Inaccurate similes and metaphors have the effect of deflecting the reader’s attention from the story to the words on the page. Yet when carried off, especially when a simile is original and a metaphor sings, there is no greater glory in the practice of words. In school we learned that a simile is a comparison of two unlike things, usually joined by the words “like” or “as.” Perhaps the “unlike” throws off writers. What is meant is that the writer shows by simile the similarity of two things that were previously not connected: Simile: She sprang up like a jack-in-the-box when the doorbell rang.
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