Literary Devices
This is when an author uses descriptive language to evoke a sensory experience for the reader.
What is "imagery"?
This sentence best represents the author's perspective on mediation:
Litigation is not always the only or best way to resolve conflicts. Mediation offers an alternative approach and it is one that can be quite efficient and successful. Mediation can be faster, less expensive, and can lead to creative solutions not always possible in a court of law. Additionally, mediation focuses on mutually acceptable solutions, rather than on winning or losing.
What is "Mediation offers an alternative approach and it is one that can be quite efficient and successful"?
The meaning of the word "plausible" as it is used in the following passage:
The suspect gave a plausible explanation for his presence at the scene, so the police decided to look elsewhere for the perpetrator of the crime.
What is "credible" or "reasonable"?
This type of point of view creates a narrative in which the action is driven by a character revealed to the reader as you.
What is "2nd person point of view"?
The main idea of the following passage:
Unfreezing Water Pipes. Leave faucets slightly open. Open the faucet attached to the frozen pipe, and open nearby working faucets to a trickle. Use a hair dryer or heat gun. Apply heat tape. Heat the surrounding air. Add salt to frozen drains. Wrap the pipe in hot towels.
The following is an example of this literary device:
So we beat on
boats against the current
borne back ceaselessly into the past
What is "metaphor"?
This line best represents the author's tone in the passage:
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?
What is "Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman?"
The meaning of the word covert as it is used in the following sentence:
The spies conducted a covert operation.
What is "hidden" or "not openly acknowledged"?
The speaker's point of view on the American people in the following passage can be described by this word:
For a century, we labored to settle and to subdue a continent. For half a century, we called upon unbounded invention and untiring industry to create an order of plenty for all of our people. The challenge of the next half-century is whether we have the wisdom to use that wealth to enrich and elevate our national life, and to advance the quality of our American civilization. Your imagination and your initiative and your indignation will determine whether we build a society where progress is the servant of our needs, or a society where old values and new visions are buried under unbridled growth. For, in your time, we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society.
What is "hopeful", "optimistic", or "promising"?
The implied main idea of the following passage:
All writers get bogged down now and then. Accept the fact that sooner or later writer’s block will happen to you. When it does, one response is to try to write something—no matter how awkward or imprecise it may seem. Just jot a reminder to yourself in the margin (“Fix this,” “Redo,” or “Ugh!”) to fine-tune the section later. Another way to deal with a writing snag is leave a blank space—a spot for the right words when they finally come to mind at a later time. Then move on to an easier section, see if you can write that, and then return to the challenging part. It may also help to reread to yourself or out loud what you’ve already written. Regaining a sense of the large context may be enough to overcome writer’s block. You might also try talking your way through a troublesome section. Like most people, you probably speak more easily than you write; by speaking aloud, you tap this oral fluency and put it to work in your writing.
What is "There are various ways to deal with writer's block?"
The passage below is an example of this literary device:
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
What is personification?
This sentence of the passage best supports its theme:
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
What is
"I have a dream that ... all men are created equal" ?
The meaning of the word "trill" as it is used in the context of the passage:
"The caged bird sings with a fearful trill"
What is "song"?
This word best describes the author's point of view about the topic discussed in the passage below:
"Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained--if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time.'
What is "negative" "closed minded" or "fearful"?
This best describes the author's main idea discussed in the passage:
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/ceo-pay-17-profits-stocks-soar-workers-fall-84991214
What is "CEOs are overpaid in comparison to the average worker"?
This type of irony is seen in the following passage:
In Titanic, the audience knows from the beginning of the movie that the boat will sink. This creates ironic humor when characters remark on the safety of the ship.
What is "dramatic irony"?
This sentence best reveals Shakespeare's theme in the following passage:
ALL the world ’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His Acts being seven ages. At first the Infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining School-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the Lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a Soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard;
What is "And one man in his time plays many parts,
His Acts being seven ages"?
The meaning of the word expedite as it used in the context of the passage:
The attorney wanted to expedite the process because her client was becoming impatient.
What is "accelerate" or "speed up"?
This thematic statement reveals the poet's perspective in the following poem:
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (linked on Google Classroom)
What is "We are all lonely creatures just searching for a place of comfort"?
Answers may vary, but should mirror the above theme of loneliness and longing.
This word/phrase best describes the poet's theme in the following poem:
We Real Cool
The Pool Players.
Seven at the Golden Shovel.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
What is "youth" or "coming of age"?
How does Langston Hughes use literary devices to enhance the theme of his poem?
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Answers may vary but must include the following words:
"theme", "enhance", and an explicit example of at least one literary device and reasoning.
Example: In the poem, Langston Hughes uses similes to enhance his theme on the inequality of dreams due to circumstance.
Based on the paragraph, what can the reader infer about Miss Havisham? Use evidence from the text to explain your answer.
She was dressed in rich materials - satins, and lace, and silks - all of white. Her shoes were white. And she had a long white veil dependent from her hair, and she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table. Dresses, less splendid than the dress she wore, and half-packed trunks, were scattered about. She had not quite finished dressing, for she had but one shoe on - the other was on the table near her hand - her veil was but half arranged, her watch and chain were not put on, and some lace for her bosom lay with those trinkets, and with her handkerchief, and gloves, and some flowers, and a prayer-book, all confusedly heaped about the looking-glass.
Answers may vary but must include the following words:
"reader", "infer", and an explicit detail from the text that suggests Miss Havisham's characterization.
Example: In the paragraph, the reader can infer that Miss Havisham is conscious of her self-image and careful of her lifestyle.
The meaning of "obdurately" as it is used in the context of the passage:
Although Zachary is much too inexperienced for the managerial position, he is a willful young man and obdurately refuses to withdraw his application.
What is "stubborn" or "unbending"?
How does the author's perspective affect the reader's understanding in the passage from Ellen Foster below:
"When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy...The way I liked best was letting go a poisonous spider in his bed. It would bite him and he'd be dead and swollen up and I would shudder to find him so...But I did not kill my daddy. He drank his own self to death the year after the County moved me out. I heard how they found him shut up in the house dead and everything. Next thing I know he's in the ground and the house is rented out to a family of four."
Answers may vary but must include the following words:
"author's perspective", "affect", "reader's understanding", and an explicit reason and result.
Example: In the passage the author's perspective limits the reader's understanding about what is happening which creates suspense for the reader.
How is the poet's theme revealed in the following poem: To an Athlete Dying Young by A. E. Housman? (Linked on Google Classroom)
Answers may vary but must include the following words:
"theme", "revealed", and an explicit reason and example.
Example: In the poem, the poet's theme of celebratory remembrance is revealed through strong diction. (Cites example of strong diction)