Literary Device: a literary device is any linguistic technique that produces a specific effect in writing, for example: figurative language, narrative styles, or plot mechanisms (like irony). Literary devices are the heart and soul of every expression, bringing words to life.
- Literary Device: a literary device is any linguistic technique that produces a specific effect in writing, for example: figurative language, narrative styles, or plot mechanisms (like irony). Literary devices are the heart and soul of every expression, bringing words to life.
- Figurative Language: writing or speech that is not meant to be taken literally. It is used to help create pictures in the reader’s mind. The many types of figurative language are known as figures of speech. Common types of figurative language include: metaphors, similes, personification, hyperboles, analogies, and onomatopoeia. Example: The hungry fire ravaged the building. Writers use figurative language to get their readers to think about their subjects in vivid and imaginative ways. **Literal language is the opposite. You are supposed to take it to mean exactly what it says. **
- Metaphor: a metaphor is a figure of speech in which something is described as though it were something else. A metaphor, like a simile, works by pointing out a similarity between two unlike things. You use metaphors when you portray a person, place, thing, or action as being something else. Example: Her tears were a river flowing down her face. At 5 o’clock the highway is a parking lot.
- Simile: a figure of speech that uses like or as to make a direct comparison between two unlike ideas. Everyday speech often contains similes such as: “pale as a ghost,” “good as gold”and“her smile shined like the sun.” Similes are different from metaphors because even though they both form a comparison between two unlike things, similes explicitly use the words like or as, whereas metaphors are more likely to have a hidden comparison.
- Hyperbole: the use of exaggeration to create an image in the reader’s mind. Example: She had a million pairs of shoes thrown around her bedroom.
- Onomatopoeia: the use of words that imitate sounds. Crash, buzz, jingle, and clink are examples.
- Alliteration: the repetition of initial sounds at the beginnings of words. Writers use alliteration to draw attention to certain words or ideas, to imitate sounds, and to create musical effects. Example: Sally sells seashells by the seashore.
- Repetition: the use, more than once, of any element of language—a sound, phrase, clause, or sentence. Repetition is used in both prose and poetry. Example: “While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. ‘Tis some visitor,’ I muttered, tapping at my chamber door-“from The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe.
- Personification: a type of figurative language in which a non-human subject is given human qualities. She’s so photogenic the camera loves her. The sun played hide and seek with the clouds.
- Flashback: when the sequence of events is interrupted, allowing readers to travel back in time and a relive a key event in a character’s life.
- Foreshadowing: is when the text provides hints about what is going to happen later in the story.
- Allusion: when a story mentions characters, events, or language from other stories. Allusion can also reference real people, places, and historical events.
- Symbolism: something that stands for something else in a story. In literature, a symbol can be a person, place, or thing that comes to represent an idea or concept. Example: Doves=Peace, Babies=Innocence
- Literary Elements: literaryelements are commonly described as the components of a literary piece. They are not used intentionally by writers, but they merely take place in all the different types of literature and can be easily identified by the reader. Example: plot, setting, characters, conflict, etc…
- Plot: the events that take place in a story and how they unfold. Plots can be complicated or simple, but they always include a conflict and a resolution.
- Conflict: the main problem in a story. Conflicts may be internal and/or external. The following are the various types of conflicts that occur in literature, movies, dramas, etc. Man VS Man, Man VS Self, Man VS Nature, Man VS Machine
- Resolution: is the solution or outcome of a conflict in a story.
- Character: one of the individuals in a story. Characters are usually people but can be animals or even personified objects.
- Dialogue: the spoken word of characters in a story. Dialogue, which is contained inside quotation marks, provides information about the speaker as well as about the plot.
- Tone: the way the author’s attitude towards his/her audience and about the events, settings, and characters in the story. Examples: Scared, bored, confused, annoyed, happy, supportive, etc…
- Mood: the way the reader is made to feel when reading a story. Mood may be conveyed through setting, plot, tone, and theme.
- Point of view: is the perspective from which the story is being told. Example: First person, third person, and third person omniscient.
- Imagery: the use of the words and phrases that appeal to one or more of the five senses. Writers use images to describe how their characters look, sound, feel, taste, and smell. Poets often paint images, or word pictures, that appeal to your senses. These pictures help you to experience both prose and poetry fully.
- Motif: An important or recurring theme or idea in a work of literature. A distinctive feature or dominant idea presented in a literary work. An example of a motif in Romeo and Juliet is the nighttime. All their most important scenes take place at night, and nightfall is symbolic of a time when people can let go of their inhibitions and act freely.
- Antagonist: A person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something. Example: The wicked witch of the West or Ursula the sea witch.
- Protagonist: The main character in a drama, movie, play, novel, or other fictional text. Example: Dorothy and Ariel.
- Analogy: a literary device that creates a relationship based on parallels or connections between two ideas. By establishing this relationship, the new idea is introduced through a familiar comparison, thus making the new concept easier to grasp. Ex. Growing up my house was a lot like feudalism, my parents were the nobles and we were the serfs. Sword is to warrior as pen is to writer.
Other types of analogies (like you see on the SATs) require you to determine the relationship between things and apply that knowledge to logically complete the analogy. Examples: Rural is to soil as urban is to pavement. Part to whole (battery::flashlight), cause and effect (fatigue: yawning as sadness: crying), synonyms (slender::skinny), and antonyms (poverty::wealthy).
- Irony: An event or state of affairs that is contrary to what is believed or expected to happen. Example: The fireman’s house burned down. Someone who claims to be a vegetarian but eats chicken.
- Diction: A writer’s choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative language to create meaning.
- Oxymoron: A figure of speech in which contradictory words are put together. Examples: Jumbo shrimp, awfully good, deafening silence, less is more, pretty ugly.
- Theme: The main idea or message of a literary work. It may be stated or unstated. In other words, what belief about life is the author trying to convey in his/her writing? Examples of themes: Love conquers all, Recognizing injustices, overcoming adversity, etc.
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