Figurative Language, Research Paper Example

In her presentation at the TED Talks, Lakshmi Pratury discusses how her father left her a “legacy” of handwritten letters, and how she values these letters. Pratury uses a variety of forms of figurative speech to make her points. Near the very beginning of her presentation she mentions how her father offered “gentle suggestions about how she could improve her life,” a line which got the audience laughing. It is clear that she was describing her father’s advice in a way that was not meant to be taken literally, but was a way of describing his advice to her as “gentle suggestions” to make the audience think about what she was saying.

Pratury goes on to describe how her father left her a “value legacy” rather than a “financial legacy.” This phrase “value legacy” could mean many different things, depending on the person leaving and receiving the legacy. To heighten the impact of the description of her father’s funeral, she says that “his body was swallowed by fire.” She also describes what is left of him as “pictures in a frame” and “ashes in a bottle.” These kinds of phrases and uses of language demonstrate how powerful figurative language can be. Pratury could have said “his body was cremated,” but instead said “his body was swallowed by fire.” This and other examples how that there are ways to get an audience’s attention and to help them visualize and experience what you are trying to convey in a speech by using figurative language.