Analogy Definition: The Argumentative Comparison

Analogy is an argument by comparison. It is the use of comparative language (X is similar to Y) to advance a broader argument about something. When a writer uses an analogy, the goal is not just to reveal the essence of something, as in a simile or metaphor; the goal is to scaffold this comparison into a richer argument. 

The analogy is related to the simile and metaphor, and many analogies are themselves metaphors or similes. Nonetheless, because arguments take many forms, analogies do too. But, don’t assume that this is merely a rhetorical device: analogies are just as useful for poets and creative writers.

So let’s examine the analogy device in detail, with a look at analogy examples in literature and some exercises for your own writing.

Analogy Definition

An analogy is a statement of comparison that is used to build or advance an argument. 

An analogy is a statement of comparison that is used to build or advance an argument. 

The word “analogy” comes from the Greek, roughly translated to mean “proportional.” Analogies argue that two seemingly different items are equivalent, or at the very least, quite similar. In doing so, analogies build an argument about a larger issue. An analogy might not be the central device of your writing, but analogies can contribute much-needed perspective to an argument, appealing to the reader’s sense of logic.

The Structure of an Analogy

An analogy accomplishes the following:

1. The identification of a shared relationship, and/or
2. The use of something familiar to describe something unfamiliar.

This will make sense with some analogy examples. Let’s start with a simple one:

This analogy identifies a shared relationship between two things: namely, that finding both objects is difficult. Additionally, it uses a familiar, cliché phrase—“like a needle in a haystack”—to describe something that the reader might not know about.

The sentence structure “A is to B” is common for analogies. You might also see the construction “A is to B as C is to D.”

This sentence structure “A is to B” is common for analogies. You might also see the construction “A is to B as C is to D.”

Finally, you might be wondering: Isn’t that analogy also a simile? And the answer is: Yes!

An analogy can take the form of a simile or metaphor, which is why identifying one from the other can be a bit tricky. 

Analogies have been useful literary devices for writers and rhetoricians throughout the ages. Let’s look at some analogy examples in action. 

Analogy Examples in Literature

All of these analogy examples come from published works of literature. 

Shakespeare is negating the idea of nominative determinism—the idea that the name of something changes its essential characteristics. The idea of a “sweet smelling rose” is familiar to the reader, and by modifying this idea to call the rose a nameless flower, Shakespeare suggests that the name “rose” has no effect on the rose’s smell.

In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet says this line as part of a larger argument: that her status as a Capulet does not change Romeo’s love for her, even though he is a Montague. This rejection of family history for the sake of love is central to the play’s tragedy.

Although his advice is a bit pessimistic, P. G. Wodehouse illustrates his point with a strong analogy. A rose petal will never create an echo, and even if it could, the Grand Canyon is far too deep for anyone to hear it.

Similarly, an author’s first novel probably won’t find resounding success, and even if it does, it will not change the literary landscape on its own. An author needs to put out consequent novels to have a much larger impact—to throw a boulder down the Grand Canyon and hear its echo, metaphorically.

In this analogy, the familiar idea is an echoless rose petal, and the new idea is an author publishing their first book. This analogy could be rewritten in the following way: “a rose petal echoes the way an author’s first book impacts the literary world.”

The analogy here is clear and simple: water quenches a parched throat the way good news quenches the soul. The reader is naturally familiar with the feeling of a quenched thirst, making it much easier to understand the sense of relief begat by good news—especially if you’re worried about bad news.

Note, this analogy has a sentence structure common to analogies: “A is to B as C is to D.”

Avoiding False Analogy

Because analogies are useful rhetorical devices, it only makes sense that they can be misused or result in specious arguments. When this happens, it may be the product of a faulty or false analogy.

A faulty analogy compares two things incorrectly.

False analogies are analogies that produce incorrect conclusions from comparative analyses. In simpler terms, the faulty analogy compares two things incorrectly. 

Here’s an illustrative example: 

Do you see the problem? I argue by analogy that, because a cat and a human have a few similar traits, they must be similar everywhere all the time. Obviously, this can’t be true, otherwise they would both speak English. 

Here’s another example: 

Part of the reason for this difference is that more people drive than take opiates. So we’re equating these two causes of death which exist in different contexts. In any case, this is also presenting a False Dilemma: why can’t we improve both situations?

Faulty analogies are typically the result of focusing only on the similarities between things and ignoring their differences. In the following section, we look at how to avoid this. 

Faulty analogies are typically the result of focusing only on the similarities between things and ignoring their differences

Additionally, you can learn more about logical fallacies here: 

https://writers.com/list-of-logical-fallacies 

How to Write an Analogy

As with metaphors and similes, analogies are most successful when they reveal something true and unexpected in their subjects. Here are four tips on how to write an analogy.

1. How to Write an Analogy: Be Visual

Not all analogies need imagery, but the most successful ones often do. Images give your writing something grounded and easy to make comparisons with. You can better illustrate your ideas by illustrating a mental picture.

Images give your writing something grounded and easy to make comparisons with. 

Here’s an example of an analogy that’s strictly conceptual: 

What is this analogy saying? Sure, I could flesh out the analogy and explain the relationships happening within it, but also, a sentence overloaded with -isms is rarely a pleasure to read. 

Imagery would help simplify this, and perhaps even hone in on the actual relationship I’m interested in exploring. For example:

This is better, but still imperfect. It’s better because the idea I’m trying to illustrate is clear: Transcendentalism followed Romanticism the way that cell lines evolve in bacteria. The ideas are similar, maybe with some very small genetic tweaks.

Still, the idea could use a better image, because I’m tacitly saying that Romanticism and Transcendentalism are as small and insignificant as a single bacterium, and that’s certainly not the case. Besides, many bacteria create exact self-replicas, and only sometimes generate mutations. 

So, here’s an analogy that’s tonally and conceptually more accurate: 

This is a bit complex, but definitely closer to the truth. Stars typically form in clusters inside nebulae; similarly, grand philosophical ideas are products of their contexts. Romanticism precedes Transcendentalism by a few decades, but both ideas are products of post-Enlightenment Individualism and Liberalism. 

As a bonus, these ideas illuminated their times, so the comparison to stars is both empirical and imagistically sound. 

2. How to Write an Analogy: Build From Existing Knowledge

Devices of comparison, including analogies, work best when they take existing knowledge to create new knowledge. 

Which is not to say that you should only write from what you already know. Sometimes, a good analogy requires its own research. But the point is that your analogy is successful when it uses something your reader already knows to leap into unknown territory. 

But the point is that your analogy is successful when it uses something your reader already knows to leap into unknown territory. 

The above analogy to stars works on a technical level, but both halves of it are relying on somewhat esoteric knowledge. In this instance, I would probably want to give a more in-depth explanation of star formation before I pivot back to 19th century philosophical movements—which I’m well within my right to do, but only if I think it really serves my purpose. 

Otherwise, analogies that build from common knowledge are often more elegant. Hopefully, most people know about propagation, or the process of planting new flowers from old parts. So: 

In other words, planting an idea in new soil (as Romanticism in England became Transcendentalism in America) yields new offspring. 

Again, it’s not necessarily a sign of elegance that I have to explain the analogy—but hopefully it’s easier to do so when operating from a base of common knowledge. 

3. How to Write an Analogy: Interrogate Your Ideas

Striving for perfection often results in more and more complexity (which sometimes collapses back into simplicity).

The best writers and rhetoricians try to attack their ideas from the opposite angle. They think of counterarguments and try to dismantle their own ideas, with the intent of strengthening them and believing more strongly in what they write. 

It is no different with an analogy. Throughout this section, I’ve acknowledged what works in the analogies I’ve drafted—and, more importantly, what doesn’t. 

In truth, there is no such thing as perfect writing or perfect arguments. Which is not to say that we shouldn’t strive for perfection: rather, that striving often results in more and more complexity (which sometimes collapses back into simplicity). Any act of comparison, such as in an analogy, is bound to invite counterarguments and criticism; successful analogy writers anticipate these counterarguments and incorporate them into stronger work. 

Successful analogy writers anticipate counterarguments and incorporate them into stronger work. 

4. How to Write an Analogy: Be Simple (But Don’t Reduce Complexity)

Analogies are effective rhetorical devices precisely because of their simplicity. As such, it is best to lean into that simplicity—which is not the same as reducing complexity. 

Here’s what overly reducing complexity might look like: 

In an attempt to represent the similarity between Romanticism and Transcendentalism, I’ve reduced too much complexity and produced an analogy that doesn’t work. Yes, their “genetics” or core ideas overlap greatly, but I have scrubbed out their unique contexts, as well as the sequence of those ideas influencing each other. 

Analogies work precisely because they allow complexity to be expressed elegantly.

Analogies work precisely because they allow complexity to be expressed elegantly. Successful analogies will engage with those complexities, allowing them to be represented even in a relatively simple sentence construction. 

Analogy Writing Exercises

Ready to write your own analogy examples? These two exercises will jumpstart your creativity.

1. Start With a Simile

As you’ve seen in the above analogy examples, many analogies can also be characterized as similes. For this exercise, we’re going to start with similes.

First create two lists: a list of concrete nouns, and a list of abstract nouns.

For reference, concrete nouns are images that can be experienced with the five senses; abstract nouns are ideas. Your list might look something like this:

Now, connect each abstract noun to a random concrete noun. Try not to be too intentional about which nouns you connect: the point is to compare two different items at random.

Once you’ve drawn your lines, we’re going to do two things: create a simile, then create an analogy out of that simile.

To create a simile, link the two items on your list together and give a brief explanation of that comparison.

For example: Desire is like a car horn: both announce themselves unexpectedly. 

How do you turn a simile into an analogy? An analogy has two parts: information that’s familiar to the reader, and information that’s new to the reader.

Let’s take the above example. The car horn is familiar to the reader: they can imagine that sound in their head. “Desire” is also familiar to the reader, but because it is abstract, everyone has a unique relationship to it. Desire might feel different for me than it feels for you, and those feelings also morph in different contexts. Similes and analogies here will help us fill in those blanks. 

One way to create an analogy from a simile is to use parallel structure, which means both parts of the analogy are constructed the same. Both the horn and desire “honks,” which makes “honking” the piece of information most familiar to the reader. If we use parallel structure and rely on common information, we can turn the simile into the following analogy:

Desire announces itself in the body like a car horn honking at your lane change. 

Of course, whatever analogies you write, you may decide to expand on them more. Analogies can be arguments on their own, and they can also tie into a larger thesis or idea. However, the best analogies are self-explanatory: you should be able to both understand the idea itself and be curious about how it can be expanded. 

2. A is to B as C is to D

All you need for this writing exercise is five words: one verb and two pairs of concrete nouns.

Come up with these words however you like. Use a word generator, create a list, flip to a random page in the dictionary, etc. The only requirement is that two of your four nouns can do the verb. (A dolphin can swim, but it can’t type on a keyboard, for example.)

Your list might look like this:

• Verb: Coddle
• Noun Pairs: mother and son, artist and easel

Once you have these words selected, you have everything you need to write an analogy. Your next step is to put them in the sentence structure “A is to B as C is to D.”

So, for the words I randomly selected, my analogy could read like this: “a mother coddles her son the way an insecure artist coddles his easel.”

And there, I have an analogy! If I wanted to, I could write more about how an artist should let go of micromanaging the canvas, allowing art to develop naturally through the artistic process. However, my analogy makes this argument on its own, which a proper analogy should do.

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