I feel like you're posting your homework questions on here
this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2025
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An analogy is an explicit comparison between two concepts. Analogies are often signalled by words such as 'like' or 'as'. (Edit: As someone pointed out, similes use these words. Not all analogies do. I wasn't completely paying attention when I wrote this, sorry!)
In contrast, allegories are stories that implicitly draw a connection between two concepts. A good example of this might be George Orwell's Animal Farm. On it's face, it is a story about animals revolting against their owner and creating their own system of governance. While it generally follows the story of the Russian revolution, Orwell never directly states this. Instead, it is up to the reader to figure that out.
'like' or 'as'.
That's similes.
Now you have to explain similes and metaphors. Oh, oh! and do fables and parables!
Oh my gosh, can't believe I did that. Fortunately they are a type of analogy, so I'm not just totally spreading misinformation.
The umbrella was a rain shield
That is more of a definition.
A simile might be:
- The baby bird opened her mouth like an umbrella.
- She's stacked like bricks.
A metaphor might be:
- Faith is our umbrella.
- She's a brickhouse.
The umbrella shielded against the precipitous rain
Still definitional. The point of umbrellas is to shield/protect from the weather. A standard construction is: "Umbrellas shield against rain," or "The umbrella protects you from rain," or "An umbrella keeps you dry when the weather is wet."
All the types of writing being discussed are about unrelated things where a common aspect is brought out. So "Faith is our umbrella" implies that belief in something (God/gods/karma/goodwill) acts as a shield against bad things in the same way an umbrella shields against rain. "She's stacked like bricks" implies she is visually pleasing and 'well built' in the same way bricks are stacked to be both solidly built and visually pleasing. A defintional description would be, "She has the body of a beauty queen."
Technical writing is not supposed to use metaphors, similes, allegories or analogies except in very specific situations where the technical details must be further explained. Creative and descriptive writing may use all manner of devices to build vivid imagery.
"The allegory of the cave" Is another great example!
Is that Plato's Cave? I'm not super familiar with it. Animal Farm was just the first allegory to pop in my head.
Yeah! great read if you have the time. It can be used to explain alot of things since its a very open take on going from a state of ignorance or naivety to "seeing the light". I think its an important read, since people still in the "cave" are hard if not impossible to "convince" with such a limited perspective on reality.
I further interpret this to mean If we want to pull our fellow man out of the cave, we have to help change their perspective and meet them where they are in their journey out.
Thanks so much, Ms Wikipedia :)
An analogy is when you take one relationship between things, and you draw similarities between that and another relationship
An allegory is when you create a story out of this, the analogy becomes the setting and you use the analogy to work through implications through narrative
The first has an ass and the second has a leg.
As an analologist, I can confirm your findings.
Analrapist
Since I haven’t seen it yet, an analogy describes how a comparison you may not be familiar with relates to one you probably are. For example: lamb is to sheep as puppy is to dog. Or murder is to crows like pack is to wolves.
By way of right?
What pithy phrase might embody allegory in the same way?
The poster who mentioned Animal Farm got allegory pretty well.
Also, I kind of overdid it. Analogies really just show synonymous relationships. That they can help someone understand a relationship is superfluous.
One has eight letters, the other doesn't.
You are technically correct, the best kind of correct.
Thats all i ever wanted. Why stray so far from adequacy?