<p>i was working with my english teacher on my college essay after school today. She told me to work in an analogy of basketball into my essay? I forget to ask her about it, but what exactly is an analogy? is it just like an example? Can someone write like a short, simple, and concise explanation for me? i looked it up but the web definition is long and confusing.</p>
<p>Life is like basketball…I am guessing you like or play basketball. Write your essay about how you play the game and its rewards. Carefully prepare, play hard, play for the good of the team, change direction when necessary. Does that make sense?</p>
<p>i wrote my essay already, which is about basketball. My eng teacher told me to add some literary devices (analogy in particular) into my essay to make it sound more sophisticated. Is analogy like an simile? i always thought analogy is the same thing as an example for some weird reason.</p>
<p>“Life is like a box of chocolates.” Forrest Gump (simile–uses like)</p>
<p>Analogy compares things that on the surface don’t appear to be related and it is more extended than a simile, which might just be a phrase. For example, you play basketball the way you live life. Good luck, it is always tough to add things in.</p>
<p>analogy is when you compare something to a seemingly unrelated thing to make a related point. analogies come in the forms of metaphors, similes, and parables (they are all about the same concept just varying in their depth). the king of kings in parable telling is jesus christ. one famous analogy/parable/metaphor is that he “fishes” for men. by saying that, he wants to evoke the unrelated of image of fishing in order to evoke the related concept that he wants to catch men like the way fisherman catch fish. so why did he use an analogy of fishing for men? why does he just say he wants to catch men? the reason is that our brains are wired to respond to poetry and pictures. there is something grabbing about thinking about pulling fish from the sea and catching men from a lost crowd. the human brain is wired to like analogies in order to get a concept. analogies are what makes us understand things on a deeper level. maybe this example of christ does not do it for you. to go for the basketball analogy, comparing the game of basketball to life in an analogy is very possible. you can explain how the rebounds are the second chances people get in life. you can explain how getting the basketball into the basket is like accomplishing your goals in life. you can explain how basketball is a lot like life because you can never really tell what happens sometimes at those critical junctions when the basketball caroms the basket and seems to be on the end of either going into the basket or fallling out. life is filled with those moments when things can go one way to be the game winning shot or bounched / missed opportunity. basketball is a lot like life because the key to basketball is good defense found in team work and people skills. trusting your teammates when you need them. basketball is life and life is basketball. the bottomline is that if you’re going to use an analogy use something that isn’t obvious/generic and that hasn’t been used too many times. and then go into the analogy as deeply as you can. explain the analogy from all dimensions. own your analogy. personalize that analogy and in the end get the reader to see the world as you see it. that’s the point of an analogy to open up the eyes of the reader to your viewpoint. when life is a box of chocolates, we begin to see what life looks like from forrest’s eyes. good luck with your essay!</p>