: Re: Are metaphors superior to similes in the following cases? Here are the examples. The first version is the simile and the second the metaphor (I'm not sure, though, what kind it is). We

@Bryan361

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Your examples of metaphors aren't actually metaphors. They are straight descriptions of what's happening.

Let's take a slightly modified form of the second example:

My past rejection, his present sweetheart, my future surgery, all that made me burst like a water balloon.

If you would like to write this as a metaphor:

My past rejection, his present sweetheart, my future surgery, all that made my hull burst and my water flow all over the place."

Metaphors read as if they describe something which is actually happening. But what the metaphor describes doesn't happen. It's just a symbol for what is really happening. But this example doesn't make sense at all, does it? That's because you are reading it out of context. But if you provide enough context, for example by establishing a "feeling like a balloon" metaphor earlier (for example by repeatedly using it in form of a simile), this sentence would make sense to the reader.

What we learn from this is that similes are "metaphors lite". By adding "like a" or "as if" in front of a metaphor, we prepare the reader that what comes next is not to be taken literal. This remove the necessity to provide the context which is necessary to recognize the metaphor as what it is.

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