What is an analogy?
An analogy is using one thing or event to explain the qualities of another thing or event. It usually involves a real situation other people know, or a situation others can easily understand.
The difference between an analogy, a metaphor and a simile are not that big. Similes and metaphors are actually short analogies. Analogies try more to paint a picture so people can compare the situations.
Common ways to create an analogy
- ask a person to remember feeling x, that they already know, and say y is like that
You know the feeling x? That is how I feel about … - ask a person to imagine object x as A, and say object y is like B (where object B has a relationship with A)
If x is A, then y is B - ask a person to compare object x to a moment in history
X is like History Moment Y
Examples
- Remember a feeling
| You know how you felt when I broke your bike? That is how I feel now. | There is a sadness that a person feels when they leave their childhood behind. It is the sadness Hugh feels about leaving this job. |
| You know the feeling you get when you first fall in love? That is how I felt when I saw that car. | The anger that Michael feels towards her is akin to the happiness you have for her. |
2. Imagine object x is A, and object y is B
| He is to girls what kryptonite is to Superman. | If you imagine the universe is everything that will happen in your life, then this test is just a speck of sand on a beach. |
| CGTN is to news what KFC is to a diet. | (using hands to illustrate point) Here…is your chances of passing the test. And here…is the chances of a fish becoming President of the USA. |
3. compare to a moment in history
| That exam was my Gallipoli. An absolute disaster. | America’s visit into Iraq has wound up in the same position as its trip into Vietnam. |
| The feeling I got when I saw them was that Noah felt on landing on Mount Ararat. | The publication of the Panama Papers details should be 21st century’s Watergate. |
Exercises
Make analogies to either describe, or use:
a) how you felt on your first day of school
b) someone being drunk
c) a mouse seeing a cat