Literary Devices
A comparison using "like" or "as."
What is a simile?
The punctuation mark used to join two independent clauses with a related idea
What is a semicolon?
This idea suggests that anyone can achieve success through hard work and determination
What is the American Dream?
The narrator is forbidden to do this during her treatment
What is writing?
This immigrant family comes to New York from Cameroon.
Who are the Jongas?
Giving human qualities to non-human things
What is a personification?
A sentence containing one independent and one dependent clause
What is a complex sentence?
Besides wealth, this value is often considered a key part of the American Dream and is protected in the U.S. Constitution
What is freedom (or liberty)?
This object comes to represent oppression, imprisonment, and the narrator's mental decline
What is the yellow wallpaper?
This economic event dramatically changes the lives of both the Edwards and subsequently the Jongas.
What is the 2008 financial crisis?
A contradiction that reveals a deeper truth
What is a paradox?
The grammatical mistake in "Everyone have finished."
What is subject-verb agreement?
These are two factors that can make achieving the American Dream difficult today
What are economic inequality, discrimination, lack of education, immigration status, or social class?
This person prescribes the narrator's "rest cure"
Who is John (her husband and physician)?
This character achieves the American Dream but is unable to help the Jongas finally even though he would love to.
Who is Winston Avera?
A figure of speech pairing two contradictory terms side-by-side, such as the phrase "deafening silence" or "bittersweet"
What is an oxymoron?
The writing style that removes unnecessary words while keeping meaning
What is concise writing?
This term describes the gap between the ideal of equal opportunity and the reality many people experience
What is the myth (or illusion) of the American Dream?
This literary approach focuses on the unequal power relationship between John and the narrator.
What is a feminist interpretation (or feminist criticism)?
This character's wealth fails to protect him from the consequences of the financial crisis.
Who is Clark Edwards?
A figure of speech that directly compares two unrelated things by stating that one thing is another
What is a metaphor?
Repeating the same grammatical structure for balance and emphasis.
What is parallelism?
These are ways how literature can criticize rather than celebrate the American Dream
What are characters or plotlines that reveal inequality, exploitation, racism, or unattainable expectations?
At the end of the story, the narrator believes she has become this person.
Who is the woman behind the wallpaper?
Her status as foreign student as well as her lack of contributution to community contribute to this unachievable goal.
Why is Neni not nominated for a scholarship?