First things first: to answer this question, we need to establish what similes, metaphors and personification are. A simile is a comparison using the words like or as. A metaphor is a word or phrase that makes a comparison by describing something in a way that isn't literally true. Personification is giving something nonhuman human characteristics.
A great example of a simile can be found right at the beginning of the story, when the children are pressed up against each other looking for the sun "like so many roses." The children are being likened to roses growing close to one another.
Another simile can be found later, when the children are outside experiencing the sunshine. The sun on their cheeks is described as feeling "like a warm iron." Obviously their faces are not literally being ironed, but the intense warmth is reminiscent of an iron.
A classic metaphor can be found in a description of Margot while the children wait for the miraculous appearance of the sun.
"She was an old photograph dusted from an album, whitened away."
Margot is obviously not a photograph—she is a person. This metaphor serves to add impetus to the idea that Margot is alone, separated from her classmates by her memories of the sun.
Personification can be found just after Margot's classmates lock her in the cupboard. Margot is pounding on the door, which is said to "tremble from her beating." It might be argued that a door cannot literally tremble, since trembling is generally seen as a human action. The image created by this personification gives us an idea of how desperately Margot is trying to get out of the cupboard.
Further Reading
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There are numerous figures of speech in this short story, including similes, metaphors, and instances of personification.
A simile is a comparison of unlike things for effect using "like" or "as." A metaphor is a direct comparison of unlike things for effect without either of those words. Personification means attributing human attributes to concepts or ideas or to inanimate objects.
One simile in the story appears on the first page:
The children pressed to each other like so many roses.
Farther down, another simile says that the children:
turned on themselves like a feverish wheel.
Two metaphors, of a "tatting drum" and "clear bead necklaces" compare the rain to objects and/or the sound they make:
But then they always awoke to the tatting drum, the endless shaking down of clear bead necklaces upon the roof.
Another metaphor uses "crystal" similarly:
the sweet crystal fall of showers.
Further down, a metaphor concerns Margaret:
She was an old photograph dusted from an album.
The same sentence uses personification, giving her voice humanlike qualities:
her voice would be a ghost.
Another metaphor one also emphasizes her pallor:
They hated her pale snow face.
Further Reading
Bradbury is known for his lyrical, poetic writing style. To create his lyrical effects, he uses many similes and metaphors. A simile is a comparison using the words like or as. One simile is the following; as Margot ruminates that the other school children (who have no conscious memory of the sun) carry a subconscious memory of it as:
a warmness, like a blushing in the face, in the body, in the arms and legs and trembling hands.
To the children, the sun is dimly and half-consciously remembered as a blush.
Margot also uses several metaphors (or comparisons that do not use the words like or as) when she thinks that the other children subconsciously remember the sun as like a:
gold or a yellow crayon or a coin large enough to buy the world with.
In the story, the rain is compared to a "tatting drum" as well:
the endless shaking down of clear bead necklaces upon the roof, the walk, the gardens, the forests.
The sun is personified or given human characteristics when it is said to have "showed its face." The sun doesn't have a face like a human and can't voluntarily choose to show itself.
Ray Bradbury's short story "All Summer in a Day" has many different types of figures of speech. Similes compare two unlike things using the words "like" or "as." Metaphors compare two unlike things using words like "is" or "was." Finally, personification occurs when an animal or inanimate object is given human traits or qualities. These figures of speech not only help to communicate what the author wants to portray in the story, but also help readers connect with something they may already understand, which then creates more meaning for them in the story. For example, the following is a passage that demonstrates the use of simile and metaphor:
All day yesterday they had read in class about the sun. About how like a lemon it was, and how hot.
And they had written small stories or essays or poems about it:
I think the sun is a flower,
That blooms for just one hour.
The first figure of speech is a simile because it compares the sun to a lemon using the word "like." Then, a metaphor is used when the sun is compared to a flower using the word "is."
The next passage has examples of two similes:
But Margot remembered.
"It’s like a penny," she said once, eyes closed.
"No it’s not!" the children cried.
"It’s like a fire," she said, "in the stove.”
Both figures of speech in this passage are similes because the sun is compared to a penny and then to fire using the word "like." The next example demonstrates how personification is used in the story:
They stood looking at the door and saw it tremble from her beating and throwing herself against it.
Inanimate objects do not have the ability to tremble like people do; therefore, this is an example of personification. The door "trembles" because it receives the impact of Margot's protest and anxiety about being trapped. It also seems as though Bradbury uses personification when Margot is locked in the closet to describe how her emotions powerfully transfer through the door as she pounds on it.
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