Literary Terms 1
In George Orwell's Animal Farm, the rebellion of the barnyard animals against their human master serves as this type of extended narrative, representing the real-world events of the Russian Revolution.
Allegory
If a director shoots a movie about ancient Rome and forgets to remove a background extra's ringing iPhone, the modern device is considered this chronological error.
Anachronism
While "thrifty" and "cheap" both mean to save money, "cheap" carries a negative one of these cultural or emotional undertones.
Connotation
When a writer mentions a rusty, loaded pistol sitting on a mantlepiece in Chapter 1, they are providing this hint that a shooting will occur later in the story.
Foreshadowing
Using the phrase "Chicago won the game" to refer to the specific baseball players on the Chicago Cubs roster is an example of this device, where the whole represents a part.
Synecdoche
You are using this poetic device when you write a tongue twister like, "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers."
Alliteration
Before starting his lecture on public speaking, a professor shares a quick, humorous personal story about the time he forgot his pants at a middle school debate.
Anecdote
T.S. Eliot utilizes this poetic technique in The Waste Land when he writes, "April is the cruelest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land," running the thought into the next line without punctuation.
Enjambment
An exhausted teenager who walks through the front door and groans, "My backpack weighs a literal ton!" is using this device for dramatic effect.
Hyperbole
Comic books rely heavily on these words, printing "POW!", "BAM!", and "SPLAT!" across the page to mirror real-world sounds.
Onomatopoeia
When a character describes their romantic partner as a "veritable Romeo," they are making this type of indirect reference to another famous work of literature.
Allusion
Edgar Allan Poe relies heavily on this device in the line, "the melody of the bells," repeating the short "e" sound across nearby words.
Assonance
Instead of telling an employee point-blank that they are "fired," a polite manager might use this mild term to say the company is "letting them go."
Euphemism
If a director tells an actor to "break a leg" right before they step out onto the stage, they are using this figurative phrase that shouldn't be taken literally.
Idiom
Combining two completely contradictory words together into two-word phrases like "deafening silence" or "seriously funny" creates this figure of speech.
Oxymoron
"An atom is like a miniature solar system, where electrons orbit the nucleus just like planets orbit the sun" is an example of this explanatory comparison.
Analogy
Saying that a plan is "gonna be a piece of cake" instead of saying "it will be easy" uses this type of informal, regional language.
Colloquialism
It is this situational device when a certified fire station burns down to the ground because someone left a candle lit in the kitchen.
Irony
Shakespeare used this direct comparison in As You Like It by writing, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players."
Metaphor
The statement, "This is the beginning of the end," is an example of this self-contradictory statement that actually reveals a deeper truth.
Paradox
Lumiere the candlestick singing, dancing, and welcoming guests in Beauty and the Beast is an example of this device, where non-humans literally act out human behaviors.
Anthropomorphism
Charles Dickens used this descriptive technique to introduce Mr. Gradgrind, giving him an impossibly rigid, square forehead and a thin, mechanical voice to exaggerate his obsession with cold facts.
Caricature
Charles Dickens famously opened A Tale of Two Cities by placing these two opposing ideas side-by-side: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
Juxtaposition
Charity commercials featuring sad music and slow-motion footage of homeless puppies are deliberately using this appeal to pull at your heartstrings.
Pathos
In the phrase, "The wind howled in the night," this device gives a non-human element a uniquely human trait or action.
Personification