Understanding The Basics Of A Metaphor

   Metaphors are used in life and especially in literature. A metaphor is the comparison of two UNLIKE things. An example would be: "The wind is now a roaring, smashing monster of destruction." This metaphor is comparing the wind to a monster and certain characteristics that a monster would do. Monsters roar and have the capability to destroy and smash objects. But literally they're just describing sounds that wind would normally do and certain effects they may tend to do. Simile, personification, anthropomorphism, hyperbole, parable, fable, and analogy are metaphors. Even though we may not understand what most these metaphors are, but we tend to understand them while we read without knowing.  Metaphors are also a figure of speech in which a word is applied to an object or person using personification. Everyone uses metaphors to show a way of explaining or referring in a brief and complex way. They are used to help us learn.
  
       Similes are the easiest metaphors to understand. A Simile is an comparison between two different kinds of things. That uses the words" like or as".  A metaphor just discusses two unlike things. A cartoon related to simile's called "Hard Times", talks about different features a elephant has.  An example from the drawing, shows a blind man holding the tail and says : "An elephant is like a disconnected phone line." Another example would be from when the blind man touch the elephant's trunk and said " An elephant is like a stack of foreclosure notices." When we visualize an elephant the first thing that captures our eye is the size of its trunk and its size. So they're just discussing about an elephant having a long nose and how tall and large a elephant is. The best way to understand these similes is not by looking for the words "like or as" but by finding and understanding the two things being compared. The two things within the picture that are being compared within the two examples, is the elephant to a pipeline and and a stack of notices.
  
       Personification is using the human characteristics to something non-human. An example would be a stanza from the poem called "Dinner Time Chorus", " The teapot sang as the water boiled". Another example would be from stanza 4: "While the chairs were passing gas", teapots can't literally sing or pass gas, but human tend to do these things. So they put the human characteristic singing and passing gas within the teapot, which makes this a personification sentence. 
  
     Anthropomorphism is using  human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal , or an object. Children’s books are quite often examples of anthropomorphism. The television and book series Arthur is one example. In the early books of Arthur , they illustrated Arthur as an aardvark ( also known as mammals with long ears, snouts, and  long tongues, also called ant bear.) Later in the series , they have minimized Arthur’s nose to the point where he appears almost human. So they added an human characteristic of a nose to Arthur.

        Hyperbole is exaggerated statements that are not to be taken literally or seriously. We use them in our everyday life. For example, during a phone conversation we usually may say:" I called you like a million times" or  "I told you a thousands time not to call me!" Literally we can't call a person a person a million time or tell a person a thousands time not to call. But when we visualize the words "million" and "thousands" were just exaggerating our statements, which are what hyperbole's tend to do.

       Parables are short stories used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lessons. Some of the most famous parables are those in bibles. One famous parable from the bible is called "The Good Samaritan".  Within the parable,“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead". Many people saw him on the floor and walked past him, until one man saw him hurt and felt pity for him. The man picked him up and took him to his house, where he healed his wounds with vinegar and oil. When the man who saved him had to do something outside , he paid a man who was going to watch over the hurting man. That man was the same man who robbed and hurt the man. So, the moral was,"loving a neighbor comes in many different shapes and forms." You might be a priest or say you are a holy person, but if you don't practice what you preach which is to (live according to what you believe), then you're no better than the good Samaritan parable, which was to help others in there time on need.

      Fables are short stories , typically with animals as characters and they usually convey a moral. For example , A most common fable is called " The Hare And The Tortoise". Within the fable, The hare believed that the tortoise would not win the race because of his speed. But even though the hare doubted the tortoise, the tortoise never gave up and continued the race. The moral to the story was"(Slow but steady wins the race.)" meaning, instead of rushing through something, take your time. Because when we rush we wont be able to accomplish as much as a person who took their time.

     Analogy is a comparison of two things , it's purpose of explanation or clarification. We use analogies within our everyday lives. People who drive and walk upon the earth use analogies to transport from one place to another. For example: " In is to out as Up is to Down". Or " Go is to Green as Red is to Stop."In the first analogy, (the easiest way to understand it is by applying certain scenarios that we use everyday) we comprehend that entering a building is the same as to exit a building and going up the stairs is the same as going down the stairs. In the second analogy we can visualize ourselves driving a vehicle, the green light is to go as the red light is to stop. 

        Emily Dickinson was a famous poet who died in the same home she was born in. A fascinating poem that she wrote is called "Cemetery". Within this poem we can recognize a metaphor and personification in the first and second stanza. The first stanza is about a metaphor describing the quiet dust once being ladies and gentlemen's and the personification within the poem is describing the dust once having the ability to laugh and sigh. Another famous poem called "Precious Words" is using the metaphors hyperbole and personification within the first three stanzas. The first two stanzas are describing a hyperbole. We cant literally eat or drink precious words but the exaggeration for that statement was just explaining how great the food and the lost of words you get from a delicious meal. personification occurs in the second and third stanza, which is comparing his spirit to human characteristics, which are being strong and healthy.  After nourished with food and a drink he forgot about being poor and became a brand new person.
   
       A poem by e e cummings , made me realize that poems and metaphors come in many different styles and ways. The letters of the words "loneliness a leaf falls" are explained by the words being separated and scattered around. The presentation was very abnormal to many regular poems and at the end when we put the words together we get that "Loneliness , a leaf falls". Which is like putting characteristics to leaves falling.  . We can now conclude that we use different types of metaphors within our everyday lives. Metaphors helps us navigate our way around the world we live in. Everyone uses them and apply it to many different scenarios that they encounter. A metaphor that mostly describes me is one referred as "A Battle", in which everything is a competition or a struggle. We are always either winning or loosing. In society everyone  are competing for the best job or education and getting there is a struggle, that many people over come.Metaphors are not easy to conclude but they run our life.

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              The digital world is changing constantly around us throughout our society. New ideas have inspired us for these new changes and ideas that we now rely on in our everyday lives.  Every time we rethink, we relearn our ideas, which later are converted into this more modified world. Now we have to decide whether it’s necessary to rethink contents that are in the digital world of writing and reading.
              Yesterday and still today we always use paper and a writing utensil.  Text is said to be unlinear .Now that has transpired into something more diverse that is digital and virtual.  Typing is a faster way of a writing technique that we use more often now. It’s easier to correct a mistake and save our work, instead of usually erasing our best work and starting over from scratch.  The video demonstrates ways of digital being different and more flexible.
              Web pages became more common and that’s our way of finding research as well as other information. Behind the information, links became a faster source for us to virtually travel quickly to the webpage. Now that’s where rethinking comes into place. We have to choose whether we should keep stuff in the web more complex or either change them back to where we started.
              In  the article called "Panels: Rethink Schools " , it focused on the learning environment that we share today. It suggested about schools becoming more virtual, online, and complex. For them to become succesful they should make learning environments easier so that students would be able to access digital tools and resources better. As well as teachers or educators having more time to practice their  professions, interact with their mentors or experts in their field , and for them to be more connected to the students families and communities. That would create a very interactive as well as productive education system.
              When people are connected through technology or collabortative arrangments , the outcome will become rewarding and successful. Isolation between other students , teachers, and classes , as well as society, will lead the digital world to not be so successful. We need a new digital learning,  rethinking about our  education system  and our society, would take our technology as well as knowledge into a whole new generation.