Skip to content
Task

Tasks: The Monster

This text uses a number of powerful images to portray Mia's thoughts and feelings. Use these images as a starting point for an analysis of the literary devices: metaphors and similes.
Video: Knut Inge Skifjeld, Anne Scott Hagen / CC BY-SA 4.0

Part 1 (Individually or small groups)

  1. Watch the above animation to help determine the difference between metaphors and similes.
  2. Divide a page into two and beneath the titles "Metaphors" and "Similes", add a short definition of the two devices.
  3. Find examples of metaphors and similes in the text "The Monster". Add 2-3 examples to each category, using direct quotations.

Part 2:

  1. Choose the metaphor or simile that you find the most interesting and choose a song that it reminds you of. In one paragraph, explain how the two are in some way connected.
  2. Find a recording of the song (i.e. on YouTube) and select a 30-60 second sample.
  3. In groups or as a class, read your explanation and play a sample of the song. Listen to the feedback from your classmates and discover how a great image can transform and adapt to many different settings!

Related content

Subject material
The Monster by Alex Nye

In this excerpt from the novel When We Get to the Island (2019), a young girl called Mia lets the reader glimpse her innermost feelings of fear and hope.