Rhetorical Devices: Analogy

This is my seventh article on rhetorical devices, and here, we will discuss analogies, in brief.  “Analogy” is from Greek, “analogia” (ἀναλογία), meaning “proportion” which is derived from two Greek words: “ana”, “upon”, and “logos” “reckoning”.  More than merely a rhetorical device, it is a cognitive process of transferring information or meaning from a particular subject to another, the analogue to the target.  This may be a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process, or a deductive argument.

An analogy is a comparison in which an idea, an object, or even a person, is compared to another idea, an object, or person, distinct from it.  The purpose of such a comparison is to explain the unfamiliar idea, an object, or person with the familiar idea, an object, or person which it is compared to.  Within the concept of rhetoric, it is explanation through parallel cases.  Metaphors and similes are used to draw an analogy.  An analogy is much more extensive and elaborate when compared to either a simile or a metaphor.  A simile is an expressed analogy, while a metaphor is an implied one.

The function of analogy is, therefore, to link an unfamiliar or a new idea with common and familiar objects.  This makes it is easier for the audience to comprehend the new idea, which may be difficult to grasp, otherwise.  Analogies, used properly, bring ideas to life, and create a bridge to the audience.

An example of an analogy would be George Orwell’s “A Hanging”: “They crowded very close about him, with their hands always on him in a careful, caressing grip, as though all the while feeling him to make sure he was there.  It was like men handling a fish which is still alive and may jump back into the water.”

Another example would be the satirist, Peter De Vries’ “Let Me Count the Ways”: “If you want my final opinion on the mystery of life and all that, I can give it to you in a nutshell.  The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination.  But the combination is locked up in the safe.”

The humourist, Douglas Noel Adams, wrote in “The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time”, “Every country is like a particular type of person.  America is like a belligerent, adolescent boy, Canada is like an intelligent, 35-year-old woman.  Australia is like Jack Nicholson.  It comes right up to you and laughs very hard in your face in a highly threatening and engaging manner.  In fact, it’s not so much a country as such, more a sort of thin crust of semi-demented civilisation caked around the edge of a vast, raw wilderness, full of heat and dust and hopping things.”

And finally, there is William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, Act II, Scene 2:

What’s in a name?  That which we call a rose,

By any other word would smell as sweet.

So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called …”

In all cases, analogies were used for humorous, or dramatic effect.  An analogy is a useful tool for bringing a dry subject to life, and is a good combination with allusions to create a relationship with the audience.  Entire speeches may be built around a good analogy, and that method is also a basis in stand-up comedy.