Analogy

To quote some Joe from Tweeter – the guy is actually named Joe, this wasn't a reference to “a random person” – “Finding the perfect analogy is like balancing a muffin on a pencil”. It’s wonderful how the phrase is so clear, yet ambiguous. Is it as difficult to perform such a maneuver? Or can you just stick the pencil’s ending into the dough and have the muffin static in the blink of an eye? There’s no way to know unless we ask him, but then again, who guarantees he has considered both options?

So, regardless of the level of difficulty of finding a fitting analogy, what is it really that analogy stands for? It has been defined as “a work that functions on a symbolic level, a kind of extended symbolism.” However, for the well trained eye, everything can have multiple meanings and some alternative representation, even if the author himself doesn’t know it or see it.

Analogy can often be mixed with metaphor and extended metaphor, since they are pretty similar, varying only in their extent or elaboration, the use (or lack thereof) comparison conjunctions, or the directness with which they are stated and acknowledged.  It’s all about comparison, comparison, comparison!

Finding examples of analogy is like going shopping for “something new”. You don’t know what you are looking for, but when you see it you know it is the real deal.

OK, maybe the previous wasn’t that successful, but after all, they are simply for clarifying or embellishment. Look for any comparison in anything you read, and unless it is absolutely literal it’s either a metaphor or an analogy.

Next, we observe newspaper articles (not op-eds!) and how and what they use to fit their purpose.