Analogy (Literary Terms)

Analogy,Literary Terms

Analogy – Literary Terms

 

A comparison of similar things, often for the purpose of

using something familiar to explain something unfamiliar. For example, the branching of a river system is often explained by comparing it to a tree. The work of the heart is explained by comparing it to a pump. Although the two items being compared in an analogy may be similar in a number of ways, they are not identical. The whole truth about one is not the whole truth about the other. An analogy pushed beyond the points of similarity thus breaks down and loses its effectiveness.

An effective METAPHOR OR SIMILE differs from an analogy in that a metaphor or a simile makes an imaginativė, often unexpected, comparison between basically dissimilar things, as in these lines from Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market:

Her locks streamed like a torch

Borne by a racer at full speed.

See also:

METAPHOR,

SIMILE.