4.5 Figurative Language, Symbolism & Connotation

What Descriptor B5 Actually Tests

Descriptor B5 is interpret nonliteral language (e.g., figurative language, symbolism, connotation). It is literary-text focused and appears on the 40% of the HiSET reading section drawn from fiction, memoir, poetry, and literary essays. The skill is recognizing when language is doing more than stating facts and interpreting what that extra work contributes to meaning, tone, and theme.

Nonliteral language is language where the meaning is not the literal, surface reading. When a narrator says "the kitchen was an oven," she does not mean the kitchen was literally an appliance; she means it was extremely hot. B5 asks you to make that move reliably and in context.

The Figurative-Language Types

Know the forms before you interpret them. The HiSET draws from this set:

The first step on any B5 item is to identify which device is in play. The second step is to interpret it in context, because the same device can carry different meanings in different passages.

Interpreting in Context

A figurative device never means the same thing in every passage. A metaphor comparing a character to a tree could suggest steadiness in one passage and rigidity in another. The surrounding text decides. The rule is: name the device, then read the sentences around it to find the clue to what the device suggests here. The clue is usually in the tone of the surrounding narration, the situation of the character, or the passage's theme.

Common B5 wrong answers fall into two traps:

• The literal trap reads the device as if it were a factual statement. "The kitchen was an oven" is not a claim about appliances; a literal reading is always a distractor on a B5 question.
• The generic trap picks a stock interpretation (a tree means strength) that the passage does not specifically support. Always tie the interpretation to a specific detail in the surrounding text.

Connotation vs. Denotation

Denotation is the literal dictionary meaning of a word. Connotation is the emotional or associative shading the word carries. B5 connotation questions ask which answer choice has the emotional color that matches the passage's tone.

• "Childlike" and "childish" share a denotation (like a child) but have opposite connotations. "Childlike" is positive (innocent, wonder); "childish" is negative (immature, petty).
• "Home," "house," and "residence" can name the same building, but "home" carries warmth and belonging, "residence" is neutral and formal, and "house" is somewhere in between.

When a B5 question asks about connotation, test each answer by substituting it into the passage. If the emotional tone of the sentence shifts in a way that breaks the passage's mood, the connotation is wrong, even if the denotation fits.

Symbolism

Symbolism is the most demanding B5 skill. A symbol is an object, setting, action, or character that stands for an idea beyond itself. The key is that the symbol both is itself (a real fence in the story) and stands for something else (the distance between two people). Two rules keep symbolism interpretation grounded:

1. The symbol is always a concrete thing in the story first. Do not interpret a symbol as if it were a free-floating abstraction. The fence is a fence; it also means something.
2. The meaning is confirmed by recurrence or emphasis. A one-time object is probably decoration; an object that returns, is described in unusual detail, or appears at a turning point is probably a symbol. The passage tells you what it means by how it is used.

Figurative Language and Theme

Figurative language usually points to the passage's theme or tone. A metaphor that recurs across a passage is almost always carrying thematic weight. When a B5 question asks what a metaphor suggests, look for the answer that connects the device to the passage's larger concern — what it says about a character, a relationship, or the human situation the passage explores. A strong B5 answer names the device, interprets it in context, and links it to theme.

A Worked B5 Question

Here is a short fiction-style passage written in the style of a HiSET literary text:

When Nora was a child, her grandfather kept a row of fruit trees at the edge of the yard. Every spring he walked the row and tied new branches to the stakes, and every fall he gave the fruit away to anyone who asked. After he died, the trees went two seasons without pruning. The branches grew heavy and began to split under their own weight. Nora watched them for a summer without touching them, and then in September she went out with the old twine and stakes and began to tie them back up.

Question: The row of fruit trees most nearly functions in the passage as

• A. a literal orchard that produces a marketable crop.
• B. a symbol of the grandfather's care and the burden of inheritance Nora chooses to carry forward.
• C. a sign that Nora plans to sell the property.
• D. a metaphor for the weather that summer.

The correct answer is the second option. The trees are a concrete object first — a real orchard — but the passage gives them symbolic weight through recurrence and emphasis: the grandfather pruned them every spring and gave the fruit away, they deteriorate after his death, and Nora finally takes up the same work. The trees stand for the grandfather's care and for the inheritance of responsibility that Nora accepts. That is a B5 symbolism answer because it reads a concrete object as standing for an idea the passage develops.

The first option is the literal trap: it stops at the surface meaning and ignores what the trees do in the narrative. The third invents a plan the passage never states. The fourth mislabels the device — the trees are a symbol, not a metaphor for weather — and the passage never uses them to describe the weather. Notice the correct answer connects the device to the passage's larger meaning, which is the B5 move.

A Checklist for B5 Questions

• Identify the device (simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, idiom, symbolism).
• Read the sentences around the device for the clue to what it suggests here.
• Reject any answer that reads the device literally.
• Reject any answer that uses a generic interpretation the passage does not support.
• For connotation, substitute the answer into the passage and check the tone.
• For symbolism, confirm the object recurs or is emphasized, and read it as both itself and an idea.
• Connect the interpretation to theme or tone, not just to the device.