What is comparison in literature 4. Figurative means of language: comparison, metaphor

Dyakova K.V.,
4th year student at the Institute of Philology of TSU named after. G.R. Derzhavina.

Medieval comparison in the system of sound images of E.I.’s prose. Zamyatin
(based on materials from the book by D.S. Likhachev “Poetics ancient Russian literature»)

D. S. Likhachev’s contribution to the development of literary criticism is largely determined by the fact that he approached the chronicle not only as a historian, but also as a literary critic himself. He studied the growth and change in the methods of chronicle writing themselves, their dependence on the uniqueness of the Russian historical process. This revealed a deep interest in the problem of artistic mastery of ancient Russian literature, characteristic of all Likhachev’s work, and he considers the style of literature as a manifestation of the artistic consciousness of the nation.

A generalization of D. S. Likhachev’s observations on artistic specificity ancient Russian literature was his article “Towards the study of artistic methods of Russian literature of the 11th - 17th centuries.” (1964), and, of course, the book “The Poetics of Old Russian Literature” (1967), awarded the USSR State Prize (1969). D. S. Likhachev’s monograph is distinguished by the breadth of the range of phenomena under consideration and the harmony of the composition, which makes it possible to connect seemingly the most distant phenomena of artistic life - from the features of stylistic symmetry in the monuments of translated literature of Kievan Rus to the problems of the poetics of time in the works of Goncharov or Dostoevsky. This complex composition of the book is due to the concept of the unity of Russian literature constantly developed by D. S. Likhachev; the principle of analyzing the phenomena of poetics in their development determines the construction of all sections of the monograph. Therefore, an attempt to analyze the modern artistic trope from the position of the Russian medieval poetic system is completely justified and easily fits into the context of Likhachev’s entire scientific work.

Developing the poetics of ancient Russian literature, D.S. Likhachev turns to comparison as one of the literary means, especially significant for the Old Russian text. In the section “From the Author,” which precedes the study, Likhachev defines the central task of the book: “to deepen information about the changeability of literary phenomena.” It denotes a kind of research path: “in this book, the main attention is paid to those aspects of Russian literature that distinguish it from the new one. Differences reveal individuality ancient literature". By turning to the system of ancient Russian comparisons described by Likhachev in his monograph, and “passing” through this system the literary text of the writer of the “new” time (XX century), we will be able to draw conclusions about the individuality of his author’s writing and, at the same time, about the strength of continuity that has emerged in these texts, about the artist’s attraction to the roots of Russian culture.

Consideration of the creativity of E.I. Zamyatin through the prism of ancient Russian literature, and in our case - the analysis of the typical features of comparisons (Russian medieval and belonging to modern literature) used to construct sound images in the work - becomes possible, first of all, thanks to the writer’s repeated appeal to the stylistic manner works of ancient Russian literature (“On the holy sin of the Virgin Zenitsa” (1916), “On how the monk Erasmus was healed” (1920)); secondly, thanks to the characteristics of the character, or rather the “inner essence” (Likhachev’s term) of the Old Russian comparison and the image of sound based on the comparison.

In the modern “Literary Encyclopedia of Terms and Concepts,” comparison is defined as “a type of trope based on the likening of related phenomena.” This is the nature of comparisons in a generalized form and this is indisputable. However, between the Old Russian comparison and the comparison of the “new” time there is a centuries-old barrier, which allows us to talk about different types of comparison developed by that time and the historical situation when these paths functioned. Likhachev emphasizes that “comparisons in ancient Russian literature differ sharply in their nature and internal essence from comparisons in new literature.”

It is important that the scientist does not try to create a clear, complete system of differences, but makes a number of comments characterizing the Old Russian comparison precisely from the point of view of its individuality and originality.

We will try to outline clear boundaries between ancient Russian and modern types of comparisons, thus summing up Likhachev’s research. The fundamental difference, according to the scientist, lies in the multidirectional orientation of comparisons between ancient Russian and modern ones. Thus, comparison in the literature of modern times is maximally visualized, aimed at conveying visual similarities between objects and entities. It is thanks to this feature that the “joy of recognition” and the joy of immediate clarity that arises during reading become possible. This is the so-called impressionistic type of comparison, characteristic specifically for “new” literature. Old Russian comparison concerns mainly “the internal essence of the objects being compared.” Likhachev explains: “It seems strange to us to compare the Mother of God with the “delighted chamber.” The strangeness of this comparison is not only that the Mother of God is compared with architectural structure- a stone house, but also in the very epithet of this “chamber” - “delighted”. This epithet clearly shows that the writer perceives the “chamber” not in a material sense, but as a pure symbol. The writer does not seek to specifically imagine the objects of comparison. He compares “essences” and therefore considers it possible to give a “spiritual” epithet to a material object, and vice versa.”

Thus, the existence of two different types of comparison is due, first of all, to the antithesis of appearance - visual similarity based on momentary sensations or the play of the author’s imagination - essence - the main feature characterizing a certain internal essence of the thing being compared.

In relation to Zamyatin's prose, two central questions arise: 1) does the writer use comparisons built on medieval models with formal observance of literary etiquette in works stylized as an Old Russian text? 2) can a formally modern comparison, i.e. which is stylistically neutral at the present time, be based on the principles that served as the basis for Russian medieval comparison, namely, on the commonality of existence, despite the destruction of external similarity?

Let us also recall that the material of our research is not any artistic image, but rather a sound image. In the article, the image of sound (sound image) is understood as artistic images that capture the sound manifestations of human and natural existence, which are organic elements of a single artistic whole.

The question arises: what is considered a comparison of the modern type, and what is a comparison of the Old Russian type in relation to the image of sound? In its own way, the modern, impressionistic type of comparison in this case will correspond to such a sound image, where the sound is both the subject of comparison and the (subject of) comparison. A comparison of modern times, as a rule, consists of two elements that are conventionally located on the same plane - they are essentially equivalent to each other. Thus, the image is likened to an image - the object is described through the object. According to the same scheme, we will consider a sound image based on a comparison of the modern type to be a sound image based on the “sound-sound” model. For clarity, here are a few examples from Zamyatin’s works: “the whooper called wildly, and her mouth was closed, and it was as if someone’s inhuman voice was calling under the arches” (“Land Surveyor”); “the old English clock in the tavern strikes slowly, with the bass sound of the Kostroma cathedral bell” (“Unlucky”); “... she howled not with her own woman’s voice, but with an animal’s voice” (“Womb”). Let's comment on the last example. It represents a classic negative comparison. At the heart of the image is a common essence - the voice. Therefore, the writer does not even repeat “voice” twice, but only changes the epithets. The sound is recreated in the reader's imagination through another sound - this corresponds to a modern, somewhat simplified type of comparison.

Another example: “It was quiet, only somewhere far away, like sentries, the roosters were calling to each other in the darkness” (“Scourge of God”) - the roosters are compared to the sentries, again by the nature of the sound they made. “Roll call” is the single essence that holds the image together. “Shout in the same voice as the shoemaker did then about Last Judgment" ("Flood") ; “the water rustled all around like thousands of yards of silk” (“Yola”); “someone sang, slowly, hoarsely, howled like a dog at the dreary silver of the month” (“Alatyr”) - all these are sound-images-comparisons, built on a single principle; they are based on the general “sound-sound” model. Therefore, we attribute them to the modern type of comparison, based on direct similarities between objects or phenomena of the same kind.

The specificity of the sound image, its difference from any other artistic image consists in its initially immaterial essence. What we have before us is not an object, not a character, but a sound, which the writer often recreates precisely through comparison with another object or concept. The realism of the image depends here on the accuracy of the image found for comparison. Thus, if in a medieval comparison the subject of comparison is most often a symbol that destroys visual similarity, as in the above example with the “Mother of God - the joyful chamber”, then in a sound image the subject of comparison is often a symbol precisely due to the specificity of the material itself.

Let's turn to specific example: “Andrei Ivanovich began to tremble with a thin, very sharp tremor and heard it like a string, somewhere at the very end of the keyboard to the right - it kept ringing and ringing...” (“On the middle of nowhere”). Trembling as a physical property of the human body in general, as is known, is not a sound and is not accompanied by sound. However, being “explained” by the sound described in detail - “the string, ... at the very end of the keyboard to the right”, which refers to the trembling itself secondary importance, brought in precisely as an “auxiliary element” to explain the sound of trembling, trembling acquires the status of a sound image. The elements of this comparison are thus of a completely different character from each other: trembling is, in this case, a certain state, the ringing of a string is a sound. However, the author places them, as it were, on the same plane, and finds something in common that crosses “generic” boundaries. This general thing is the same “inner essence” that Likhachev spoke about in relation to comparison in ancient Russian literature. What occurs, characteristic of the medieval type of comparison, is the destruction of conventional external similarity to reveal the similarity of the internal, “spiritual” meaning.

It is worth noting that the “sounding trembling” is not a random, isolated image in Zamyatin’s prose, but a recurring one. In another work written much later, the novel “We” (1921), the following words are heard: “... I listened to music: my barely audible trembling.” Trembling as a sound becomes iconic, to a certain extent symbolic, in the writer’s work.

Let us give another example of an image based on a comparison: “... almost unbending - like a wooden ruler - the voice of Yu” (“We”). Here the situation is in many ways the opposite: the sound itself is “explained” through comparison with an object - the voice and the wooden ruler are equated to each other at a certain threshold of meaning. Just as the ancient Russian writer gives the image of the chamber the epithet “delighted,” Zamyatin is not afraid to define the initially immaterial “instance” - the voice with the help physical properties, inherent exclusively in a material object - “not bendable”, thereby ignoring and destroying any visual similarity.

The following use of comparison is noteworthy: “In the silence there is a distinct hum of wheels, like the noise of inflamed blood” (“We”). On the one hand, the “sound-sound” model is evident: buzzing is compared to noise. On the other hand, the “sound of inflamed blood” is, of course, not a sound in the literal sense. It is rather a feeling caused by a certain psychological or physical state. The hero associates the “distinct hum of wheels” in silence in a certain situation and evokes the very sensation that he describes as “the sound of inflamed blood.” Consequently, this comparison is not self-evident; the basis for it again becomes the unity of the internal essence, which is characteristic of the Old Russian type of comparison.

Finding in modern literature comparisons, which are based on the principle that is decisive for the Old Russian comparison, we are in no way trying to prove that the given modern comparisons are some kind of tracings from the Old Russian comparisons, but we are only stating the fact that this principle, conventionally called the principle of internal essence and opposed to the principle of visual similarity, has not been eliminated, but only in slightly different variations has been adopted by the literature of modern times, processed and preserved by it.

Let us now turn to Zamyatin’s work, which is directly stylistically oriented towards ancient Russian church legends. This is, for example, the story “About how the monk Erasmus was healed” (1920) from the series “Miracles”. Due to the general stylization of the work as an ancient Russian source, it is most logical to look for sound images based on a comparison of the medieval type here. Let us give a number of examples of sound images-comparisons that can be found in the story: “all night a light, as if tickling, laughter and a certain creaking could be heard, and a terrible dew, like black tar, dripped down”; “blessed Pamva... stopped in amazement when he heard heavy sighs and groans outside the window, as if from a huge beast”; “he heard a light ringing, as if from a bursting vessel”; “Laughter, as if from tickling, and creaking and whispering could be heard from the heights of the rooftops.” All these sound images are created according to the same model: one sound is “explained” through another, connecting using the conjunction “as if”. Despite the stylistic design, there are no comparisons corresponding to the Old Russian type. In any of the given examples, only the outer shell has been preserved from the Old Russian comparison: inversions, stringing of homogeneous members with a connecting connection between each other, stylistically marked words... In the story there are sound images-comparisons, in external design even more similar to the Old Russian original, such as, for example, like this: “the young monk had a voice of purity, like a mountain kryn ringing from the heights.” However, there is no comparison based on the unity of the inner essence here either.

The only comparison in the work that looks truly ancient Russian, both formally and meaningfully, is found in the following sound image: “her voice pierced the heart of Erasmus, like some kind of sweet sword.” With such a comparison, the author seeks to reveal, as it were, “ personal traits» voices. The epithet “sweet,” used in this case in a figurative sense and attached to a material object, emphasizes that for the writer the sword is only a symbol. Likhachev in his monograph “The Poetics of Old Russian Literature” writes regarding this: “In this kind of rearrangement of the epithet from one object of comparison to another, the specific meaning of the words is destroyed, the figurative meaning comes to the fore.”

Zamyatin creates sound images in his works using comparisons of different types, both modern, impressionistic, and Russian medieval. Moreover, the principle of the internal essence of the objects being compared, which is decisive for Old Russian comparison, is often used by the writer in formally modern comparisons that are not stylistically marked. In works that are stylistically oriented towards the Old Russian text, on the contrary, comparison sound images predominate, corresponding to Old Russian models only in external form, but not at all in internal saturation.

Thus, the features of ancient Russian comparisons listed by Likhachev, in their difference from modern comparisons, often characterize the comparisons used by Zamyatin to create an image of sound, which gives reason to think about the deep, root, sometimes, perhaps even unconscious, but nevertheless strong connections between the prose of the writer of the “new” time and the traditions of Ancient Rus'.

Literature
1. Zamyatin E.I. Collection cit.: in 5 volumes - M., 2004.
2. Zamyatin E.I. Selected works/ preface V.B. Shklovsky, introductory article V.A. Keldysh. - M., 1989.
3. Zamyatin E.I. Selected works. - M., 1990.
4. Likhachev D.S. Poetics of Old Russian Literature. - L., 1971.
5. Literary encyclopedia of terms and concepts / ed. A.N. Nikolyukina. - M, 2003.

Proceedings of the regional conference of young researchers “Lessons of Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev”. Tambov, November 28, 2006

The Russian language is rich and diverse, with the help of it we ask questions, share impressions, information, convey emotions, talk about what we remember.

Our language allows us to draw, show and create verbal pictures. Literary speech is like painting (Fig. 1).

Rice. 1. Painting

In poetry and prose, bright, picturesque speech that stimulates the imagination, in such speech figurative means of language are used.

Visual means of language- these are ways and techniques of recreating reality, making it possible to make speech vivid and imaginative.

Sergei Yesenin has the following lines (Fig. 2).

Rice. 2. Text of the poem

Epithets provide an opportunity to look at autumn nature. With the help of comparison, the author gives the reader the opportunity to see how the leaves fall, as if flock of butterflies(Fig. 3).

Rice. 3. Comparison

As if is an indication of the comparison (Fig. 4). This comparison is called comparison.

Rice. 4. Comparison

Comparison - This is a comparison of the depicted object or phenomenon with another object according to a common characteristic. For comparison you need:

• So that there is something in common between two phenomena;
• A special word with the meaning of comparison - as if, exactly, as if, as if

Let's look at a line from Sergei Yesenin's poem (Fig. 5).

Rice. 5. Line of the poem

First, the reader is presented with a fire, and then a rowan tree. This occurs due to the author’s equalization and identification of two phenomena. The basis is the similarity of rowan bunches with a fiery red bonfire. But the words as if, as if, exactly are not used because the author does not compare rowan with a fire, but calls it a fire, this metaphor.

Metaphor - transferring the properties of one object or phenomenon to another based on the principle of their similarity.

Metaphor, like comparison, is based on similarity, but difference from comparison is that this happens without using special words (as if, as if).

When studying the world, you can see something in common between phenomena, and this is reflected in language. The visual means of language are based on the similarity of objects and phenomena. Thanks to comparison and metaphor, speech becomes brighter, more expressive, and you can see the verbal pictures that poets and writers create.

Sometimes a comparison is created without a special word, in a different way. For example, as in the lines of S. Yesenin’s poem “The fields are compressed, the groves are bare...” (Fig. 6):

Rice. 6. Lines from S. Yesenin’s poem “The fields are compressed, the groves are bare...”

Month compared with foal which is growing before our eyes. But there are no words indicating comparison; instrumental comparison is used (Fig. 7). Word foal stands in the Instrumental case.

Rice. 7. Using the instrumental case for comparison

Let's consider the lines of S. Yesenin's poem “The golden grove dissuaded...” (Fig. 8).

Rice. 8. “The golden grove dissuaded me...”

In addition to metaphor (Fig. 9), the technique of personification is used, for example, in the phrase the grove dissuaded(Fig. 10).

Rice. 9. Metaphor in a poem

Rice. 10. Personification in a poem

Personification is a type of metaphor in which an inanimate object is described as living. This is one of the most ancient speech techniques, because our ancestors animated the inanimate in myths, fairy tales and folk poetry.

Exercise

Find comparisons and metaphors in Sergei Yesenin’s poem “Birch” (Fig. 11).

Rice. 11. Poem “Birch”

Answer

Snow is compared with silver, because it is similar to him in appearance. The word is used exactly(Fig. 12).

Rice. 13. Creative comparisons

Metaphor is used in a phrase snowflakes are burning(Fig. 14).

Rice. 15. Personification

1. Russian language. 4th grade. Textbook in 2 parts. Klimanova L.F., Babushkina T.V. M.: Education, 2014.
2. Russian language. 4th grade. Part 1. Kanakina V.P., Goretsky V.G. M.: Education, 2013.
3. Russian language. 4th grade. Textbook in 2 parts. Buneev R.N., Buneeva E.V. 5th ed., revised. M., 2013.
4. Russian language. 4th grade. Textbook in 2 parts. Ramzaeva T.G. M., 2013.
5. Russian language. 4th grade. Textbook in 2 parts. Zelenina L.M., Khokhlova T.E. M., 2013.

1. Internet portal "Festival pedagogical ideas"Public lesson"" ()
2. Internet portal “literatura5.narod.ru” ()

Homework

1. What are the figurative means of language used for?
2. What is needed for comparison?
3. What is the difference between a simile and a metaphor?

A comparison is a trope in which the text contains a basis for comparison and an image of comparison; sometimes a sign can be indicated. Thus, in the example “God’s name is like a big bird” (O.E. Mandelstam), God’s name (the basis of the comparison) is compared with a bird (the image of the comparison). The characteristic by which the comparison is made is wingedness.

Literary scholars distinguish several varieties.

Types of comparisons

1. Comparison expressed using comparative conjunctions as, as if, as if, exactly, like and others.

For example B.L. Pasternak uses the following comparison: “The kiss was like summer.”

2. Comparison expressed using adjectives in comparative degree. You can add words to such phrases seems, seems, looks like and others.

For example: “Girls’ faces are brighter than roses” (A.S. Pushkin).

3. Comparison for which it is used. For example: “A wounded beast suffers from the frost” (N.N. Aseev).

4. Comparison expressed by the accusative without. For example: “The living room was decorated with expensive red gold wallpaper.”

5. Comparison expressed in a descriptive non-union phrase. For example: “The nightmares of the night are so far away that a dusty predator in the sun is a naughty man and nothing more” (I.F. Annensky).

6. There are also negative comparisons. For example: “The red sun does not shine in the sky, the blue clouds do not admire it: then the formidable Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich sits at a meal in a golden crown” (M.Yu. Lermontov).

Literature (real) represents the true craft of creating texts, the creation of a new object through words. As with any complex craft, literature has its own special techniques. One of them is “comparison”. With its help, for greater expressiveness or ironic contrast, certain objects, their qualities, people, and their character traits are compared.

In contact with

The kettle with its raised trunk puffed on the stove, like a young elephant rushing to a watering hole..

─ Ironic likening a small inanimate object to a large animal by juxtaposing the long spout of a teapot and an elephant's trunk.

Comparison: Definition

There are at least three definitions of comparison in the literature.

For a literary text, the first definition would be more correct. But the most talented authors fiction successfully work with the second and third definitions, the role of comparison in the text is so great. Examples of comparisons in literature and folklore of the last two types:

He is stupid as an oak, but cunning as a fox.

Unlike Afanasy Petrovich, Igor Dmitrievich was built as thin as a mop handle, just as straight and elongated.

The pygmies of the Congo Delta are like children in stature; their skin is not black like that of blacks, but yellowish, like fallen leaves.
In the latter case, along with the use of “negative comparison” (“not”), direct assimilation (“as if”) is combined.

The Russian language is so rich that authors of literary works use a huge number of types of comparisons. Philologists can only roughly classify them. Modern philology identifies the following two main types of comparison and four more comparisons in fiction.

• Direct. In this case, comparative phrases (conjunctions) “as if”, “as”, “exactly”, “as if” are used. He bared his soul to him, like a nudist bares his body on the beach..
• Indirect. With this comparison, no prepositions are used. The hurricane swept away all the garbage from the streets with a giant wiper.

In the second sentence, the noun being compared (“hurricane”) is used in the nominative case, and the noun being compared (“janitor”) is used in the instrumental case. Other types:

Back in the 19th century, philologist and Slavist M. Petrovsky identified the “Homeric” or “epic” likeness from extensive comparisons in literature. In this case, the author of a literary text, not caring about brevity, expands the comparison, distracting from the main storyline, from the object being compared as far as his imagination will allow him. Examples can easily be found in the Iliad or among postmodernists.

Ajax rushed at the enemies, like a hungry lion at the frightened sheep that had lost their shepherd, who were left without protection, defenseless, like unattended children, and could only timidly moan and back away in fear of the lion's thirst for blood and murder, which seizes the predator like madness, intensifying when he senses the horror of the doomed...
It is better for a novice author of literary texts not to resort to the epic type of comparisons. A young writer needs to wait until his literary skill and sense of artistic harmony develop. Otherwise, an inexperienced beginner himself will not notice how, winding around one another, like threads from different balls, such “free associations” will carry him away from the plot of his main narrative and create semantic confusion. So comparisons in a literary text can not only simplify the understanding of the subject being described (a tiger is a huge predatory cat), but also confuse the narrative.

Comparison in verse

The role of literary comparison in poetry is especially important. The poet uses the richness of language to create a unique and aesthetically valuable piece of art, more accurately convey your idea to the reader.

It's often hard and bad for us

From the tricks of tricky fate,

But we are with the humility of camels

We carry the humps of our misfortunes.

With these lines, the poet explains to the reader his own idea that most of the troubles that happen in life are natural, like the humps of camels, that sometimes you simply cannot get rid of them, but you just need to “carry through” them for a while.

Without you, no work, no rest:

Are you a woman or a bird?

After all, you are like a creature of air,

"balloon" - pampered girl!

In most poems, the authors use comparisons to create a bright, beautiful, and easily memorable image. Most of all such colorful comparisons are in the texts of N. Gumilyov and Mayakovsky. But I. Brodsky remains consummate master the use of detailed comparisons in artistic literary versification.

Comparisons are also used in spoken language. When writing any text, even school essay, one cannot do without comparisons. So you need to firmly remember several rules of punctuation of the literary Russian language. Commas are placed before comparative phrases with words:

• as if
• as if,
• as if,
• like,
• exactly,

So when you write:

• He was taller than the teenager she remembered.
• The day flared up quickly and hotly, like a fire into which gasoline was suddenly poured.

─ in these situations, make no mistake, commas are necessary. Much more problems await you with the conjunction “how”. The fact is that, even if the particle “how” is part of a comparative phrase, a comma in front of it is not needed if:

It can be replaced with a dash. The steppe is like a sea of ​​grass.

This union is part of a stable phraseological unit. Faithful as a dog.

The particle is included in the predicate. For me the past is like a dream.

The conjunction, within the meaning of the sentence, is replaced by an adverb or noun. He looked like a wolf , possible substitutions: looked wolfish , looked like a wolf .

Where else are commas not needed?

According to the rules of punctuation, commas are not needed before “as” and when it is preceded by adverbs or particles in a sentence:

It's time to finish, it seems like midnight has struck.

“As” is not separated by commas if it is preceded by a negative particle.

He looked at the new gate not like a ram.
So, when you resort to comparisons to decorate or make your text more understandable, remember the insidiousness of the particle “how” and the rules of punctuation, and you will be fine!

In life we ​​constantly resort to comparisons. This is what we do in a store, comparing products before making a choice. We compare the actions of people, their qualities, films, music, etc. And this is correct, because everything is learned by comparison. But what is comparison?

Meanings of the term

The term comparison is used in a variety of fields. In everyday life, comparison is the identification of qualities based on the principle of similarity, finding out whether objects are equal to each other, which one is better. Often “comparison” is defined as a way of identifying the unity and diversity of things. In mathematics, this is a comparison of numbers for equality and inequality (more or less). Thus, the main meaning of the word “comparison” is the process of comparing the various properties of two objects, both qualitative and quantitative.

The term “comparison” is used in psychology, sociology, and philosophy. In psychology, there are special comparison tests to identify the degree of development of mental abilities. “Comparison” in philosophy is a cognitive operation with the help of which the characteristics of processes and phenomena are revealed.

Comparison in the literature

But we perceive literary comparisons most emotionally. What is comparison in literature? This artistic technique(or trope), based on a comparison of the qualities of phenomena, objects or people, as well as the likening of one object (phenomenon) to another. The purpose of literary comparison is to more fully reveal the image through common features. In a comparison, both objects being compared are always mentioned, although the common feature itself may be omitted.

Types of literary comparisons

1. Simple comparisons are phrases expressed using conjunctions: as if, exactly, as if, as if, directly, etc. (“Fast as a deer”).

   Like a tiger, life tears the body with its claws,

   And the firmament took the mind and heart in chains...

   (Baba Tahir).

2. Non-union - through a compound nominal predicate.

   My summer robe is so thin -

   Cicada wings!

3. Negative - one object is opposed to another. Often used in popular expressions (“It’s not the wind that bends the branch, It’s not the oak tree that makes noise”).
4. “Creative” comparisons – using a noun in the instrumental case.

   Joy crawls like a snail,

   Grief has a mad run...

   (V. Mayakovsky).

5. Comparison using an adverb of manner of action (“He screamed like an animal”).
6. Genitives - using a noun in the genitive case (“Running like the wind,” as opposed to “Running like the wind”).

So, you have learned what a comparison is, examples of literary comparisons. But comparative phrases are widely used not only in literature, but also in scientific and colloquial speech. Without comparisons, our speech would be less figurative and vivid.