Exploring Figurative Language Examples in Popular Culture

I’m going to use a figurative language example here: 1000 times today my students have talked about Taylor Swift’s new album.  Has it been 1000 times?  Nah, but it feels that way, and while the reviews on her album are mixed, my feelings toward her lyrics certainly aren’t, for T-Swift is a master at incorporating figurative language in songs. 

As an English teacher first and a sometimes-Swifty, I appreciate figurative language devices that are used to capture or create an image, an idea, an experience for an audience as I know different types of figurative language make a big difference in how we feel and understand a writer’s message.

Figurative Lang Meaning (like, Literally, not Figuratively)

According to Grammarly, figurative language definition is literally “a type of communication that does not use a word’s strict or realistic meaning . . . usually to add creative flourish to written or spoken language or explain a complicated idea.”  In other words, writers use figurative language in a sentence to communicate more effectively, moving beyond the literal to the, get this, figurative.

There are many figurative language types and examples, and a reader can find figurative language in poetry, short stories, novels, non-fiction, and visual texts.

Let’s take a look at some figurative language examples in poetry, for example, to help our understanding of figurative language meanings.

Figurative Language Examples

Let’s see our figurative language definition literature in action with Emily Dickinson’s “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers”—

What do you see in the poem?  I spy with my little eye . . . 

• Figurative Language Imagery: Picture the bird in the woods, in the storm, nearby.
• Figurative Language Alliteration: Check out the sound “sore” and “storm” so close together.
• Figurative Language Exaggeration: See hyperbole as Dickinson elevates a bird to its noble and powerful status in the poem.
• Figurative Language Symbolism: Think about how the bird is more than a bird, representing security and power.
• Figurative Language Personification:  Note the bird never asking “a crumb” from the narrator and having a strong will.
• Figurative Language Repetition: Consider the bird singing in each of the three stanzas.
• Figurative Language Onomatopoeia:  Appreciate the sound of . . . wait, there’s no figurative language onomatopoeia here, which brings me to an important point–

Figurative language types aren’t used in all types of text, nor is everything you might compile on a figurative language list with figurative language meaning and examples for students going to be found in every text.  

Indeed, some authors prefer and other authors avoid different figurative language types.  For us (and our students) then, as readers, we want to be able to have a broad understanding of figurative language devices (like allusion, symbolism, personification, motif, simile, metaphor) so we can give figurative language description as we analyze (and appreciate) texts.

Figurative Language in Popular Culture

Speaking of texts, it’s easy to find figurative language in poetry, which is a genre predicated in many ways on obscure meaning and figurative language, but it might be more important to select texts from popular culture for students to read and analyze, for they are more likely to encounter a Taylor Swift song in their personal lives (and social media feeds) than an Emily Dickinson poem.

Let’s then look at some figurative language example sentences from texts in popular culture:

Figurative Language in Songs: 

• Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone”–In the song, Dylan compares being on one’s own, with no direction known, to a rolling stone, which is a simile.  You could use this song in the classroom to track the development of Dylan’s ideas and how this simile helps develop those ideas.
• The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun”–In this song we see figurative language personification and figurative language symbolism as the sun literally (and figuratively) brightens our days and comforts the listeners.  You could use this song in the classroom, asking students to (try) to substitute in different symbols that might relay similar ideas.

Figurative Language in Movies:

• The Matrix–There are so many figurative language types at work here: the figurative language symbolism of the red and blue pills, the figurative language metaphor of the Matrix itself as a system of control and oppression, the figurative language personification of computer programs as people, the allusions to a “rabbit hole” and the white rabbit, etc.  You could–making sure its age appropriate–show students clips of the film and ask them to read below its surface and address what’s happening, literally, and what it means, figuratively.
• A Disney movie, maybe any Disney movie–Looking for figurative language personification?  Look no further than a talking lion in The Lion King.  Looking for figurative language symbolism?  Watch for the rose in Beauty and the Beast.  Looking for figurative language imagery and figurative language exaggeration?  Analyze the ways villains are illustrated, noting all the ways their appearances–such as hooks for hands, pointy faces, jarring colors–paint them as villainous figures without them even saying a word.

Figurative Language in Memes: 

• “This is fine” Dog Meme–Indeed, figurative language has infiltrated the Internet and our social media feeds.  We all know the meme of the dog staring ahead as the room burns around him.  He claims in the face of the fire, “This is fine.”  Here we see irony and figurative language exaggeration.  You could ask students when they might post or share this meme in their personal communication to have them consider the role figurative language plays in our day-to-day communication.
• Distracted Boyfriend Meme–Yup, it’s the one where a young man looks over his shoulder at another woman while his girlfriend looks disapprovingly at him.  The figurative language imagery here makes it clear that different people are thinking different things in the image.  Because of the ideas and feelings communicated from this imagery, people layer words over the images to communicate an idea.  You could have students play around with this and generate their own memes.

Forrest Gump (and I’m assuming you understand this allusion and know who this is) once shared a wise simile that’s stood the test of time (I’m assuming, too, you noticed the figurative language alliteration there): 

“Life is like a box of chocolates.  You never know what you’re gonna get.”  

Indeed, like life and a box of chocolates, you never know what figurative language you’re going to get in a poem, a song, a short story, a magazine article, or a film–but being aware of when communication slips between figurative and literal, real and metaphorical, we can get the most out of the messages we counter in school, online, and in life.