waller figurative lang quiz

metaphor

one thing compared to second thing

✧ Nick Carraway uses a series of metaphors to convey his achievement of a feeling of belonging in New York City: And as I walked on I was lonely no longer. I was a guide, a pathfinder, an original settler (4).

simile

comparison using words such as like, as, similar to, resembles

✧︎ Nick Carraway uses a simile to convey that the books on his shelf remain unread: I bought a dozen volumes [...] and they stood on my shelf in red and gold like new money from the mint (4).

✧ Here’s a second example: Tom and Miss Baker [...] strolled back into the library, as if to a vigil beside a perfectly tangible body (16).

metonymy

referring to person, place, or thing by using the word for something located in closely proximity to it

✧ newscasters use metonymy when they report on what the U.S. president decides by saying, The White House announced today that.

✧ used when diplomacy and militancy are invoked in the saying, The pen is mightier than the sword.

✧ Nick uses metonymy when he refers to Yale University by invoking the city where it is located: I graduated from New Haven in 1915 (3).

synecdoche

referring to person, place, object, or idea by using the word for a part of the whole

✧ automobile gets referred to with the term wheels

✧ manual workers are called hired hands

✧ Nick uses synecdoche when he uses the term counterraid to stand in for the entire First World War: I enjoyed the counterraid so thoroughly that I came back restless (3).

paradox

contradiction that is somehow true

✧ Nick uses a paradox when he describes how he and his father have always communicated deeply despite using few words: [W]e’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way (1).

oxymoron

compact paradox consisting of two words in close proximity that contradict one another

✧ wise fool

✧deafening silence

✧ I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity (1).

hyperbole

rhetorical exaggeration or overstatement

✧ Daisy exclaims, “I’m p-paralyzed with happiness” (8). Daisy is not literally paralyzed; rather, she uses exaggeration for rhetorical effect.

Understatement

one says less than what one really means

✧ Tom gives Nick a tour of his enormous estate and declares, “I’ve got a nice place here” (7).

personification

attribution of human qualities to an object, animal, or concept

✧ Nick describes a picture as groaning: I must have stood for a few moments listening to [...] the groan of a picture on the wall (8).