Literary Devices
the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named
What is Onomatopoeia?
A play on words that are either identical in or very similar in sound but are different in meaning.
What is a pun?
"The moon smiled down on the young lovers"
What is personification?
A character or force in conflict with the main character
What is the antagonist?
an appeal to emotion.
What is pathos?
A comparison of two different things that are similar in some way
What is an analogy?
the subject of a talk, a piece of writing, a person's thoughts, or an exhibition; a topic.
What is theme?
"My father is a bear when he wakes up in the morning"
What is a metaphor?
the portrayal in a story of an imaginary person by what she says or does, by what others say about her or how they react to her, and by waht the author reveals directly
What is characterization?
A character who demonstrates some complexity and who develops or changes in the course of a work
What is a round character?
A reference to another work of literature, person, or event
What is an allusion?
A statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.
What is a paradox?
Trees tumble through the torrent.
What is alliteration?
the most intense, exciting, or important point of something; a culmination or apex.
What is the climax?
A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies.
What is satire?
exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.
What is hyperbole?
Feeling or atmosphere that a writer creates for the reader
What is mood?
"old news"
What is an oxymoron?
A struggle between opposing forces
What is conflict?
Attitude a writer takes toward the audience, a subject, or a character
What is tone?
the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning
What is irony?
a recurrent syntactical similarity. Several parts of a sentence or several sentences are expressed similarly to show that the ideas in the parts or sentences are equal in importance.
What is parallelism?
"the crown" for a monarch
What is metonymy?
A narrative device, often used at the beginning of a work that provides necessary background information about the characters and their circumstances.
What is exposition?
an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning.
What is connotation?