Assertions about Comparison, Contrast, and Comparison/Contrast:
Comparison:
When we write poetry
about the similarities between two or more people, things, events, ideas
or feelings, we make use of two literary techniques: simile or metaphor.
Simile and metaphor are also used to express comparisons in prose genres:
novel, short story, (screen)play, and essay, but in essays, the reader
must be convinced that the comparisons being made are not only recognizable
but also significant. In other words, a successful comparison is one that
gets the reader to think about the subject from a new angle, to see it
in a new light. Thus a comparison of apples and oranges that merely
states that both are fruits is clearly true, but it is also trivial and
not likely to hold a reader's attention as it does not reveal any new
information about either apples or oranges. Comparisons that juxtapose
two apparently dissimilar things and reveal similarities are more likely
to be worth reading (and writing). Comparisons may be implicit or explicit.
Explicit comparisons are typically marked by the following words: like,
as…as, similar(ly).
Examples:
Virtually unheard of in Europe two decades ago, the kiwi is now nearly as ubiquitous in the European diet as parsley and fruits like apples, strawberries and bananas. This five to seven centimeter, brown, furry-skinned, egg-shaped fruit has a unique flavor reminiscent of banana and strawberries. Like the orange, it is cherished for its high Vitamin C content. Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon, as some residents defiantly call her, has the discipline of hooligans at a football match and the intellectual tone of Las Vegas. (Richard Blystone reporting on CNN, 24.4.00)
Contrast:
Contrast, either explicit or implicit, can be used to reveal the differences between two subjects that are generally seen to be similar or related. As with comparisons, certain words can be used to signal contrasts: unlike, different from, in contrast to. Contrasts can also be implied through the skillful use of sentence structures.
Example:
My granddaughter and I share a common birthday. This year I turned 69 and my youngest grandchild turned nineteen. At our shared family birthday party, we both announced momentous life decisions: she, to drop out of college "to find herself," and I, to enroll in college "to find out more about myself." My granddaughter has chosen to clerk in a hardware store. When asked why she chose this over college, she has insisted, "I want to learn about real life." I, too, have answered when queried about my decision to go to college that I hoped to learn more about real life. The difference between my granddaughter and me is that she is confident that she will succeed and I am hesitant about my decision and apprehensive of my ability to succeed in college at my age.
Comparison / Contrast:
Example:
"Two Ways of Seeing a River"
Now when I had mastered the language of this water and had come to know every trifling feature that bordered the great river as familiarly as I knew the letters of the alphabet, I had made a valuable acquisition. But I had lost something, too. I had lost something which could never be restored to me while I lived. All the grace, the beauty, the poetry, had gone out of the majestic river! I still kept in mind a certain wonderful sunset which I witnessed when steam-boating was new to me. A broad expanse of the river was turned to blood; in the middle distance the red hue brightened into gold, through which a solitary log came floating, black and conspicuous; in one place a long, slanting mark lay sparkling upon the water; in another the surface was broken by boiling, tumbling rings that were as many-tinted as an opal; where the ruddy flush was faintest was a smooth spot that was covered with graceful circles and radiating lines, ever so delicately traced; the shore on our left was densely wooded, and the somber shadow that fell from this forest was broken in one place by a long, ruffled trail that shone like silver; and high above the forest wall a clean-stemmed dead tree waved a single leafy bough that glowed like a flame in the unobstructed splendor that was flowing from the sun. There were graceful curves, reflected images, woody heights, soft distances, and over the whole scene, far and near, the dissolving lights drifted steadily, enriching it every passing moment with new marvels of coloring.
I stood like one bewitched. I drank it in, in a speechless rapture. The world was new to me and I had never seen anything like this at home. But as I have said, a day came when I began to cease from noting the glories and the charms which the moon and the sun and the twilight wrought upon the river's face; another day came when I ceased altogether to note them. Then, if that sunset scene had been repeated, I should have looked upon it without rapture and should have commented upon it inwardly after this fashion: "This sun means that we are going to have wind to-morrow; that floating log means that the river is rising, small thanks to it; that slanting mark on the water refers to a bluff reef which is going to kill somebody's steamboat one of these nights, if it keeps on stretching out like that; those tumbling 'boils' show a dissolving bar and a changing channel there; the lines and circles in the slick water over yonder are a warning that that troublesome place is shoaling up dangerously; that silver streak in the shadow of the forest is the 'break' from a new snag and he has located himself in the very best place he could have found to fish for steamboats; that tall dead tree, with a single living branch, is not going to last long, and then how is a body ever going to get through this blind place at night without the friendly old landmark?
No, the romance and beauty were all gone from the river. All the value any feature of it had for me now was the amount of usefulness it could furnish toward compassing the safe piloting of a steamboat. Since those days, I have pitied doctors from my heart. What does the lovely flush in a beauty's cheek mean to a doctor but a "break" that ripples above some deadly disease? Are not all her visible charms sown thick with what are to him the signs and symbols of hidden decay? Does he ever see her beauty at all, or doesn't he simply view her professionally and comment upon her unwholesome condition all to himself? And doesn't he sometimes wonder whether he has gained most or lost most by learning his trade?
Mark
Twain
From Life on the Mississippi
Assignment:
UWS
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