Figurative language is the art of describing something in terms of something else. There are many types of figurative language. Prominent in “Brownies” are similes, in which something is compared to something else that on the surface may be dissimilar but at some other level is similar. Similes can be recognized by the presence of connecting words such as “like” or “as if.” Similes seem to come naturally to Laurel, the lively, observant first-person narrator of the story. Mrs. Hedy wags her finger “like a windshield wiper,” for example. The similarity between the finger and the windshield wiper is based on the regular, repetitive, rhythmic motion of both. The leader of Troop 909 holds a banana in front of her “like a microphone,” the similarity between banana and microphone based on the shape of the object and the...