Figurative Language, Part 1

How do authors use direct or indirect characterization to reveal a character's personality? Consider the following quotes from "Zebra":

• "Are you going to make gloomy drawings, too?" said Andrea. 
• "Her long red hair was tied behind her head with a dark-blue ribbon.'"

Identify whether the author uses direct or indirect characterization in the above quotes. Use the actual quotes as part of your concrete evidence. Explain how the quotes are examples of direct or indirect characterization as well as  what the quotes reveal about Andrea's characters? 

Figurative language is all around us.  It's in everything we read, fiction and nonfiction, so it's important to explicitly teach the language to students early in the year.  It's not just a poetry thing, it's a reading thing.

Figurative language includes hyperbole, personification, metaphors, simile, and metaphor.  It's not meant to be taken literally, but we understand what it means. Figurative language is what makes writing come alive.  It's what breathes life into literal words.

In addition to taking the notes, I had a collection of figurative language from Laurence Yep's novel, Dragonwings. My student teacher spent time cutting the strips of examples apart and putting them in plastic baggies.  Each group got a baggie, and after each term, was asked to read through the stripes of examples to find an example of the term we were working on.  Not ever term had an example in Dragonwings, so we skipped that step for some of the words.

We started with alliteration, which isn't non-literal language, but it's under the umbrella of lovely language.  Essentially, alliteration is tongue twisters.  Beginning sounds are repeated to create a certain effect, or mood. A repeated 's' sound can sound sinister and threatening.  A repeated 'b' sound can create a bubbly, joyful mood. A repeated 'f' sound can sound heavy, can force your slow the reading to create a slow, heavy feeling.

•  Examples from Dragonwings

• “There was not the slightest surge of surf, and no wind stirred its surface” (Yep 46).

• “I saw. . .regiment after regiment of strange, silent, scaled soldiers” (Yep 46).

• “I heard the clink of harness and the rattle of an old wagon trying to follow the ruts in the road” (Yep 289).

An allusion is a reference to a well-known person, place, thing, or event.  You could reference Alice and Wonderland by saying "I fell down the rabbit hole."  You could reference Harry Pottery by saying something about Diagon Alley. 

Connotations are the feelings that are created or suggested by a certain word. It's the shades of meaning that are conveyed by a word.  They can be positive or negative, and sometimes, people have different connotations of the same word. Different cultures have their own connotations for certain words, such as colors. No one's wrong, it's just different.

Denotation are the literal, dictionary definitions of a word. It's the actual definition of a word that is not subject to emotion.

Hyperbole.  Oh, sweet hyperbole.  Oh how I love thee.  I love hyperbole.  I love hyperbole so much that I tell my students that I will fail them all the way back to kindergarten if they don't show that they understand hyperbole, which, of course, is a hyperbole.  Hyperbole are exaggerations, intended to emphasize a certain idea.

• Examples from Dragonwings

• “Well, you young fool, are you finally finished making enough racket to tear down the house?” (Yep 121).

• “We started out yesterday morning just to get here” (Yep 194).

• “Are you hungry?” “Can’t you hear the rumbling in our stomachs?” “I thought it was another tremor in the earth” (Yep 218).

Idioms are non-literal language that is culture specific.  If you grow up within a culture, you absorb the idioms just by hearing them, but to non-native speakers?  They make absolutely no sense.

• Examples from Dragonwings

• Uncle stuck his foot in his mouth.
• It’s raining cats and dogs.
• Windrider cut the apron strings and set out on his own.
• The Tang racked their brains to think up a way to convince the demons to let them stay in Chinatown.
• Miss Whitlaw went to bat for Windrider and asked his landlord what was wrong.
• Windrider put his nose to the grindstone to make a plane that would fly.

 And we're done with figurative language. . . not! Come back tomorrow for more figurative language madness!

Today's lesson picture was created by Wordle.  Thanks, wordle!