Figurative Language

A simile is a figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared, usually using like and as. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which an implicit comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something in common, without using like or as. 

Similes:

1. Normal, in our house, is like a blanket too short for a bed. (11) 
2. Instigating a lawsuit because your parents won't let you get birth control pills or go to an abortion clinic is like using a sledgehammer to kill a mosquito. (21)
3. They come in like a hurricane. (53)
4. "It's like riding a bicycle," she says quietly. (82)
5. "He is talking about my little girl as if she were some kind of machine: a car with a faulty carburetor, a plane whose landing gear is stuck." (69)

Metaphors:

1. My dad also says that when flames are licking at your heels you've got to break a wall or two if you want to escape. (13)

2. The four-hour surgery isn't a walk in the park, either- you have a 1 in 3,000 chance of dying on the operation table. (50)
3."Her voice is a feather, a thread." (70)
4. "My apartment, it is a work of art." (75)
5, "A heroin-thin boy with enough rings in his eyebrows to resemble a shower curtain rod approaches with a pad. " (91)