As in the previous article, we discussed about How to Write a Review Text. Now we will continue about an important thing to know when we want to write a review text. The important things to understand are Metaphor and Simile.
Why Metaphor and/or Simile are important in writing a review text?
In writing a review text, we must give some critics or suggestion. Before giving critics, we must be able to analyze the art work we review whether it is bad or good. To give a comment of the art work, it will be catchy if we express our idea by using metaphor or simile.
In another hand, we criticize an art work. It will be ridiculous if we don’t know about art. So, we must counterbalance it by writing an artistic review text too. It means that, metaphor or simile is needed to give a sense of art in our writing.
In writing a review text, we must give some critics or suggestion. Before giving critics, we must be able to analyze the art work we review whether it is bad or good. To give a comment of the art work, it will be catchy if we express our idea by using metaphor or simile.
In another hand, we criticize an art work. It will be ridiculous if we don’t know about art. So, we must counterbalance it by writing an artistic review text too. It means that, metaphor or simile is needed to give a sense of art in our writing.
Metaphor And Simile
Terms metaphor and simile are slung around as though they mean exactly the same thing. A simile is a metaphor, but not all metaphors are similes.
A metaphor is a figure of speech that says that one thing is another different thing. This allows us to use fewer words and forces the reader or listener to find the similarities. The word metaphor comes from the Greek word metapherin (meaning "transfer"). The simplest form of metaphor is: "The [first thing] is a [second thing]."
e.g.:
A good book is food for though. (Metaphor)
A good book is like a good meal for thought. (Simile)
Metaphor is the broader term. In a literary sense metaphor is a rhetorical device that transfers the sense or aspects of one word to another. For example:
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas. — “The Highwayman,” Alfred Noyes
Here the moon is being compared to a sailing ship. The clouds are being compared to ocean waves. This is an apt comparison because sometimes banks of clouds shuttling past the moon cause the moon to appear to be moving and roiling clouds resemble churning water.
A simile is a type of metaphor in which the comparison is made with the use of the word like or its equivalent:
My love is like a red, red rose. — Robert Burns
Terms metaphor and simile are slung around as though they mean exactly the same thing. A simile is a metaphor, but not all metaphors are similes.
A metaphor is a figure of speech that says that one thing is another different thing. This allows us to use fewer words and forces the reader or listener to find the similarities. The word metaphor comes from the Greek word metapherin (meaning "transfer"). The simplest form of metaphor is: "The [first thing] is a [second thing]."
e.g.:
A good book is food for though. (Metaphor)
A good book is like a good meal for thought. (Simile)
Metaphor is the broader term. In a literary sense metaphor is a rhetorical device that transfers the sense or aspects of one word to another. For example:
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas. — “The Highwayman,” Alfred Noyes
Here the moon is being compared to a sailing ship. The clouds are being compared to ocean waves. This is an apt comparison because sometimes banks of clouds shuttling past the moon cause the moon to appear to be moving and roiling clouds resemble churning water.
A simile is a type of metaphor in which the comparison is made with the use of the word like or its equivalent:
My love is like a red, red rose. — Robert Burns
This simile conveys some of the attributes of a rose to a woman: ruddy complexion, velvety skin, and fragrant scent.
She sat like Patience on a Monument, smiling at Grief. — Twelfth Night William Shakespeare
Here a woman is being compared to the allegorical statue on a tomb. The comparison evokes unhappiness, immobility, and gracefulness of posture and dress.
Some metaphors are apt. Some are not. The conscientious writer strives to come up with fresh metaphors.
Difference Between Metaphor and Simile
Simile Metaphor
Your eyes are like the sun. You are my sunshine.
He eats like a pig.
He lives like a pig. He is a pig.
A common fault of writing is to mix metaphors.
Before Uncle Jesse (Dukes of Hazzard) did it, some WWII general is reputed to have mixed the metaphor Don’t burn your bridges, meaning “Don’t alienate people who have been useful to you,” with Don’t cross that bridge before you come to it, meaning “Don’t worry about what might happen until it happens” to create the mixed metaphor: Don’t burn your bridges before you come to them.
Many metaphors are used so often that they have become cliché. We use them in speech, but the careful writer avoids them: hungry as a horse, as big as a house, hard as nails, as good as gold.
Some metaphors have been used so frequently as to lose their metaphorical qualities altogether. These are “dead metaphors.”
In a sense, all language is metaphor because words are simply labels for things that exist in the world. We call something “a table” because we have to call it something, but the word is not the thing it names.
A simile is only one of dozens of specific types of metaphor. For a long and entertaining list of them, see the Wikipedia article on “Figure of Speech.”
In conclusion, the basic rule of metaphor and simile is:
If it uses the words “is like” or “is as”, it is usually simile. If it is uses the word “is” without “as” or “like” is usually metaphor.
(Adapted from original source: 1. dailywritingtips.com 2. englishclub.com)
Now let us see some examples of metaphor in a review text and art work.
1. Original Soundtrack of Brownies (An Indonesian Movie)
It’s Always fun to have a piece of Brownies in your mouth. But having it in your stereo set is more entertaining. No movie is perfect without musical score and OST of Brownies has proved it excellent. (C’ns Mag)
2. “The Rose” by Bette Midler
I say love, it is a flower, and you it’s only seed.
3. “I am The Walrus” by The Beatles
See how they run-like a pigs from a gun……
4. “You Are The Sunshine of My Life” by Stevie Wonder
You are the sunshine of my life
That’s why I’ll always be around,
You are the apple of my eye,
Forever you’ll stay in my heart.
……………………………………………….
5. Moral Metaphors Mixed in 'Lonelyhearts'; Nathanael West Novel Is Adapted as Film
Actually, there is no redemption for the sad sacks in "Lonelyhearts" and the basic weakness of this picture is the attempt to pretend that there is.
Simile Metaphor
Your eyes are like the sun. You are my sunshine.
He eats like a pig.
He lives like a pig. He is a pig.
A common fault of writing is to mix metaphors.
Before Uncle Jesse (Dukes of Hazzard) did it, some WWII general is reputed to have mixed the metaphor Don’t burn your bridges, meaning “Don’t alienate people who have been useful to you,” with Don’t cross that bridge before you come to it, meaning “Don’t worry about what might happen until it happens” to create the mixed metaphor: Don’t burn your bridges before you come to them.
Many metaphors are used so often that they have become cliché. We use them in speech, but the careful writer avoids them: hungry as a horse, as big as a house, hard as nails, as good as gold.
Some metaphors have been used so frequently as to lose their metaphorical qualities altogether. These are “dead metaphors.”
In a sense, all language is metaphor because words are simply labels for things that exist in the world. We call something “a table” because we have to call it something, but the word is not the thing it names.
A simile is only one of dozens of specific types of metaphor. For a long and entertaining list of them, see the Wikipedia article on “Figure of Speech.”
In conclusion, the basic rule of metaphor and simile is:
If it uses the words “is like” or “is as”, it is usually simile. If it is uses the word “is” without “as” or “like” is usually metaphor.
(Adapted from original source: 1. dailywritingtips.com 2. englishclub.com)
Now let us see some examples of metaphor in a review text and art work.
1. Original Soundtrack of Brownies (An Indonesian Movie)
It’s Always fun to have a piece of Brownies in your mouth. But having it in your stereo set is more entertaining. No movie is perfect without musical score and OST of Brownies has proved it excellent. (C’ns Mag)
2. “The Rose” by Bette Midler
I say love, it is a flower, and you it’s only seed.
3. “I am The Walrus” by The Beatles
See how they run-like a pigs from a gun……
4. “You Are The Sunshine of My Life” by Stevie Wonder
You are the sunshine of my life
That’s why I’ll always be around,
You are the apple of my eye,
Forever you’ll stay in my heart.
……………………………………………….
5. Moral Metaphors Mixed in 'Lonelyhearts'; Nathanael West Novel Is Adapted as Film
Actually, there is no redemption for the sad sacks in "Lonelyhearts" and the basic weakness of this picture is the attempt to pretend that there is.
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