Figurative Language In American Wife

Each author has different diction and syntax that makes their work unique. Authors use different stylistic tools for different reasons throughout their story. Different stylistic tools have different effects and do certain things to the story. In American Wife by Taya Kyle, Taya uses figurative language to get a point across to her reader, make her writing more interesting, and allow her readers to better visualize what she is talking about. To begin, Taya uses figurative language throughout the story to get a point across to her reader. One type of figurative language she uses to do this is simile. For example, Taya writes, “‘Please,’ I said, feeling like a drowning swimmer groping for a rope,” (105). Taya uses the simile to really get …show more content…
One major form of figurative language used to do this is imagery. Taya uses imagery constantly throughout the novel. “I knew the overall look I wanted: sleek and elegant. I found something online I liked then found a place where similar dresses were sold. When I saw it in person, I knew it was perfect: a strapless, fitted gown with rhinestones across the top and a mermaid bottom,” (Kyle 16). Taya using imagery at this moment really lets the readers, especially the girls who know a good bit about wedding dresses, to visualize what her dress was like. This allows the reader to feel connected to that part of the story and feel like they were at the wedding as she was talking about it. Taya also writes, “The bagpipers began to move, the tap of their shoes on the concrete apron echoing loudly. The cadence centered me. The pipes began to mourn and my spirit swelled, the music propelling me forward,” (199). This example of imagery lets the reader visualize what it was like for her getting ready to go on the field at Cowboy’s Stadium to say her final goodbyes to Chris. The readers can really grasp how she is feeling and what she was seeing at this …show more content…
One type of figurative language she uses to do this is simile. Taya writes, “Visiting their house was like going to a resort where only happy people were allowed,” (5). Instead of just saying that her grandparent’s house was a very relaxing and happy place, the simile she used allows her to add more to her description. Her description instantly became more vivid and emphatic just by using figurative language. Taya also uses hyperboles to help readers visualize what certain situations would be like. One being the birth of her first born child. Taya writes, “The pain retreated far enough across the room that I no longer felt like my pelvis was going to rip into a million pieces… only three or four hundred,” (48). The use of the hyperbole in this situation allows the reader to visualize what it would have been like inside the delivery room with Taya. The reader, at least the ones with some knowledge of labor, can easily imagine Taya laying in a hospital bed in excruciating pain but then the laughing gas helping to take some of the pain away immediately when the mask is put on her. All in all, in American Wife, Taya uses figurative language constantly throughout the memoir to express things to her readers accurately, make her writing more interesting, and allow her readers visualize what she is talking about. Figurative language is an essential part of an author’s