Levels of Meaning
The Literal Level
On the literal level, words are used by their dictionary definition or denotation. A hat is simply a hat.
The Figurative Level
Most
students have heard the term figurative language or the phrase “it’s a
figure of speech.” Both refer to the same idea—words can take on
additional meanings. A writer can use the word hat to mean more than a
covering for the head. Consider “John wore many hats in his
lifetime.” John may never have worn a hat. This example of
figurative language tells the reader John has taken on many different
roles, jobs, responsibilities, etc in their life. Similarly, if
John “has a lot on his plate,” he isn’t a big eater but a man of many
time-consuming tasks; having “too many irons in the fire” implies too
many responsibilities, and some of them aren’t being fulfilled just as
too many branding irons in a fire means that some might not be heating
adequately. The following are good examples of figurative
language.
A simile is a comparison between two things using like or as. “You run like a giraffe” is a simile.
A metaphor
makes the same comparison but it doesn't use like or as; it says one
thing is another or implies it. "Her eyes were like daggers" is a
simile. "Her eyes were daggers" is a metaphor using the past
tense if is. "Daggers shot from her eyes and I knew I was in trouble"
is an implied metaphor with her anger compared to daggers without any
form of is.
An analogy is an extended metaphor. This means instead of just one similarity, two things have several common traits.
A personification
occurs when a writer speaks of an inanimate object as if it were a
person or had human qualities. "The pencil sharpener grew tired
of chewing" is a personification.
An oxymoron occurs when two opposites appear together. For example, take “icy hot” or, in my way of thinking, “summer school.”
The Symbolic Level
Many
literature books classify the symbol as a type of figurative
language. However, the symbol goes a step farther than the other
types of figurative language by operating simultaneously on the literal
level and the figurative level. In a story a writer might use a
simile to describe a person, Shelly was as cute as a teddy bear, or a
metaphor, Shelly is a teddy bear, or an implied metaphor, Shelly’s
cuddly stuffing was torn out by their insults. However, when the
writer chooses to use a teddy bear as a symbol, he or she uses it as an
actual, literal object in the story and to represent an idea. If
the writer included a scene in which an old lady sits in a rocking
chair alone and an old, tattered teddy bear with one eye sits on its
own tiny chair in the corner covered with dust, the writer could be
using the teddy bear as a symbol of what the woman has become—a
discarded, forgotten source of comfort. The writer wouldn’t state
this plainly; consequently, symbols aren’t always easy to spot, but
colors are often symbolic in stories as is weather or any source of
water. The flag is a symbol. On a literal level, it’s a
piece of cloth, but on the symbolic level, it is our country.