What is comparison in literature 4. Visual means of language: comparison, metaphor

To the question of what a comparison is in literature, one can briefly answer that it is a trope, that is, a special one. This technique is based on displaying certain properties of the described object or phenomenon by comparing these features with others, based on how others see or perceive them or the author himself.

Components of Comparisons

This path is characterized by the presence of three components: the described object or phenomenon, the object with which it is compared, and the basis for analogy, that is, a common feature. An interesting fact is that the name itself, an indication of this common feature, can be omitted in the text. But the reader or listener still perfectly understands and feels what the author of the statement wanted to convey to the interlocutor or reader.

However, the very understanding of the definition, which explains what a comparison is in the literature, does not yet give a complete picture without examples. And here a clarification immediately arises: with the help of what parts of speech and in what forms do the authors form these tropes?

Types of comparisons in the literature for nouns

Several types of comparisons can be distinguished.

Mode of action comparisons in the literature

Typically, such constructions involve verbs and adverbs, nouns or whole phrases and

Why are comparisons needed in literature?

Having dealt with the question of what a comparison is in literature, it is necessary to understand: are they needed? To do this, you need to do a little research.

Here is one that uses comparisons: “The dark forest stood as if after a fire. The moon was hiding behind the clouds, as it covers her face with a black scarf. The wind seems to have fallen asleep in the bushes.

And here is the same text, in which all comparisons were removed. “The dark forest stood. The moon was hiding behind the clouds. Wind". In principle, the meaning itself is conveyed in the text. But how much more figuratively the picture of the night forest is presented in the first version than in the second!

Are comparisons necessary in ordinary speech?

Some may think that comparisons are necessary only for writers and poets. But ordinary people in their ordinary lives do not need them at all. This statement is absolutely false!

At the doctor’s appointment, the patient, describing his feelings, will definitely resort to comparisons: “The heart hurts ... It’s like it’s cutting with a knife, otherwise it’s like someone is squeezing it into a fist ...” Grandmother, explaining to her granddaughter how to make dough for pancakes, is also forced to compare : "You add water until the dough becomes like thick sour cream." Mom tiredly pulls the excessively amused baby: “Stop jumping like a hare!”

Probably, many will object that the article is devoted to comparisons in the literature. What is our common speech? Be proud, the townsfolk: many people speak using literary speech. Therefore, even vernacular is one of the layers of literature.

Comparisons in the highly specialized literature

Even technical texts cannot do without comparisons. For example, in order not to repeat the process already described above in the recipe for cooking fried fish, for short, the author often writes: "Fish should be fried in the same way as cutlets."

Or in a manual for people who master the basics of designing from plywood or wood, you can find the phrase: “The screws are screwed in with a drill in the same way as they are unscrewed. Just before work, you should set it to the desired mode.

Comparisons are a necessary technique in the literature of various directions. The ability to use them correctly distinguishes a cultured person.

Comparison is a figurative expression built on the comparison of two objects, concepts or states that have a common feature, due to which the artistic significance of the first object is enhanced.

The purpose of literary comparison is to reveal the image as fully as possible through common features. In comparison, both compared objects are always mentioned, although the common feature itself may be omitted.

Sometimes one comparison is enough to give a capacious, clear description of a character or phenomenon.

Thin as a Dutch herring, mother entered the office to a fat and round, like a beetle, father and coughed. (Chekhov. Dad)

Like a hawk floating in the sky, having made many circles with strong wings, suddenly stops flattened in one place and shoots from there with an arrow at a male quail screaming near the road itself, so Taras's son, Ostap, suddenly flew into a cornet and immediately threw a rope around his neck. (Gogol. Taras Bulba)

Comparison serves to create visual images, is a tool for verbal painting - the eyes of Katyusha Maslova in Tolstoy's Resurrection, "black as wet currants", or Princess Marya from War and Peace, "large, deep and radiant (as if rays of warm light occasionally came out of them in sheaves).

TYPES OF LITERARY COMPARISONS

The simplest form of comparison is usually expressed using auxiliary words:

HOW - stood up like a pillar
EXACTLY - he flew past, like a bullet
AS if - as if a tornado escaped from under the wheels
AS LIKE - you, like a commander, report
LIKE - black lightning similar
LIKE - he was like a wounded soldier
AS IF - as if burned him ...
LIKE - you look like a teddy bear

The snow-covered hill is like a huge cake, generously sprinkled with powdered sugar.

NEGATIVE - one object is opposed to another - "An attempt is not torture", "hunger is not an aunt."
Negative comparisons are often used in folk expressions:
“It’s not the wind that bends the branch, It’s not the oak forest that makes noise.”

GENTIVE comparisons can be made with a noun in the genitive case.
"Older sister"
"Be back before March"
"Be better than others"
"He looked at me through the eyes of a saint."
"Harun ran faster than a doe"
This type is primarily used to visually convey, describe, characterize the appearance, internal property and state, behavior, etc. person.
In inanimate genitive comparisons, established language constructions are most often encountered.

Now compare the nuances of the expressions: "I ran with the speed of the wind" and "I ran with the same speed as the wind."

Comparisons ACTIVE are formed using a noun in the instrumental case.
“Dust is a pillar”, “Smoke is a rocker”.

Comparison can be created with the ADVERB OF ACTION - "Screamed like an animal".

There are NON-UNIONAL comparisons formed by means of a compound nominal predicate.
“So thin is my summer robe - Wings of a cicada!”

There is a so-called UNDEFINED comparison, which expresses the superlative state:

"And when the moon shines at night, When it shines - the devil knows how?"

Sometimes the very action of an object or phenomenon is omitted, and only comparison is used in the expression - you should guess about the action itself.
“The rain seemed to go berserk: it whipped everyone in a row with a silver whip, foamed puddles, choked with a strong wind”

DETAILED COMPARISONS
In this case, the author draws the reader's attention to several features.
It (Pushkin's verse) is gentle, sweet, soft, like the roar of a wave, viscous and thick, like tar, bright, like lightning, transparent and pure, like a crystal, fragrant and fragrant, like spring, strong and powerful, like a blow of a sword in the hands hero. (V. Belinsky)

WRONG COMPARISONS

Once, a long time ago—and those were blessed times—all comparisons were fresh.
When the camel was first called the ship of the desert, it was very poetic.
However, everything deteriorates over time - including comparisons.
Then we are talking about hackneyed comparisons - that is, bored, vulgarized by frequent use, worn out, hackneyed.
A joyless life is necessarily a long dark tunnel.
Blue eyes - certainly, like cornflowers or like azure sky.
Blonde means hair is like gold.
Etc.

When hair is compared to snow on the basis of whiteness, the figurativeness of speech weakens, because the basis for such a comparison is too well known. (c) A.I. Efimov.

The most significant sign of artistic comparison is the element of surprise, novelty, ingenuity.

O.Henry. The leader of the Redskins.
There is one small town there, flat as a pancake, and, of course, it is called Peaks. The most harmless and contented redneck lives in it, which is fit only to dance around the May pole.<…>
The son was a boy of about ten, with prominent freckles all over his face and hair about the color of the cover of the magazine you usually buy at a kiosk on your way to the train.<…>
This boy fought like a medium-weight brown bear, but in the end we stuffed him into the bottom of the chaise and drove off.<…>
"He's fine now," Bill says, rolling up his pants to see the abrasions on his shins. - We play Indians. The circus, compared to us, is just views of Palestine in a magic lantern.<…>
At dawn, I was awakened by Bill's terrible screeching. Not screams, or screams, or howls, or roars, as one would expect from the vocal cords of a man - no, downright obscene, terrifying, humiliating squealing, which women squeal when they see a ghost or a caterpillar. It is terrible to hear a fat, strong man of desperate courage squeal incessantly in a cave at the dawn of the morning.<…>
I dodged and heard a dull heavy thud and something like a horse's sigh when the saddle is removed from it. A black stone the size of an egg hit Bill on the head just behind his left ear. He immediately went limp and fell headlong into the fire, right on a pot of boiling water for washing dishes.<…>
As soon as the boy discovered that we were going to leave him at home, he raised a howl like a ship's siren and clung to Bill's leg like a leech. His father tore him off his leg like a sticky plaster.<…>

Artistic comparison does not have to be strictly logical; a wide variety of objects and phenomena can serve as a material for it. The main thing is what new quality will arise, what image will be born.

... The sandy path from the foliage is patterned - Like spider paws, like jaguar fur. (Severyanin. Kenzeli)

Both similarity and contrast are equally important and valuable as a source of new meanings and feelings.

Thus,
Comparison usually serves to explain another by means of one fact. An abstract thought becomes understandable if something tangible, visible, obvious is involved for comparison. (c)E. Etkind.

The Russian language is rich and diverse, with the help of it we ask questions, share impressions, information, convey emotions, talk about what we remember.

Our language allows us to draw, show and create verbal pictures. Literary speech is like painting (Fig. 1).

Rice. 1. Painting

In verse and prose, bright, picturesque speech that stimulates the imagination, in such a speech figurative language is used.

Figurative means of language- these are ways and techniques of recreating reality, making it possible to make speech vivid and figurative.

Sergei Yesenin has the following lines (Fig. 2).

Rice. 2. Text of the poem

Epithets make it possible to look at the autumn nature. By means of juxtaposition, the author gives the reader the opportunity to see how the leaves fall, as if flock of butterflies(Fig. 3).

Rice. 3. Mapping

as if is an indication of the comparison (Fig. 4). Such a comparison is called comparison.

Rice. 4. Mapping

Comparison - this is a comparison of the depicted object or phenomenon with another object according to a common feature for them. For comparison you need:

• To find something in common between the two phenomena;
• Special word with collation meaning - as if, exactly, as, as if, as if

Consider the line of a poem by Sergei Yesenin (Fig. 5).

Rice. 5. A line of a poem

First, the reader is presented with a fire, and then a mountain ash. This is due to equalization, identification by the author of two phenomena. It is based on the similarity of rowan clusters with a fiery red fire. But the words as if, as if, exactly are not used because the author does not compare rowan with a fire, but calls it a fire, this metaphor.

Metaphor - transferring the properties of one object or phenomenon to another according to the principle of their similarity.

Metaphor, like comparison, is based on similarity, but difference from comparison in that it happens without the use of special words (as if, as if).

When studying the world, one can see something in common between phenomena, and this is reflected in the language. The visual means of language are based on the similarity of objects and phenomena. Thanks to comparison and metaphor, speech becomes brighter, more expressive, you can see the verbal pictures that poets and writers create.

Sometimes the comparison is created without a special word, in a different way. For example, as in the lines of S. Yesenin's poem "The fields are compressed, the groves are bare ..." (Fig. 6):

Rice. 6. Lines from S. Yesenin's poem "The fields are compressed, the groves are bare ..."

Month compared to foal that is growing before our eyes. But there are no words indicating a comparison; a creative comparison is used (Fig. 7). Word foal stands in the Instrumental case.

Rice. 7. Using the Instrumental for Comparison

Consider the lines of S. Yesenin's poem "The golden grove dissuaded ..." (Fig. 8).

Rice. 8. "The golden grove dissuaded ..."

In addition to metaphor (Fig. 9), personification is used, for example, in the phrase dissuaded the grove(Fig. 10).

Rice. 9. Metaphor in a poem

Rice. 10. Personification in a poem

Personification is a kind of metaphor, when an inanimate object is described as living. This is one of the most ancient speech techniques, because our ancestors animated the inanimate in myths, fairy tales and folk poetry.

Exercise

Find comparisons and metaphors in Sergei Yesenin's poem "Birch" (Fig. 11).

Rice. 11. The poem "Birch"

Answer

Snow compared with silver because it looks like him. Used word exactly(Fig. 12).

Rice. 13. Creative comparison

The metaphor is used in the phrase snowflakes are burning(Fig. 14).

Rice. 15. Personification

1. Russian language. 4th grade. Tutorial in 2 parts. Klimanova L.F., Babushkina T.V. M.: Education, 2014.
2. Russian language. 4th grade. Part 1. Kanakina V.P., Goretsky V.G. M.: Education, 2013.
3. Russian language. 4th grade. Tutorial in 2 parts. Buneev R.N., Buneeva E.V. 5th ed., revised. M., 2013.
4. Russian language. 4th grade. Tutorial in 2 parts. Ramzaeva T.G. M., 2013.
5. Russian language. 4th grade. Tutorial in 2 parts. Zelenina L.M., Khokhlova T.E. M., 2013.

1. Internet portal "Festival of Pedagogical Ideas "Open Lesson"" ()
2. Internet portal "literatura5.narod.ru" ()

Homework

1. What are the visual aids used for?
2. What is needed for comparison?
3. How is comparison different from metaphor?

Literature (real) is the true art of creating texts, the creation of a new object through words. As in any complex craft, literature has its own special techniques. One of them is "comparison". With its help, for greater expressiveness or ironic contrast, certain objects, their qualities, people, and traits of their character are compared.

In contact with

The kettle, with its upturned trunk, puffed on the stove like a young elephant rushing to a watering place..

─ Ironic assimilation of a small inanimate object to a large animal by comparing the long spout of a teapot and an elephant's trunk.

Comparison: Definition

There are at least three definitions of comparison in the literature.

For a literary text, the first definition will be more correct. But the most talented authors of fiction successfully work with the second and third definitions, the role of comparison in the text is so great. Examples of comparisons in literature and folklore of the last two types:

He is stupid as an oak, but cunning as a fox.

Unlike Afanasy Petrovich, Igor Dmitrievich was thin in physique, like a mop handle, just as straight and elongated.

In growth, the pygmies of the Congo Delta are like children, their skin is not black like that of Negroes, but yellowish, like fallen leaves.
In the latter case, along with the use of "negative comparison" ("not"), direct similitude ("as if") is combined.

The Russian language is so rich that the authors of works of art use a huge number of types of comparisons. Philologists can only roughly classify them. Modern philology distinguishes the following two main types of comparison and four more comparisons in fiction.

• Direct. In this case, comparative turns (conjunctions) “as if”, “like”, “exactly”, “as if” are used. He bared his soul in front of him, as a nudist exposes his body on the beach.
• Indirect. With this assimilation, prepositions are not used. The hurricane swept all the garbage from the streets with a giant janitor.

In the second sentence, the compared noun (“hurricane”) is used in the nominative case, and the compared (“janitor”) is used in the instrumental. Other types:

As far back as the 19th century, the philologist and Slavist M. Petrovsky singled out “Homeric” or “epic” assimilation from detailed comparisons in literature. In this case, the author of the literary text, not caring about brevity, expands the comparison, digressing from the main storyline, from the compared subject as far as his imagination allows. Examples are easy to find in the Iliad or postmodernists.

Ajax rushed at the enemies, like a starving lion at the frightened huddled sheep, who had lost their shepherd, who were left without protection, defenseless, like children without supervision, and can only timidly moan and back away in fear of the lion's thirst for blood and murder, which seizes the predator like madness, intensifying when he senses the horror of the doomed...
It is better not to resort to the epic type of comparisons for a novice writer of literary texts. The young writer must wait until his literary prowess and sense of artistic harmony have grown. Otherwise, an inexperienced beginner himself will not notice how, winding one on top of the other, like threads from different balls, such “free associations” will carry him away from the plot of his main narrative, creating semantic confusion. So comparisons in a literary text can not only simplify the understanding of the described subject (a tiger is a huge predatory cat), but also confuse the narration.

Comparison in verse

The role of literary comparison in poetry is especially important. The poet uses the richness of the language to create a unique and aesthetically valuable work of art, or rather to convey his idea to the reader.

We are often hard and bad

From the tricks of a tricky fate,

But we, with the obedience of camels

We carry our humps.

With these lines, the poet explains to the reader his own idea that most of the troubles that happen in life are natural, like camels’ humps, that sometimes you just can’t get rid of them, but you just need to “carry” them for some time.

Without you, no work, no rest:

are you a woman or a bird?

After all, you are like a creature of air,

"Vozdushnitsa" - darling!

In most poems, the authors use comparisons to create a bright, beautiful, easy-to-remember image. Most of these colorful comparisons are in the texts of N. Gumilyov, Mayakovsky. But I. Brodsky remains an unsurpassed master of the use of detailed comparisons in artistic literary versification.

Comparisons are also used in spoken language. When writing any text, even a school essay, one cannot do without comparisons. So you need to firmly remember a few rules of punctuation of the literary Russian language. Commas are placed before comparative phrases with the words:

• as if
• as if
• as if,
• like,
• exactly

So when you write:

• He was taller than the teenager she remembered.
• The day flared up quickly and hot, like a fire into which gasoline was suddenly splashed.

─ in these situations, do not hesitate, commas are necessary. Much more problems await you with the "how" union. The fact is that, even if the “how” particle is part of a comparative turnover, a comma before it is not needed if:

It can be replaced with a dash. Steppe like a sea of ​​grass.

This union is part of a stable phraseological unit. Faithful like a dog.

The particle is included in the predicate. For me the past is like a dream.

The conjunction, within the meaning of the sentence, is replaced by an adverb or a noun. He looked like a wolf possible substitutions: looked like a wolf , looked like a wolf .

Where else do you need commas

According to the rules of punctuation, commas are not needed before “how” and when it is preceded by adverbs or particles in a sentence:

It's time to end, midnight seems to have struck.

Not separated by commas "as" if it is preceded by a negative particle.

He looked at the new gate not like a ram.
So when you use similes to spruce up or make your text clearer, remember the tricky "how" particle and punctuation rules, and you'll be fine!

A figurative comparison is a figure of speech that compares two different things in an interesting way. The purpose of the comparison is to evoke an interesting connection in the mind of the reader or listener. Comparison is one of the most common forms of figurative language. Figurative comparison can be found anywhere: from poems to song lyrics and even in everyday conversations.

Comparisons and metaphors often get mixed up with each other. The main difference between a simile and a metaphor is that a simile uses the words "as" to compare, while a metaphor simply indicates the comparison without using "as". An example of comparison is: she is as innocent as an angel. Metaphor example: She is an angel.

Comparisons in everyday language

Comparisons are used in literature to make speech more vivid and powerful. In everyday speech, they can be used to convey meaning quickly and effectively, as many frequently used expressions are similes. For example, when someone says, "He's as busy as a bee," it means he's working hard, as bees are known to be very industrious and busy.

Some other well-known comparisons that you often hear:

• Happy as an elephant.
• Light as a feather.
• Innocent as a lamb.
• Tall like a giraffe.
• White as a ghost.
• Sweet like sugar.
• Black as coal.

As with a lot of figurative language, when you're talking to someone from a different region or not speaking their own language, they may not understand the meaning of many of the comparisons.

Comparisons add depth to your speech

Figurative comparisons can make our language more visual and enjoyable. Writers often use comparisons to add depth and emphasize what they are trying to convey to the reader or listener. Comparisons can be funny, serious, mundane or creative.

Figurative similes are a great tool to use in creative language. Not only do they make what you write or say more interesting, but they can often intrigue the reader. When creating your own comparisons, be on the lookout for clichés and try to go beyond obvious comparisons.