A Monster Calls: Figurative Language

“She hadn’t tied her scarf around her head yet this morning, and her bare scalp looked too soft, too fragile in the morning light, like a baby’s” (15). Is this best categorized as a simile, metaphor, or personification?

“When Conor started having that nightmare, that’s when Harry noticed him, like a secret mark had been placed on him that only Harry could see. A mark that drew Harry to him like iron to a magnet” (19). In this simile, to what is the secret mark being compared?

“Conor’s stomach contracted to a ball of fire, like a little sun burning him up from the inside, but before he could react, Lily did” (20). Is this best categorized as a simile, metaphor, or personification?

“He’d also avoided Lily, who had returned to lessons with red, puffy eyes and a scowl you could hang meat from” (23). Is this best categorized as a simile, metaphor, or personification?

“He looked up past his house to the hill beyond, the church steeple poking up into the cloudy sky. And the yew tree hovering over the graveyard like a sleeping giant” (27). In this simile, to what is being compared to a sleeping giant?

“She looked like a bird of prey. A hawk that could carry off a sheep” (74). Is this best categorized as a simile, metaphor, or personification?

“A silence opened up in the car that felt like they were sitting on opposite sides of a canyon” (92). Is this best categorized as a simile, metaphor, or personification?

“One hundred and fifty years again, the monster began, this country had become a place of industry. Factories grew on the landscape like weeds” (99). In this simile, what is being compared to growing like weeds?

“His classmates kept their distance from him, too, like he was giving off a bad smell” (125). Is this best categorized as a simile, metaphor, or personification?

“Stories were wild, wild animals and went off in directions you couldn’t expect” (134). Is this best categorized as a simile, metaphor, or personification?

“There was the church on the rise. There was the yew tree standing guard over its cemetery” (170). Is this best categorized as a simile, metaphor, or personification?

“Conor’s grief was a physical thing, gripping him like a clamp, clenching him tight as muscle” (190). Is this best categorized as a simile, metaphor, or personification?

“You do not write your life with words, the monster said. You write it with actions. What you think is not important. It is only important what you do” (192). Is this best categorized as a simile, metaphor, or personification?

“Her eyes were closed, and her breathing sounded like there was a weight on her chest” (201). Is this best categorized as a simile, metaphor, or personification?

“‘I don’t want you to go,’ he said, the tears dropping from his eyes, slowly at first, then spilling like a river” (204). In this simile, what is spilling like a river?