Literary Devices
What is simile?
The time and place in which a story unfolds.
What is setting?
An exaggeration or overstatement.
Example: I had to wait forever.
What is hyperbole?
A written account of another person's life.
Example: the excerpt about astronomer Maria Mitchell
What is biography?
The repetition of initial sounds in neighboring words.
Example: Sally sold seashells by the seashore.
What is alliteration?
The use of language to create sensory impressions (appeals to the five senses).
What is imagery?
A person, animal, or thing telling the story.
What is the narrator?
The use of a word or phrase to mean the exact opposite or its literal or usual meaning.
Example: We examined this while viewing Enchanted.
What is verbal irony?
A text that aims to present ideas and evoke an emotional experience through the use of imagery, word choice, structure, and sound.
Example: "Crossing the Swamp" by Mary Oliver
What is poetry?
Any text that is the product of imagination rather than a documentation of fact.
What is fiction?
Language that cannot be taken literally since it was written to create a special effect or feeling.
What is figurative language?
The portion of a story following the climax in which the conflict is resolved.
What is the resolution?
What is a motif?
A form of extended metaphor in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative are equated with meanings that lie outside of the narrative itself. Example: Zootopia
What is allegory?
Prejudice in favor or against something; the positive or negative approach toward a topic.
What is bias?
A device in literature where an object, color, or animal represents an idea.
Example: a rainbow represents hope
What is symbolism?
A device used to present an action that occurred before current (present) time of the story.
What is a flashback?
An object or abstract idea given human qualities or human form.
Example: Flowers danced about the town.
What is personification?
The genre of literature represented by works intended for the stage; a work to be performed by actors.
Example: Oedipus Rex
What is drama?
A word that is similar in meaning to another word.
What is a synonym?
An implied or indirect reference in literature to a familiar person, place, or event.
Example: the use of the apple in Enchanted
What is an allusion?
A device used to create expectation or to set up an explanation of later developments.
What is foreshadowing?
The author's attitude toward the subject of the work.
What is tone?
A literary approach that humorously criticizes people or ideas.
Example: Jojo Rabbit
What is satire?
The method an author uses to reveal characters and their various traits and personalities (e.g., direct and indirect).
What is characterization?