We were still deep in the Kalahari moving slowly through a difficult tract of country into which the rains as yet had been unable to break. Since it was already late in the year, the plight of the desert was frightening. Almost all the grass was gone and only the broken-off stubble of another season left here and there, so thin, bleached and translucent that its shadow was little more than a darker form of the sunlight. The trees, most of them leafless, stood exposed against the penetrating light like bone in an X-ray plate. The little leaf there was looked burnt out and ready to crumble to ash on touch. Under such poor cover the deep sand was more conspicuous than ever, saffron at dawn and dusk, and sulfur in between. There was no shade anywhere solid enough to cool its burning surface. What there was seemed scribbled on it by the pointed thorns like script on some Dead Sea scroll.

There was no game. Yet the animals had been that way and clearly found it wanting. They had dug all over the surface with hoof and claw for the roots and tubers on which their lives depend until the rains come, leaving large holes and trenches behind. Vast areas looked as if a bitter battle had been fought over them, and there was always a moment at the climax of the day when the sunstroke racking the earth produced the hallucination that one was moving across the pockmarked surface of some yellow wasteland of the moon. Even the birds were rare and inconspicuous, except for a vulture always dangling over the deathbed scene like a spider suspended from the blue on a silky thread of air. The few birds we saw no longer sang and darted about their business with a desperate look.

RECOGNIZE FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.  In the example above, the writer wants you to understand what it is like to be deep in the parched Kalahari;  he also wants to convey his feeling for this area and for the thirsty animals that suffered here and left. Figurative language helps him achieve this purpose.  The writer has shown you how the desert really looked by talking about things and this may seem strange--that were not literally a part of the scene.  The trees are no bones on X-ray negatives; they are bare trees. The sand does not contain saffron or sulfur, but it does contain their shades of yellow and orange. The enrich the pictorial quality  of his language, the writer has brought in what is literally not on the scene.  This is the essence of figurative language: comparing imaginatively a similar quality in things that would  otherwise be thought of as totally unlike.

USE FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE WISELY. The best way to learn to use figurative language well in your own writing is to observe its use in the works of good writers. No one should use figurative language unless they are willing to think hard, to imagine precisely, and to seek patiently the right image. Figurative language is not an ornament that decorates language and makes it more elegant. You use figurative language  when you have something that you urgently want to express, something that seems to demand more of you and your use of language. All good writing reflects the sincere effort of an active, searching mind. If you are not thinking deeply, if you are showing off, if you are more interested in impressing someone than in saying something clearly--you figurative language will give you away.

ASSIGNMENT:  Using one of the trite statements below, write a short paragraph developing the statement into an idea, using figurative language where necessary. Before you write, carry on a conversation with yourself about your topic and make sure you see a picture in your mind.

1. There are many obstacles on the rocky road of life
2. To climb the great ladder of success we must start at the bottom rung
3. Hope is a lamp that guides us on our dark and perilous journey
4. She is always busy as a bee