The heathen. "a cloud of spears" - Lit device?

Question

would a cloud of spears be considered a metaphor or hyperbole

Answer 1

Hi Maddy!

"A cloud of spears" would be considered a metaphor. A good way to remember the difference between a metaphor and a hyperbole is that a metaphor is describing something by comparing it to another thing, and a hyperbole is an exaggeration. For example, a metaphor would be, "Her eyes were the sky" (comparing a person's eyes to the sky), and a hyperbole would be "Millions of ants climbed all over his sandwich" (an exaggeration that we're not really supposed to take seriously, but tells us that there were lots of ants on someone's sandwich). In this case, the author is describing the image of the spears as similar to a cloud, which makes it a metaphor.

Hope that helps!