolism.

Many authors use figurative language to enhance their writing, including Virginia Hamilton, the author of The People Could Fly.
Another author famous for his use of figurative language is the poet Robert Frost. Phrases such as “...life is too much like a
pathless wood/where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs” exemplify simile, and many of his poems are thought to be
metaphors for more abstract concepts. For example, his famous poem “The Road Not Taken” is, on the surface, about the
narrator coming to a fork in the road and deciding which path to take. However, many people argue that the meaning of the
poem is deeper than that, and that it’s actually about decisions we make and how they affect our lives.

Why do authors use figurative language?