Figurative Language in Out of the Dust

...or blow away, like bits of cast-off rags.

• simile

• metaphor

• hyperbole

• idiom

It wasn't until the dust turned toward the house, like a fired locomotive...

• simile

• hyperbole

• personification

• repetition

...the dust hissed against the windows...

• onomatopoeia

• personification

• hyperbole

• repetition

I look at Joe and know our future is drying up

and blowing away with the dust.

• idiom

• hyperbole

• metaphor

• irony

...her anger,

simmering over like a pot in an empty kitchen...

• simile

• metaphor

• hyperbole

• idiom

...cheekbones like bicycle handles.

• simile

• metaphor

• hyperbole

• repetition

...so tart,

would turn my mouth inside out...

• hyperbole

• alliteration

• personification

• metaphor

The following line is an example of:

"...all that I seem to remember is dust—the brown, crumbly dust of late summer—arid, sterile dust that gets into the eyes and makes them water, gets into the throat and between the toes of bare brown feet."

• symbolism

• imagery

• simile

• metaphor

The following line is an example of:

"The boards themselves seemed to remain upright not from being nailed together but rather from leaning together, like a house that a child might have constructed from cards."

• symbolism

• imagery

• simile

• metaphor

The following line is an example of (Pick 2):

But old fears have a way of clinging like cobwebs, and so when we sighted the tumbledown shack, we had to stop to reinforce our nerves.

• symbolism

• personification

• simile

• metaphor