Simile, metaphor and rhetoric

I taught rhetorics in my class yesterday.

I used to think that similes, metaphors and alliteration are a nuisance in my reading materials. I felt that they are tiresome and exhausting for my reading. I wanted only the gist of what I read and not elaboration and overexaggeration of ideas and concepts.

After I taught rhetorics to my students, I discovered a purpose of using similes, metaphors, alliteration and other styles of figurative language. It concurs with what I read in McRae's Literature with a Small "l". Figurative language is a language to express ideas in a colourful way and more vivid to the imagination. The function is to give readers a frame of reference to the concept. For example, using a simile of "as strong as an ox" gives readers, who are usually familiar with cattles and their behaviors, a vivid impression of the persona in discussion.

I now discovered that figurative language serves a different function than academic language that is more direct to the point. Academic language serves a more formal discourse but figurative language is used to express and represent ideas in an enriching way. It is more expressive and sometimes more accurate depiction of thoughts and ideas.