Identifying metaphors involves looking for direct comparisons between two objects or ideas in a sentence, while similes use qualifiers like “like” or “as.” Extended metaphors may continue indirectly across sentences. Direct comparisons use words like “is” or “are,” and sentences with only one object usually do not contain metaphors.
When identifying sentences with metaphor, you should look for two or more objects or ideas in a sentence, usually represented by nouns, which are directly compared to each other. This is in contrast to similes where two objects or ideas are compared to each other with qualifiers such as “like” or “like,” rather than through a direct comparison. You should also look for sentences that use an extended metaphor from an earlier section of a paragraph, which may be harder to see since one of the ideas or objects may be missing from the current metaphorical usage.
Metaphor sentences can typically be identified by looking for two objects or ideas in a sentence that are directly compared to each other. This means that you can usually start by looking to see if a sentence has two different ideas or objects, since a sentence with only one object usually does not contain a metaphor. “The cat ran fast and silent”, contains no metaphors as there is only one object, the cat. It is still possible to find sentences containing only one object, although this is quite rare and usually consists of an indirect metaphor such as “The cat crept silently, ready to strike”, which compares the cat to a snake, but do not directly mention the snake.
Once you have found two objects in metaphor sentences, you should look for a comparison between these two objects. Metaphors use direct comparisons, which means that a metaphor uses a direct word such as “is” or “are”; metaphors such as “The cat is a wrecking ball of destruction” or “His eyes are pools of sea foam” use direct comparisons. In a metaphor, one object is said to be directly another object, although the reader understands that this is symbolic and does not want to be literal. This makes sentences with metaphors easy to distinguish from sentences with similes such as “The cat was like a tornado” or “His eyes were like sparkling gems.”
However, as you search for phrases with metaphors, you should also keep in mind the possibility of extended metaphors. These are metaphors that typically run from one sentence to another, but often continue the comparison indirectly. The phrase “The cat is a wrecking ball of destruction” is a clear metaphor that you could easily find in a paragraph or in a reading. If the next sentence, or a few sentences after, read “As the cat staggered back for another swing across the room,” would it continue or extend the comparison and image of the cat as a wrecking ball, without again clearly indicating the metaphor.
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