Thinking about language Although this text speaks of factual events and situations of misery it transforms these situations with an almost poetical prose into a literary experience. How does it do so? Here are some literary devices: • Hyperbole is a way of speaking or writing that makes something sound better or more exciting than it really is. For example: Garbage to them is gold.
• A Metaphor, as you may know, compares two things or ideas that are not very similar. A metaphor describes a thing in terms of a single quality or feature of some other thing; we can say that a metaphor “transfers” a quality of one thing to another. For example: The road was a ribbon of light. • Simile is a word or phrase that compares one thing with another using the words “like” or “as”.
For example: As white as snow. Carefully read the following phrases and sentences taken from the text. Can you identify the literary device in each example? .
Saheb-e-Alam which means the lord of the universe is directly in contrast to what Saheb is in reality. . Drowned in an air of desolation. .
Seemapuri, a place on the periphery of Delhi yet miles away from it, metaphorically. . For the children it is wrapped in wonder; for the elders it is a means of survival. .
As her hands move mechanically like the tongs of a machine, I wonder if she knows the sanctity of the bangles she helps make. . She still has bangles on her wrist, but not light in her eyes. .
Few airplanes fly over Firozabad. . Web of poverty. .
Scrounging for gold. . And survival in Seemapuri means rag-picking. Through the years, it has acquired the proportions of a fine art.
. The steel canister seems heavier than the plastic bag he would carry so lightly over his shoulders.