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Project 6: Figurative Language- Essay
Figurative language is a tool that writers use to make their work more creative and appealing to the reader. The way that writers use figurative language is by making one thing represent another based on the characteristics of both things. This makes the reader become more engaged in the reading and more likely to use his or her imagination to make connections. (Cuddon, 2013)
Fireworks
The song “Fireworks,” by Katy Perry, is one rife in figurative language. The song includes the following figures of speech: a) personification, or giving human traits to objects,
b) rhyme, or putting words together of similar sounds; c) objectification, or the giving object traits to humans; d) simile, or comparison;e)anaphora, or repetition of the beginning of a sentence and, f) assonance, or the echoing of a specific sound. (Algeo, 2014).
The song is about supporting someone who does not feel loved or understood and motivate them to change their mindset. (Ericksen, Perry, Longfield, 2011). The singer compares listeners to fireworks in that they all have the opportunity to get out of the darkness of sadness and depression, and become a light of positivity. (Ericksen, Perry, Longfield, 2011). By calling the listener a “firework”, Perry is already using the figurative tool known as “metaphor”, which equates two dissimilar objects. (Cuddon, 2013).
The song “Fireworks” was featured in the 2010 album Teenage Dream.(Nielsen.com, 2011) It was originally meant to be a self-empowerment song with enough rhythmic patterns to become an anthem. It was number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and it has sold mover than 7
million copies in the US. According to the Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, (2011) this was the 5th most played U.S. single in the USA in the year 2011.
Figurative language: Anaphora- Repetition of the beginning of a sentence
The song repeats the question “Do you ever feel like…”-three times in the first three verses of the song. That repetition is known as anaphora. However, this also includes simile, or comparison,because the song asks if the listeners can compare themselves with specific things: “a plastic bag” and “a house of cards”
Objectification is making people behave or do actions that objects do. In the song, Perry asks people whether they feel like a plastic bag drifting to the wind “wanting to start again.” While drifting to the wind is a typical action of a plastic bag, wanting to start is not. In that same stanza, we get a rhyme in the words “thin” and “caving in.”
There is also objectification in the title of the song, itself. Since Perry equates listeners to fireworks, she is objectifying them. That will be expanded on later. Similarly, there is exaggeration (hyperbole)in the phrase “One blow from caving in”. The exaggeration is that this caving in one blow is within the context of a house of cards doing so.
Alliteration is obvious in the repetition of words with the same beginning letter. “six”, “scream,” and “seems” appear one after another in a verse. In the same line of repetition, the song also has an internal rhyme in the matching of the words “ignite the light”, which is the purposeful use of the middle of words to rhyme. (Cuddon, 2013)
“Ignite the light and let it shine/ Own the night like the Fourth of July”
In the phrase “Own the night Like the Fourth of July” there is personification. The Fourth of July is just a date and cannot own anything the way people do. Also, in the same verse, the use of the word “like” in “Like the Fourth of July” is a comparison, or simile.
Chorus/Objectification
Here is where we see the biggest objectification:
“Cause baby, you're a firework, show them baby what you are worth.”
The firework is not worth personal value the way people do. In the chorus, we also get interjection in the words "Oh, oh, oh.” An interjection is the utterance of a natural or unnatural sound. However, further objectification is seen again when the singer tells listeners to “shoot across the sky” in the phrase “As you shoot across the sky.” Again, this is objectification because only objects can fly, not humans.
The next stanza reads,
You don't have to feel like a waste of space/If you only knew what the future holds
After a hurricane comes a rainbow
These are examples of personification, showing the future holding something. There is simile or comparison in the phrase“like a waste of space.” There is also evidence of irony and juxtaposition (contrasting views)in the natural consequence of rainbows coming or happening after a storm.
In the next stanza, there is an instance of simile, rhyme, and hyperbole in the verse:
Like a lightning bolt, your heart will blow
And when it's time, you'll know
The simile is in the phrase “like a lightning bolt” and the hyperbole is in the fact that hearts do
not typically blow up. Also, blow and know are rhyming words, so that is evidence of rhyming. –
The final stanza features onomatopoeia, or the natural and unnatural sounds of everyday
life. The word used is “boom”, however, the word is repeated, rhymed, and then the subsequent
rhyme is repeated again.
Boom, boom, boom –onomatopoeia, or sound of nature.
Even brighter than the moon, moon,moon - rhyme, repetition
It's always been inside of you, you, you – repetition, rhyme
And now it's time to let it through - rhyme: you and through
Conclusion:
The song “Fireworks” has a very high number of figures of speech. This is because the songequates the listener to s non-living thing, a firework, and attributes every trait of a firework to the listener, particularly focusing on the bright and positive parts of a firework: light, shine, flying high up, and turning darkness around. The song achieves conveying the message that one can break away from the darkness of depression, and that a bad moment can turn better because we all have the power inside of us to “shine through.”
Equating the listener to a firework empowers the listener, and infuses energy through motivation. The language is easy to understand. The imagery comes through from similes, personification, and objectification. The sentimental nature of the song is made possible through anaphora, repetition, and hyperbole. The rhyming, combined with all of those other literary devices, create the poetry of the song. Perhaps, this formula is what made the song so extremely successful.
Works Cited
Algeo, J., Thomas P.(2014) The Origin and Development of the English Language. 5th edition. New York: Pearson
Cuddon, J.A.(2013) The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. London: Penguin Books.
Eriksen, Mikkel, Robert Longfield, and Katy Perry.Firework., 2011. Musical score.
Radio-Info.com to publish weekly Nielsen BDSRadio.com charts".Radio-Info.com. September 10, 2011. RetrievedMay 2,2017.