The Gift of the Magi Figurative Language Workshop

Figurative language is a type of descriptive language that an author uses to communicate and convey vivid images (sites), sounds, and other sensory detail to the reader. It is intended to encourage the reader to use his/her imagination and to make the story more emotionally intense, exciting and realistic. There are many types of figurative language. I will present six of the most common kinds here, using examples to two popular stories, “The Outsiders,” by SE Hinton and “Romeo and Juliet,” by William Shakespeare.

SIMILE- A simile compares one thing to another using the words “like” or “as”.

For Example: I told you he (Soda) looks like a movie star, and he kind of radiates But most (Soc’s) looked at us as if we were dirt. Soda attracted girls like honey attracted flies

METAPHOR- A metaphor compares two things without using the words like or as. A metaphor states that something IS something else and often uses the verb to be.

For Example: Johnny still reminded me of a lost puppy Tim had the tense, hungry look of an alley cat

PERSONIFICATION- Personification gives human characteristics or abilities to something that is not human, such as animals, plants, or inanimate objects.

(Remembering this term is easy because when we describe an object as if it were a person we are using personification.)

For example: There was a silent moment when everything held its breath! Love enfolded us in her arms. The wind whispered your name. And even as the policemen's guns spit fire into the night, Dally raised his gun. HYPERBOLE- Hyperbole expresses an obvious exaggeration.

For Example: I couldn’t have gotten up to save my life Two bit’s mom let him get away with murder "Here!" Dally handed me a shirt about sixty-million sizes too Big.”

ALLUSION- An allusion refers or alludes to an event in history, literature, or art.

For example: Abe Lincoln would have turned over in his grave if he had seen how my teacher denies us freedom in class!!!

I didn't want to finish it. I'd never get past the part where the Southern gentlemen go riding into sure death (A reference to the Civil War)

She (Rosaline in Romeo and Juliet) will not be hit with Cupid’s arrow

OXYMORON- An oxymoron is a phrase that seems to contradict itself because it expresses opposite concepts. It usually makes sense if you think about it

For example: His eyes were blue, blazing ice

From Romeo and Juliet Parting is such sweet sorrow Oh happy dagger (Before Juliet kills herself) The Gift of the Magi Figurative Language Worksheet Name ______Class _____

Please identify the following phrases in the story as a Simile (S), Metaphor (M), Personification (P), and Hyperbole (H). Oxymoron (O), Allusion, or Synecdoche (SYN)

______1) Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher.

______2) The “Dillingham” had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week.

______3) Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, the letters of "Dillingham" looked blurred, as though they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D.

______4) In the vestibule (entrance) below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring.

______5) Had the Queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the air shaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty’s jewels and gifts.

______6) Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.

______7) So now Della’s beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her.

______8) And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet. ______9) "Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the mass with a practiced hand.

______10) Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings.

______11) She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else.

______12) If Jim doesn't kill me," she said to herself, "before he takes a second look at me, he'll say I look like a Coney Island chorus (singing/chorale) girl.

______13) Jim stepped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail.

______14White fingers tore at the string and paper. And then an ecstatic scream of joy;

______15) They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of possession.

______16) And then Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, “Oh, oh!” Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present.

______17) She held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit. ______18) Maybe the hairs on my head were numbered,” she went on with a sudden serious sweetness, “but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?”

______19) For there lay The Combs—the set of combs, side and back, that Della had worshiped for long in a Broadway window.

______20) They are the wisest. They are the Magi. The Gift of the Magi Figurative Language Tracker As you read the rest of the play try to keep track of the various figurative languages that you see and put it in the appropriate boxes in the chart Simile (Comparisons using like or as) He looks like a billy goat. /She’s as happy as a lark).

Metaphor (Comparisons not using like or as) “A dog of the house of Montague moves me (to fight).

Personification (Give human qualities to non-living things, “Is the day so young?” “The wind whispered my name). Hyperbole (Exaggeration) “You mean the whole World to me!” “I’ve heard it a million times before!”

Synecdoche (The Part represents the whole) Tonight Bryon will ask for Maria’s hand in marriage

Allusion (Alludes to an event in history or literature). “You are a lover; borrow Cupid's wings,”