Literary devices Flashcards
Alliteration
The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
She sells sea shells down by the sea shore.
Allusion
An expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference.
Chocolate was her Achilles Heel.
Cliffhanger
A cliffhanger is a plot device in which a component of a story ends unresolved, usually in a suspenseful or shocking way, in order to compel audiences to turn the page or return to the story in the next installment.
The story The Oval Portrait ends with a cliffhanger.
Foreshadowing
A warning or indication of (a future event).
“I told myself this is the end of my trouble, but I didn’t believe myself.”
Hyperbole
A figure of speech that is an intentional exaggeration for emphasis or comic effect.
I was so hungry I could eat a whole horse.
Imagery
Encompasses the use of literal or figurative language to add symbolism and enable the reader to imagine the world of the piece of literature.
She drank water on a hot day.
It uses the five senses.
Irony
Whenever a person says something or does something that departs from what they (or we) expect them to say or do.
the difference between what something appears to mean versus its literal meaning
Metaphor
When two things are compared in writing directly.
Their eyes were filled with stars.
Mood/Tone
While “tone” is the writer’s attitude, “mood” is the feeling the reader gets from the writing. Tone often describes the writing overall, but the mood of a piece of writing can change throughout it.
It can be joyful, serious, humorous, sad, threatening, formal, informal, pessimistic, or optimistic.
Motif
A motif is a symbolic image or idea that appears frequently in a story.
Motifs can be symbols, sounds, actions, ideas, or words.
Onomatopoeia
The naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it.
Buzz went the bee as it moved along the flowers.
Oxymoron
A rhetorical term that describes words or phrases that, when placed together, create paradoxes or contradictions.
Examples,
are “old news,” “deafening silence,” or “organized chaos.”
Personification
Attribution of personal qualities especially: representation of a thing or abstraction as a person or by the human form.
The tree danced in the wind.
Simile
A figure of speech and type of metaphor that compares two different things using the words “like” or “as.”
Their eyes shine like stars.
Suspense
An uneasy feeling that a reader gets when they don’t know what is going to happen next
An author builds suspense by having two teenagers enter an old, eerie house on Halloween night.
