Literary Devices #1
A brief, indirect reference in a text to a person, place, event, or work of literature, history, religion, or culture that the author expects the reader to recognize.
What is an allusion?
The overall feeling or atmosphere that a reader gets from a story. It’s how you feel while reading, created through setting, word choice, and details.
What is mood?
A direct comparison between two unlike things using “like” or “as.”
What is a simile?
A Jewish teenager from Sighet, Hungary, who survives the Holocaust.
Who is Elie Wiesel?
A quiet, caring woman devoted to her family. She is separated from Elie and sent to her death at Auschwitz with Tzipora.
Who is Elie's mother (Sarah Wiesel)?
A Jewish woman deported with Elie’s family who screams about seeing “fire” and “flames” during the train ride to Auschwitz.
Who is Madame Schacter?
Elizer's hometown.
What is Sighet?
People are divided into “us” and “them” based on ethnicity, race, religion, or nationality. Differences are emphasized to separate one group from another.
What is classification?
Names, symbols, or colors are used to label groups. Examples include ID cards, badges, or clothing markers like the yellow Star of David.
What is symbolization?
“The darkness enveloped us” is an example of what literary device?
What is personification?
The author’s attitude toward the subject, shown through word choice and style.
What is tone?
The underlying message or central idea of the story—the big idea the author wants you to take away.
What is a theme?
A clue or warning in the story that hints at what will happen later.
What is foreshadowing?
A well-respected, rational, and community-minded man in Sighet. In the camps, he becomes increasingly dependent on Elie as his health declines.
Who is Shlomo (Elie's father)?
A kind, mysterious woman who comforts Elie after he is beaten by Idek.
Who is the French girl?
A young boy who serves a Kapo and is beloved by the prisoners for his angelic appearance. When he is hanged for sabotage, his slow, painful death devastates the inmates and symbolizes the death of innocence and faith in God.
Who is the Pipel?
What tragic irony occurs when Elie and his father leave the hospital to evacuate with the others?
What is the patients left behind are liberated two days later by the Russians?
A dominant group uses laws, customs, or political power to deny rights and opportunities to a targeted group. The targeted group becomes second-class citizens.
What is discrimination?
The targeted group is treated as less than human, compared to animals, diseases, or filth. This removes sympathy and makes cruelty easier to justify.
What is dehumanization?
“Juliek’s soul had become his bow” represents what device?
What is a metaphor?
When an object, person, place, or action represents something beyond its literal meaning—usually an idea, quality, or concept. Writers use symbolism to convey deeper meanings without stating them outright.
What is symbolism?
A direct comparison between two unlike things (without using “like” or “as”).
What is a metaphor?
Giving human traits (feelings, actions) to non-human things.
What is personification?
Elie’s youngest sister, who is separated from Elie and their father upon arrival at Auschwitz, and sent to the gas chamber with their mother.
Who is Tzipora?
A poor, humble mystic from Sighet who teaches Elie about Kabbalah.
Who is Moshie the Beadle?
What event first causes Elie’s faith in God to begin to crumble? (This is one of the first things he sees when he arrives at Birkenau.)
What is seeing babies thrown into the flames?
Ruled Germany as a one-party dictatorship during World War II and focused on persecuting Jews.
Who are the Nazi's?
Extremists drive groups further apart through propaganda, hate speech, and violence. Moderate voices are silenced or punished.
What is polarization?
Plans are made for mass killings. Victims may be identified, separated, forced into ghettos or camps, and transported to isolated areas.
What is preparation?
“The days were like nights” is an example of what?
What is a simile?
A recurring element in a story—an image, object, phrase, or situation—that has symbolic significance. It keeps showing up to reinforce an idea or mood. Think of it as a pattern that hints at something bigger.
What is a motif?
When the opposite of what you expect happens, or when there’s a contrast between what’s said and what’s true.
What is irony?
Descriptive language that appeals to the senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell).
What is imagery?
A young Polish musician, Elie, meets in Buna. He plays the violin—an act of defiance and beauty in the midst of horror.
Who is Juliek?
Elie’s foreman at Buna and a former Polish student. He initially treats Elie decently but later turns cruel when Elie refuses to give up his gold crown.
Who is Franek?
Why are the Jews placed into ghettos before being sent to camps?
What is to isolate and dehumanize them before deportation?
What happens when the train stops and someone throws bread into the car?
What is the starving prisoners fight and kill each other for crumbs?
Victims face violence, property loss, forced deportations, and imprisonment. They are physically and psychologically targeted for who they are.
What is persecution?
Mass killings begin. It is considered “extermination” rather than murder because the killers don’t see their victims as human beings.
What is extermination?
What type of figurative language is Madame Schächter’s vision of fire?
What is foreshadowing?
What is the difference between theme, motif, & symbol?
What is the theme is the main message?
What is a symbol is a tangible thing that represents an idea?
What is a motif is an idea that's abstract and recurs throughout a piece of work?
Soup, faith, night, fire, and fear are all examples of...
What are motifs?
Soup, barracks, Elie's gold tooth, night, fire, & shoes are all examples of...
What are symbols?
A violent prisoner who oversees other inmates at Buna. Known for his explosive temper, he beats Elie and his father mercilessly.
Who is Kapo Idek?
An old, devout prisoner who searches for his son during the death march. Elie later realizes the son deliberately abandoned his father to improve his own chances of survival.
Who is Rabbi Eliahou?
During the death march, what keeps Elie from giving up and dying in the snow?
What is his father's presence, and wanting to help keep him alive?
Elie’s first cattle car transport held ________ Jews, while his last cattle car transport held ________ Jewish prisoners, helping to show that the prisoners were ________.
What is 80, 100, skinny/thin/emaciated/malnourished?
After the genocide, perpetrators deny crimes, destroy evidence, blame victims, or rewrite history to avoid responsibility.
What is denial?
Genocide is always planned and organized — often by the state or military. Armies, militias, and officials carry out the attacks systematically.
What is organization?
Identify the tone in Elie’s question to God: “What are You, my God?”
What is angry, bitter, questioning, and sarcastic?