Figurative language and literary devices: identifying and analyzing metaphor, simile, personification, symbolism, imagery, irony, and tone in a literary text, and explaining the effect of a device on meaning rather than only labeling it, on a Georgia Milestones American Literature passage.

What this skill is asking

Figurative language says one thing to mean another, and the Georgia Milestones American Literature EOC asks you to read it for meaning and effect, not just to label it. A question may ask what a metaphor suggests, what a symbol stands for, what irony reveals, or how imagery shapes the tone. This page covers the core devices (metaphor, simile, personification, symbolism, imagery, irony, and tone), how to tell the close ones apart, and the move that earns marks: explaining the effect of a device on meaning or feeling. The transferable skill is treating figurative language as a writer's tool with a purpose, then saying what it accomplishes here.

The core devices and how to tell them apart

Several devices are easy to confuse, so precision matters.

The most common mix-up is metaphor versus simile: if the comparison uses "like" or "as," it is a simile; if it states one thing simply is another, it is a metaphor. The second is symbolism versus imagery: imagery makes you picture something; a symbol makes the something stand for an idea beyond itself. American literature uses recurring symbols heavily (rivers, light, roads, houses), so when an object keeps returning with weight, ask what it represents.

Reading a device for its effect

Tone deserves special attention because it ties the devices together: a string of dark images, ironic asides, and cold metaphors creates a bleak tone, and the EOC often asks you to identify tone and the language that creates it. Read for the cumulative feeling of the word choices, then name it precisely (nostalgic, bitter, hopeful, uneasy) rather than vaguely (good, bad).

Putting it together

Try this

Q1. What is the difference between a metaphor and a simile? [Recall]

• Cue. A metaphor states that one thing is another ("time is a thief"); a simile compares using "like" or "as" ("time passes like a thief in the night"). The comparison word marks the simile.

Q2. A passage repeatedly describes a faded photograph the narrator carries everywhere. By the end, the photograph clearly stands for the narrator's lost youth. What device is this, and what is its effect? [Short explanation]

• Cue. It is a symbol: the concrete photograph represents the abstract idea of lost youth. Its effect is to give the theme of loss a physical anchor the reader can track, so the narrator's longing becomes visible in a single recurring object.