Use Figurative Language Again Woody (Taken from "Play It Again Sam")

 While study figurative language this week in English we were given this definition;"words or phrases that require interpretation and inference to determine the meaning." To check for my own understanding I tried to think of examples on my own. The first thing that came to me was this, "Some guy hit my fender, and I told him 'be fruitful, and multiply.' But not in those words." This is a joke from the great Woody Allen, one of my favorite film makers of all time. This got me thinking about the use of figurative language in not only literature but film as well.

 The biggest difference between a novel and a dictionary is figurative language. Perhaps this can also be used to distinguish between a comedic film and a documentary, or a dramatic film and a slasher. Writers, of film or literature, use figurative language to stir the reader's imagination. Get them involved in the text, by adding new layers of emotion and understanding. This can only be done by using the right connotations, not denotations, or through metaphor, simile, analogies, or symbols. In many of Woody Allen's films he plays very similar characters that are supposed to be a fictionalized version of himself. An old or middle aged Jewish man that's unlucky in love, has a phobia of death, frequently visits an analyst, and feels cynical about life. 

 Some of Woody Allen's best uses of figurative language come from his jokes about death; "I am not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens" or "The difference between sex and death is that with death you can do it alone and no one is going to make fun of you." and finally "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying." Allen's use of figurative language to express his character's irrational fear of death is very humorous in that it pokes fun at people who over think death. If Allen were to say these famous quotes again with out any figurative language they would just be morbid and confusing. "I'm very afraid of death and I want to avoid it" or "Sex and death are similar except death is more serious. People laugh at me during sex" and finally "I don't care if my work remains popular after I'm gone, I just don't want to die." Hence why figurative language is necessary; it makes the jokes.

 During our unit on figurative language I plan to look at everything we read with an open mind. Figurative language is very interesting to me, personally, because it can have a comedic effect. Also I just enjoy the fact that it's definition is so open, figuratively speaking (pun intended). Figurative language is all the ways of pushing past the literal meaning of a word or phrase to make the reader see something else.