500 Words or Less

Capture all the figurative language from the opening of the novel. You will eventually use this for an analysis
paragraph (analyzing the impact of the author’s choice to use figurative language)
FIGRATIVE LANGUAGE
Most Common Types: Impact/Purpose:
Simile (She was like the sun, bright and warm.) -compare things in order to give them detail
Metaphor (She was the sun, bright and warm.) -help the reader understand
Personification (Joy grabbed my by my feet and made me (depth/degree/breadth/expanse)
dance) -articulate abstract and complex concepts in a relatable way
Hyperbole (I told you a million times) -impact the emotional tone
Allusion (He was such a Scrooge—never helping anyone) -evoke a particular tone
Symbolism (The cross on her neck was all she needed) -visualize the author’s intended meaning
Irony -establish atmosphere, rhythm or other stylistic effects
-express a discrepancy between reality and appearance
(irony)

Figurative Language Type of Figurative Language Impact/Purpose of the figurative

from the Text
“It was waiting for me after third
period, like an old friend hanging
around after class” (del Rosario 1)
“I’ve regurgitated facts,” (del
Rosario 1)
“It was life in a holding pattern,
circling around an airport where
you can’t land yet.”(del Rosario 2)
“There were words but none that
carried the same weight.” (Del
Rosario 2)
language
This helps the reader understand
Simile the narrator’s feelings about seeing
the words—for her it was almost
expected or certainly not a surprise.
This metaphor symbolizes how Nic
Metaphor has been forced to retain
knowledge for her grades and the
word ‘regurgitate’ brings with it a
feeling of distress and pain.
This feels like a simile but it’s not
quite a simile without the like or as.
Metaphor This metaphor shows how Nic, as a
result of the expectations on her
succeed along with her own
internal struggles, feels stuck in
limbo and never at rest.
Words have no physical weight.
They carry on the air in sound but
Metaphor they stay heavy in our hearts when
we hear them. Words have impact.

On page 20, Nic compares the

“Her eyes big and black and blonde sophomore to a Lemur
foolish, like a Lemur’s.”(del Rosario Simile three times, each word filled with a
20)” feeling of spite after being
proceeded by “big and black and
foolish”.
“Like one of his conquests” has a
“Not Nicky, like one of his feeling of bitter disdain coming
conquests.” (Del Rosario 22) Simile from Nic, and the word ‘conquest’
tells the reader that Jordan sees
Nic as below him.

“Like the feeling of forgetting a
sweater in winter.” (Del Rosario 25)
“Hope sat on a back burner, in a
teakettle, warming but never
boiling. Never screaming, never
wailing, only mildly percolating.”
(Del Rosario 27)
This simile helps summarize the
way Nic is feeling without Ben. She
Symbolism feels left out in the cold without
protection or comfort.
Nic’s feeling of hope is always in
her corner but it’s never strong
enough to cry out in protest; it’s
Personification never strong enough to act.