The comparison (or simile) takes place in the process of approximation of elements from different universes through comparative nexuses (as, such, which, as well as, similar to, similar to, etc.).
Comparison and metaphor are different figures, due to the absence or not of comparative links and the establishment of deviations in the meaning of the word. Hybrid similes can also occur, that is, the occurrence of comparison and metaphor in the same utterance.
Read too: Irony – figure of speech that consists in suggesting the opposite of what is stated
Comparison Examples
"My heart fell in life such as one star wounded by a hunter's arrow."
(Cecília Meireles)
Note the presence of the comparative nexus as it is, wherein me lyric draws an analogy with "...star wounded by a hunter's arrow."
See an example of comparison in the song “Like our parents”, recorded by Elis Regina and written by Belchior.
You ask me
for my passion
I say I'm delighted
Like a new invention
Realize the expressive force of the lyrical self when using the particlelike to put oneself on a level of enchantment similar to the sensations a new invention can provoke.
Comparison and Metaphor
Comparison and metaphor are figures distinct, due to the absence or not of comparative nexuses, because, while in metaphor, deviations in the meaning of the word occur, in comparison occurs the confrontation of people or things, in order to highlight characteristics, similarities, common traits, aiming at an effect expressive.
Note the example, taken in Chosen Chronicles by Rubem Braga:
"The peacock is a rainbow of feathers."
The peacock's armed tail forms a multicolored fan, giving it the similarities and enchantments of a rainbow, thus configuring a metaphorical process, as there are no comparative nexuses within the sentence. Note that the comparative effect occurs implicitly to the point where the meaning of the word peacock is deviated.
Now, see the example with the insertion of the comparative element:
"The peacock is like a rainbow of feathers.”
The comparative and expressive strength gained prominence due to the particle like. Note that the meaning of the words “peacock” and “rainbow” has not suffered any deviation. Thus, we do not have a metaphor, but a figure of speech per simile or Comparation. To learn more about the figure of speech that establishes the implicit comparison, read: Metaphor.
hybrid simile
Studies around comparison and metaphor describe a phenomenon known as hybrid similes. Note the statement:
THE bridge to infinity was like a watershed in my life.
Understand that "bridge to infinity" is a metaphor that expresses the powers of a book, which, in turn, is compared, through the particle like,to a “watershed…”. Therefore, we identified the relationship between metaphor and comparison in the same text, configuring a hybrid simile.
See too: What are syntax pictures?
solved exercises
question 1 - (UECE 2015)
the garage of the house
With the door broken, and an invitation to book thieves, the garage of the house resembles a public library permanently open to the street. But the individuals who shelter there from the rain or the mid-summer sun are not adept at literature. These idlers kill time by playing piggy, or reading the old newspapers that my mother huddles in a corner, sitting on the steps of the ladder with which she reaches the high shelves. When they do the favor of freeing up the space, from time to time I go in to look at the shelves where there is a little of everything, mostly remittances from foreign publishers who appreciate my father. In a stronghold of such a variety of literature, as the used by used bookstores are well aware, the prospect of finding a good book by pure chance is fascinating. Or by serendipity, as the English say when hunting for treasure one has the happiness of finding another good, even more precious. Today I see on the same shelf old acquaintances, a few dozen Turkish or Bulgarian or Hungarian books that Dad might one day want to disentangle. Also in evidence is the book by the Romanian poet Eminescu, which Dad at least tried to read, as it is easy to infer from the cut sheets the spatula. There is an Arabic alphabet edition of the Arabian Nights that he has not read, but whose illustrations he has long admired, as evidenced by the streaks of ash at the junction of its colored pages. Today I have the experience to know how many times my father read the same book, I can almost measure how many minutes he stopped on each page. And I don't usually waste time on books he hasn't even opened, including a few chosen ones that my mother had the whim to stack on a corner of the shelf, trusting in future redemption. I often saw her in the early morning pitying the books sprawled in her office, with special affection for those who have the author's photo on the cover and that Dad despises: it looks like a radio singer's record.
(BUARQUE, Chico. the german brother. 1st ed. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2014. P. 60-61.
Text adapted with the addition of the title.)
The work the german brother, last book by Chico Buarque de Holanda, has as part of the narrative the existence of an unknown German brother, the result of a love affair that his father, Sérgio Buarque de Holanda, had had with a German woman, back in the late 30s of the century past. Just when Hitler rises to power in Germany. This fact is real: the journalist, historian and sociologist Sérgio Buarque de Holanda, at the time, single, left his son in Germany. In the family, however, the subject was not discussed. Chico, by chance, became aware of his father's adventure in a meeting at Manuel Bandeira's house, as a result of a comment made by Bandeira himself.
It was around the alleged search for this alleged brother that Chico Buarque developed his fictional narrative, his novel.
About the work, says Fernando de Barros e Silva: “what the reader has in hand [...] is not a historical report. Reality and fiction are here embedded in a narrative that endlessly shuffles biographical memory and fiction”.
The text begins with the statement: “With the gate broken, and in an invitation to book thieves, the garage of the house resembles a public library permanently open to the street” (ref. 1).
Choose option INCORRECT in relation to this statement.
a) This statement establishes a relationship of similarity between home garage and public library.
b) In this relationship, the garage of the house is the compared element and the public library is the comparative element.
c) What allows for the comparison is the presence of meaning traits common to the two elements, in the case of the text, the door open to the street.
d) In comparing the text, as in any comparison, the comparator term is less expressive than the compared term.
Resolution
Alternative D. In an analogy relationship, the comparator term is always more expressive than the compared term. In the utterance segment, the comparative term, "house garage", acquires a more expressive meaning than the term comparative, “public library”, for transforming a secondary space in the house into one of public and cultural utility.
question 2 - (Uel)
Where are you
It's midnight... and roaring
The wind is sad,
As a disgraceful verb,
Like a scream of agony.
And I say to the wind, that it passes
Through my fleeting hair:
“Cold desert wind,
Where is she? Far or close?"
But like an uncertain breath,
Answer me the echo in the distance:
“Oh! my lover, where are you..."
Comes! It's late! Why delay?
It's times of light sleep
Come lean on my chest
With your languid abandon...
’Our bed is empty...
The whole world is empty;
And you don't want me to stay
Lonely in this life...
But why delay, dear...
I've been waiting a long time...
Come quickly, I'm delirious
Oh! my lover, where are you...
Star — in the storm,
Rose — in the wilds of life,
Iris - from the errant castaway,
Illusion—from the disbelieved soul!
You were, beautiful woman!
You were, O daughter of heaven...
And today that my past
Forever dead lies...
Seeing my luck ends,
I ask the North winds...
“Oh! my lover, where are you?"
(CASTRO ALVES, A. F. floating foams. São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 2005. P. 84-85.)
Check the alternative that correctly relates lines in the poem to figures of speech.
a) The comparison between the wind and the beloved is verified in the verses “But why delay, dear... / I've been waiting a long time...”.
b) In “Like a disgraceful verb, / Like a cry of agony.”, the antithesis opposes the fleeting wind to the sadness of the gale.
c) The verses “You were a beautiful woman! / You were, O daughter of heaven...” they compare the beloved to the sad and fleeting wind, as both prevent her soft sleep.
d) The comparison present in the verses “But, like an uncertain breath, / The echo in the distance answers me:” reinforces the absence of an answer about the beloved's whereabouts.
e) The antithesis, present throughout the poem, is exemplified by the lines “... And today that my past / Forever dead lies...”.
Resolution
Alternative D. While the antithesis occurs when there is an approximation of words or expressions of opposite meanings, the comparison brings two terms between which there is some similarity relationship through a connective (which, like).
by Marcelo Sartel
grammar teacher
