"Like taking candy from a baby."
An analogy is any comparison of two things for the purposes of clarity or an example. Logical analogies act like mathematical equations: gloves are to hands as socks are to feet (or, in the Greek summation of Plato, gloves : hands :: socks : feet). Literary analogies are more varied. Below are different types of analogies used in both narrative storytelling and rhetorical argument.
Metaphor and Simile: Comparing perspective
Let's start with a simple comparison and take two things and say they are alike "My love is like a red, red rose." "My hate is deeper than the ocean, and more violent." "The hills are as pretty as painting." All of these are similes, which take two similar things and show that they are alike. Love and flowers both bloom. Hate and oceans both are immense. Landscapes and paintings are both beautiful. It's easy to tell a simile: all of them use the word "like," "as," or "than" in their phrasing.
But what about comparing two things that aren't similar--where the connection isn't so obvious? "His heart is a lion." "Her mind is a steel trap." "My father is a total dictator when it comes to my dating life." These similarities are not as obvious. Both hearts and lions are tough... or fierce? Her mind and a steel trap are both sharp, but not in the same way. Dictators are controlling but for completely different reasons. These comparisons are more abstract, and are aptly titled metaphors. Metaphors show the similarities between dissimilar things. Metaphors have two parts: the tenor and the vehicle. The tenor is the subject of the metaphor (heart, mind, father) and the vehicle is the dissimilar thing it is said to be like (lion, steel trap, dictator) that drives the metaphor. The tenor always precedes the vehicle, making metaphors structurally different than similes. Similes can vary order: The red, red rose is like my love" is as clear in meaning as "My love is like a red, red rose," but "The lion is his heart" has a completely different meaning than "his heart is a lion."
But what about comparing two things that aren't similar--where the connection isn't so obvious? "His heart is a lion." "Her mind is a steel trap." "My father is a total dictator when it comes to my dating life." These similarities are not as obvious. Both hearts and lions are tough... or fierce? Her mind and a steel trap are both sharp, but not in the same way. Dictators are controlling but for completely different reasons. These comparisons are more abstract, and are aptly titled metaphors. Metaphors show the similarities between dissimilar things. Metaphors have two parts: the tenor and the vehicle. The tenor is the subject of the metaphor (heart, mind, father) and the vehicle is the dissimilar thing it is said to be like (lion, steel trap, dictator) that drives the metaphor. The tenor always precedes the vehicle, making metaphors structurally different than similes. Similes can vary order: The red, red rose is like my love" is as clear in meaning as "My love is like a red, red rose," but "The lion is his heart" has a completely different meaning than "his heart is a lion."
Allegory: Comparing meaning
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Speaking of meaning, sometimes an entire text sticks to a specific metaphor. These are called allegories, and allegory gives a story multiple levels of meaning. On the surface is the plot and the characters in the text, yet further analysis reveals a secondary story. Metaphors are used by authors to convey a political, historical, philosophical, or moral point in a simple and digestible way. One of the oldest allegories is Plato's Allegory of the Cave, where he explains the idea of the perspective of physical actuality. The idea that reality could be illusory is mind-bending and hard to conceive, so Plato compares it to a cave where men have no idea what objects look like, only their shadows. After living their entire lives believing shadows are real, they are given the actual objects and revealed the shadows were illusions. The story breaks down Plato's point in a way any person can understand.
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Another well-known allegory is George Orwell's Animal Farm. It is a political and historical allegory, taking the events of the Russian Revolution and early Soviet state and setting it on a farm. Animal Farm is a special kind of allegory called an apologue, which uses anthropomorphized animals to tell a story with a specific lesson. Orwell's political apologue was an effort to teach readers that greed can destroy positive social reform if left unchecked (many people believe the lesson was that communism is bad, but Orwell, a staunch socialist, believed communism failed in Russia due to Stalin's greed). Fables are also moral apologues, while parables are longer moral allegories. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, for example, is a parable recounting the goodness of Jesus (Aslan) even after the betrayal of Judas (Edmund).
Note that allegories compare the meaning between the two stories, not the structure. If a story symbolizes a real-life chain of events, that's allegory, but if it structurally mirrors another text, that's intertextuality. Take the film The Great Dictator: with its mustached leader of Tarmania invading Asturvich, it is a clear allegory for the rise of Adolf Hitler and his invasion of Austria. Knowing this informs the story's meaning. The film also was filmed with gags and timing that paid specific homage to the Marx Brothers: this is intertextuality, as this knowledge is interesting but does not change the core meaning.
Note that allegories compare the meaning between the two stories, not the structure. If a story symbolizes a real-life chain of events, that's allegory, but if it structurally mirrors another text, that's intertextuality. Take the film The Great Dictator: with its mustached leader of Tarmania invading Asturvich, it is a clear allegory for the rise of Adolf Hitler and his invasion of Austria. Knowing this informs the story's meaning. The film also was filmed with gags and timing that paid specific homage to the Marx Brothers: this is intertextuality, as this knowledge is interesting but does not change the core meaning.
Metonymy: Comparing representation
Metonymy is a comparison of a term and a larger idea that it represents. Think of it as a super pronoun. In the sentence "The White House put pressure on Hollywood to censor films," it is clear that a building in Washington DC didn't literally give orders to a town in California. "White House" is a metonym for the Executive branch of government and specifically the President, while "Hollywood" is a metonym for the film industry. In literature, characters can be metonym: Uncle Tom in Uncle Tom's Cabin, for example, was written as a metonym for every slave that empathized with their master over their own people.
There are different subsets of metonyms. Synedoche is when a part represents a part for a whole: "She's a total brain" means the girl in question is very intelligent, as her brain is the most representative of her. Toponyms are metonyms where a city represents a major group or industry: in "Detroit is suffering with the latest air-bag recall," Detroit is a toponym representing the American auto industry as a whole which is centered in Detroit. Just as toponyms are for locations, antonomasia are for people--identifying a person by a representative name is called antonomasia (e.g., The Bard of Avon for William Shakespeare, the dark knight for Batman). The reverse of this kind of synedoche is epithet, when a descriptive phrase is added to a name to make it notable (e.g., Ivan the Terrible, America the beautiful). Occasionally, the synechdoche is a merism, which uses opposing or separate parts to show representing the whole experience of something. He was known near and far, she believed it body and soul, he could be both Jekyll and Hyde, and she bought it hook, line, and sinker are all examples of merisms.
While most metonyms are usually used to simplify language, two types of metonyms are used to censor ideas. Euphemism is when a distasteful idea or word is represented by a gentler concept. For example, "getting a pink slip" is a euphemism for getting fired, and "kicked the bucket" is a euphemism for death. Euphemisms are used in public forum writing to comply with standards of decency, yet some authors don't like this censorship. Some authors skirt around censorship with double entendres, which are phrases with a surface meaning and a deeper meaning. William Shakespeare constantly uses double entendres: in As You Like It, for example, Jacques relates finding the clown Touchstone by a river complaining about his day, ending the story with "and thereby hangs a tale." This phrase shows both that his story is over (tale) and that Touchstone "hung a tail," which was Elizabethan slang for defecation. All Shakespearean plays use double entendre--Much Ado About Nothing even uses it in the title: the play is both about a rumored affair that didn't occur (nothing) and sexual politics (no thing, a slang term for female reproductive anatomy).
There are different subsets of metonyms. Synedoche is when a part represents a part for a whole: "She's a total brain" means the girl in question is very intelligent, as her brain is the most representative of her. Toponyms are metonyms where a city represents a major group or industry: in "Detroit is suffering with the latest air-bag recall," Detroit is a toponym representing the American auto industry as a whole which is centered in Detroit. Just as toponyms are for locations, antonomasia are for people--identifying a person by a representative name is called antonomasia (e.g., The Bard of Avon for William Shakespeare, the dark knight for Batman). The reverse of this kind of synedoche is epithet, when a descriptive phrase is added to a name to make it notable (e.g., Ivan the Terrible, America the beautiful). Occasionally, the synechdoche is a merism, which uses opposing or separate parts to show representing the whole experience of something. He was known near and far, she believed it body and soul, he could be both Jekyll and Hyde, and she bought it hook, line, and sinker are all examples of merisms.
While most metonyms are usually used to simplify language, two types of metonyms are used to censor ideas. Euphemism is when a distasteful idea or word is represented by a gentler concept. For example, "getting a pink slip" is a euphemism for getting fired, and "kicked the bucket" is a euphemism for death. Euphemisms are used in public forum writing to comply with standards of decency, yet some authors don't like this censorship. Some authors skirt around censorship with double entendres, which are phrases with a surface meaning and a deeper meaning. William Shakespeare constantly uses double entendres: in As You Like It, for example, Jacques relates finding the clown Touchstone by a river complaining about his day, ending the story with "and thereby hangs a tale." This phrase shows both that his story is over (tale) and that Touchstone "hung a tail," which was Elizabethan slang for defecation. All Shakespearean plays use double entendre--Much Ado About Nothing even uses it in the title: the play is both about a rumored affair that didn't occur (nothing) and sexual politics (no thing, a slang term for female reproductive anatomy).
Whelming: Going to logical extremes
All figurative language works off the tension between denotation and connotation. Denotation is the actual definition of a word--the one you could find in a dictionary--while connotation is the conceptual or socially constructed definitions that a word invokes in a reader. Take rat: denotatively, rat refers to a furry mammal with sharp front teeth and a long wormlike tale that live in burrows and feed on fruits, insects, or human garbage. Connotatively, rat evokes negative reactions of disgust and fear: rats live in garbage, rats contaminate food, rats brought plague. If I were writing a story about a small furry rodent and wanted to avoid these connotations, I would switch to a positively connotative word like mouse.
Tapping into the emotional connotation of words and phrases is a powerful literary technique called whleming. The word whelm comes from an Old English word for being in a suddenly overturned vessel and becoming engulfed in water. Whelming should do this in words: to overthrow the reader suddenly into the deep end of emotion. To overwhelm a reader or character, writers commonly use hyperbole, which is to make something bigger or more important for effect. I feel as big as a house, the whole world was laughing at me, and she'd lose her head if it wasn't bolted on are all examples of hyperbole. One common type of hyperbole is adynaton, which is a declaration of impossibility as an obviously exaggerated comparison: You've got as much chance with her as I have of becoming president is an example of adynaton.
There is also the opposite of overwhelming with hyperbole: underwhelming with understatement. Understatement, called meiosis by the Greeks, is to make something smaller or less important for effect. Saying it's not a big deal…only a fatal wound or I'm pretty okay with Sheila dating my best friend and ripping my heart out are examples of understatement. Often, understatement uses litotes, a type of solecism where the writer creates a double negative statement to create a juxtaposed conflict of meaning. For example, a character saying she's not unattractive is different than saying she's attractive--in fact, the use of understatement here is specifically avoiding the positive phrasing, leading the reader to understand that, while the speaker doesn't find the woman unattractive, it's questionable if the speaker does find the woman attractive.
Tapping into the emotional connotation of words and phrases is a powerful literary technique called whleming. The word whelm comes from an Old English word for being in a suddenly overturned vessel and becoming engulfed in water. Whelming should do this in words: to overthrow the reader suddenly into the deep end of emotion. To overwhelm a reader or character, writers commonly use hyperbole, which is to make something bigger or more important for effect. I feel as big as a house, the whole world was laughing at me, and she'd lose her head if it wasn't bolted on are all examples of hyperbole. One common type of hyperbole is adynaton, which is a declaration of impossibility as an obviously exaggerated comparison: You've got as much chance with her as I have of becoming president is an example of adynaton.
There is also the opposite of overwhelming with hyperbole: underwhelming with understatement. Understatement, called meiosis by the Greeks, is to make something smaller or less important for effect. Saying it's not a big deal…only a fatal wound or I'm pretty okay with Sheila dating my best friend and ripping my heart out are examples of understatement. Often, understatement uses litotes, a type of solecism where the writer creates a double negative statement to create a juxtaposed conflict of meaning. For example, a character saying she's not unattractive is different than saying she's attractive--in fact, the use of understatement here is specifically avoiding the positive phrasing, leading the reader to understand that, while the speaker doesn't find the woman unattractive, it's questionable if the speaker does find the woman attractive.
Morphism: Comparing humans, nature, and objects
Humans tend to see things from a human perspective, and we often compare nonhuman objects and creatures to ourselves by giving them human motivations and actions. This is personification, or giving something nonhuman the qualities of a person. One way this happens is through anthropomorphism, where animals or plants are given human qualities. This can be be a brief metaphor (the lion roared his orders to his jungle subjects) to a full story conceit (think of Buck in Call of the Wild, the animals in The Adventures of Mr. Toad, or any other book or film where animals think, talk, move, or dress like humans). The pathetic fallacy refers to giving an inanimate object action of a living thing. The clock dove off the shelf and the flamed danced on the candle's end are examples of the pathetic fallacy. Note that the pathetic fallacy isn't always a type of personification: while the clock could have dove like a human, other animals from birds to sea mammals dive too. Or take this sentence from Carl Sandberg: The fog comes on little cat feet. This is the opposite of personification and is called zooification: giving an object or human the qualities of an animal Just as the clock could come on cat feet, a person can snap like an alligator or purr with affection. So if people and objects can be like animals, and animals and objects can be like people, could people and animals be depicted as objects? Absolutely--objectification: is where a writer gives a human or animal the qualities of an object. Her plaster smile was starting to crack or the dogs batteries ran out after the run in the park a great examples of objectification.
Idioms: When analogies go mainstream
You may have noticed that some of the above examples are familiar. My love is like a red, red rose. I'm so embarrassed I could die. The clock stared at me. She ate humble pie. It's raining cats and dogs. These are idioms. Idioms are well-known phrases that have a figurative meaning that's clear and can be applied to many situations. Idioms tend to be regional and passed down through common use: while most of the United States have heard the phrase "the devil is beating his wife," it's a popular idiom in the Southern US for a sunshower (when the sun is shining while it's raining); the idiom is popular there but hasn't spread because sunshowers are common in the South yet rare elsewhere. While most idioms are learned from hearing others use them, many texts use idioms to reflect common speech and some popular books, plays, and poems have even coined idioms.
One popular type of idiom writers use is an aphorism, or an idiom that conveys a universal truth. There are all types of aphorisms: adages (also called proverbs or saws), which are passed down through generations because is contains a wise truth (a stitch in time saves nine, a rising tide lifts all boats); apophthegms, which are cynical aphorisms that convey a pessimistic truth (a fool and his money are soon parted, good fences make good neighbors); maxims, which are aphorisms specifically discussing human behavior (don't judge a book by its cover, look before you leap); mantras, which are religious or mystical aphorisms that are ceremonially repeated (baruch atah adonai, Mother Mary full of grace); and mottos, which are like mantras for corporations (just do it, the snack that smiles back). Notice that aphorisms do not include axioms, which are literal principles as opposed to figurative idioms (examples of axioms include quality over quantity, you are what you eat, and Rome wasn't built in a day). Aphorisms are also different from epigrams, which are memorable witty or revelatory sayings that become well known but are not repeated as common sayings. When Eleanor Roosevelt said “It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness" or Winston Churchill said "If you're going through hell, keep going" or when Vince Lombardi said "Winners never quit and quitters never win," they were speaking in epigrams. Notice that these witty sayings all have a traceable author and usually appear in poetry or speeches. Typically, epigrams are used by speech writers or are included in texts as epigraphs, which are short lines of quoted text that come before a book or chapter which comment on the nature of the book or chapter.
Sometimes these idioms are used so much that people start to dislike them. An idiom that has become overused that it has lost its original meaning or effect is a cliche: Kiss and make up. Cat got your tongue? His eyes twinkled. She was brave as a line. Read between the lines. Every cloud has a silver lining. Typically, writers try to avoid cliches or only have ignorant characters use them to point out how tacky that character is. However, cliches can be occasionally useful to a writer. Platitudes occur when a cliche is twisted into something ironic or new, thereby giving the cliche a new meaning. When Sherlock Holmes says "There is method in my madness," we yawn, as ever since Shakespeare (who coined the phrase in Hamlet), the cliche has meant that what looks chaotic and crazy is actually well planned--but if The Joker uses this phrase, it's an interesting platitude, as one of The Joker's defining character traits is that he is all madness and never plans. Another way of bringing new meaning to a cliche is by using a snowclone, which is a cliche with parts that can be substituted. I’m not a X but I play one on TV, X is the new Y, X or bust, and Have X--will travel are all common snowclones, as they take the original phrases (I'm not a doctor but I play one on TV, pink is the new black, Oregon or bust, have gun--will travel) and make them interesting again (I'm not a giant radioactive monster but I play on on TV, quiet is the new loud, Mars or bust, have tuxedo--will travel). There are also perverbs (from "perverted proverbs," or antiproverbs), which switch around parts of cliches to create irony and form a pun. Instead of there's method to my madness, I could say there's madness to my method. Instead of saying where there's a will, there's a way, I could say where there's a will, there's a lawsuit. Instead of saying that an apple a day keeps the doctor away, I could say an onion a day keeps everyone away.
One popular type of idiom writers use is an aphorism, or an idiom that conveys a universal truth. There are all types of aphorisms: adages (also called proverbs or saws), which are passed down through generations because is contains a wise truth (a stitch in time saves nine, a rising tide lifts all boats); apophthegms, which are cynical aphorisms that convey a pessimistic truth (a fool and his money are soon parted, good fences make good neighbors); maxims, which are aphorisms specifically discussing human behavior (don't judge a book by its cover, look before you leap); mantras, which are religious or mystical aphorisms that are ceremonially repeated (baruch atah adonai, Mother Mary full of grace); and mottos, which are like mantras for corporations (just do it, the snack that smiles back). Notice that aphorisms do not include axioms, which are literal principles as opposed to figurative idioms (examples of axioms include quality over quantity, you are what you eat, and Rome wasn't built in a day). Aphorisms are also different from epigrams, which are memorable witty or revelatory sayings that become well known but are not repeated as common sayings. When Eleanor Roosevelt said “It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness" or Winston Churchill said "If you're going through hell, keep going" or when Vince Lombardi said "Winners never quit and quitters never win," they were speaking in epigrams. Notice that these witty sayings all have a traceable author and usually appear in poetry or speeches. Typically, epigrams are used by speech writers or are included in texts as epigraphs, which are short lines of quoted text that come before a book or chapter which comment on the nature of the book or chapter.
Sometimes these idioms are used so much that people start to dislike them. An idiom that has become overused that it has lost its original meaning or effect is a cliche: Kiss and make up. Cat got your tongue? His eyes twinkled. She was brave as a line. Read between the lines. Every cloud has a silver lining. Typically, writers try to avoid cliches or only have ignorant characters use them to point out how tacky that character is. However, cliches can be occasionally useful to a writer. Platitudes occur when a cliche is twisted into something ironic or new, thereby giving the cliche a new meaning. When Sherlock Holmes says "There is method in my madness," we yawn, as ever since Shakespeare (who coined the phrase in Hamlet), the cliche has meant that what looks chaotic and crazy is actually well planned--but if The Joker uses this phrase, it's an interesting platitude, as one of The Joker's defining character traits is that he is all madness and never plans. Another way of bringing new meaning to a cliche is by using a snowclone, which is a cliche with parts that can be substituted. I’m not a X but I play one on TV, X is the new Y, X or bust, and Have X--will travel are all common snowclones, as they take the original phrases (I'm not a doctor but I play one on TV, pink is the new black, Oregon or bust, have gun--will travel) and make them interesting again (I'm not a giant radioactive monster but I play on on TV, quiet is the new loud, Mars or bust, have tuxedo--will travel). There are also perverbs (from "perverted proverbs," or antiproverbs), which switch around parts of cliches to create irony and form a pun. Instead of there's method to my madness, I could say there's madness to my method. Instead of saying where there's a will, there's a way, I could say where there's a will, there's a lawsuit. Instead of saying that an apple a day keeps the doctor away, I could say an onion a day keeps everyone away.
Works Referenced
8-Bit Philosophy. "What is Reality." Wisecrack, 27 April 2014, youtu.be/lVDaSgyi3xE
Cervantes Saaverda, Miguel de. Don Quixote de La Mancha (1605). Borders Classics, 2003.
The Great Dictator. Directed by and featuring Charlie Chaplin. United Artists, 1940.
In the Navy. Directed by Arthur Lubin, featuring Bud Abbott and Lo Costello. Universal, 1945.
Lewis, C.S. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950). HarperCollins, 2002.
"Little Old Lady." The Abbott and Costello Show, season 1, episode 23. T.C.A. Productions, 1953.
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman (1949). Penguin, 1999.The Naughty Nineties. Directed by Jean Yarbrough, featuring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Universal, 1945.
Orwell, George. Animal Farm (1946). Harcourt Brace, 1997.
Plato. "The Allegory of the Cave" (c. 380 BCE). Republic, Book VII, translated by Thomas Sheehan. Stanford University, accessed 16 April 2017, web.stanford.edu/class/ihum40/cave
Shakespeare, William. As You Like It (1623), edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstein. Folger Shakespeare Library, 2014.
- - -. Much Ado About Nothing (1623), edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstein. Folger Shakespeare Library, 2014.
- - -. Richard III (1623), edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstein. Folger Shakespeare Library, 2014.
- - -. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (1623), edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstein. Folger Shakespeare Library, 2014.
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley. The School for Scandal (1777). The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, Vol. 3, edited by Joseph Black, et al. Broadview Press, 2006, pp. 755-798.
Sophocles. Oedipus Rex (429 BCE), translated by Sir George Young. Dover, 1991.
Stowe, Harriett Beecher. Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly (1852). Modern Library, 2001.
8-Bit Philosophy. "What is Reality." Wisecrack, 27 April 2014, youtu.be/lVDaSgyi3xE
Cervantes Saaverda, Miguel de. Don Quixote de La Mancha (1605). Borders Classics, 2003.
The Great Dictator. Directed by and featuring Charlie Chaplin. United Artists, 1940.
In the Navy. Directed by Arthur Lubin, featuring Bud Abbott and Lo Costello. Universal, 1945.
Lewis, C.S. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950). HarperCollins, 2002.
"Little Old Lady." The Abbott and Costello Show, season 1, episode 23. T.C.A. Productions, 1953.
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman (1949). Penguin, 1999.The Naughty Nineties. Directed by Jean Yarbrough, featuring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Universal, 1945.
Orwell, George. Animal Farm (1946). Harcourt Brace, 1997.
Plato. "The Allegory of the Cave" (c. 380 BCE). Republic, Book VII, translated by Thomas Sheehan. Stanford University, accessed 16 April 2017, web.stanford.edu/class/ihum40/cave
Shakespeare, William. As You Like It (1623), edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstein. Folger Shakespeare Library, 2014.
- - -. Much Ado About Nothing (1623), edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstein. Folger Shakespeare Library, 2014.
- - -. Richard III (1623), edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstein. Folger Shakespeare Library, 2014.
- - -. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (1623), edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstein. Folger Shakespeare Library, 2014.
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley. The School for Scandal (1777). The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, Vol. 3, edited by Joseph Black, et al. Broadview Press, 2006, pp. 755-798.
Sophocles. Oedipus Rex (429 BCE), translated by Sir George Young. Dover, 1991.
Stowe, Harriett Beecher. Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly (1852). Modern Library, 2001.