Week 19

This week's lesson was on simile and metaphor.  Dr. Seuss makes skillful and hilarious use of them in his ode to The Grinch in the 1966 cartoon How the Grinch Stole Christmas (click on image to play the clip).  Both similes and metaphors are tropes (meaning they appeal to the imagination rather than the senses).  Both of these tropes compare things of different kinds that share some attribute the author wants to emphasize.  A simile makes the comparison using "like" or "as" whereas a metaphor makes a more direct comparison, saying one thing is another.

Simile: You're as cuddly as a cactus
Metaphor: Your heart's an empty hole

Writing assignment

• Add one simile and one metaphor to your essay.  Mark them so that they are easy for me to find.
• Outline either chapter 4 or 5 (correction) in Aristotle for Everybody
• Practice simile and metaphor by completing your choice of the following two assignments:

1. Complete the worksheet sets on simile (pages 81-85) and metaphor (pages 123-126)
2. Write something (narrative, poem, story, etc.) between 200 and 300 words using 3 similes and 3 metaphors.  Mark similes and metaphors so they are easy to identify.

Reading assignment

• Aristotle for Everybody chapters 4 and 5 (correction).  Outline one chapter (see above).  For the other chapter, highlight key terms and make notes in the margin to help you explain key ideas in the chapter if called upon to do so.
• Read chapters 1 & 2 of The King of the Golden River slowly and carefully using your yellow highlighter for flow of thought and your blue for noteworthy passages.  Try to find at least one blue in each chapter.  Use orange to mark similes and metaphors if you notice them.