Identify the figure of speech used in the following sentence:
"The silence screamed louder than their arguments."
Identify the figure of speech used in the following sentence:
"The silence screamed louder than their arguments."
Solution
Silence, an abstract and non-living thing, is given the human action of screaming, which is the defining mark of personification.
Anaphora involves repetition at the start of clauses.
Hyperbole is deliberate exaggeration.
Metaphor makes a direct comparison between two things.
Extra learning: Could this be an Oxymoron? (putting two directly opposite words together, like “deafening silence” or “bittersweet.”) -> “Silence screamed” has a contradiction in idea, but the words are not functioning as a standard oxymoron pair. The clearer figure is personification because silence is made to “scream.”
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