Literary Devices Flashcards
Orwell wrote Animal Farm as a political … for the Russian revolution.
Allegory
meaning / message
essence, serpent, zip, sweet
a hissing sound
Sibilance
as busy as a bee
having the same sound in the beginning of following words
Alliteration
Be damned if you do and be damned if you don’t.
repeating the same word at the beginning of neighboring clauses
Anaphora
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Keep your mouth closed and your eyes open.
proposition contrasting with or reversing previously mentioned thing
Antithesis
Oh Sally, why are you never picking up your phone?
directly adressing absent people or the reader
Apostrophe
Reduce, reuse, recycle. They dove, splashed, swam, floated.
listing without combination words
Asyndaton
When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
Mirroring the first part of a sentence
Chiasmus
“fleet feet sweep by sleeping geese”
repetition of vowel sounds in neighboring words
Assonance
Words that imitate the sound they represent (e.g., “buzz,” “hiss”).
Onomatopoeia
reference to something well-known outside of the book
Allusion
Easy come, easy go
The use of similar grammatical structures to create rhythm and balance
Parallelism
A sudden realization or understanding of something significant (e.g., the moment of clarity for a character).
Epiphany
bittersweet
A figure of speech that combines contradictory terms
Oxymoron
Substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for one considered harsh, blunt, or offensive
“passed away” instead of “died”
Euphemism
A reocurring element that has symbolic significance in the story
motif
Direct characterisation
“The patient boy and quiet girl were both well mannered and did not disobey their mother.”
Indirect characterisation
STEAL
Speech
Thoughts
Effects on others (how do others feel & behave around them)
Actions
Looks
From the softness of cashmere to the biting cold of a December night
What type of imagery?
tactile imagery
Whenever I smell the sweet aroma of buttery crust and spiced fruit
Type of imagery?
olfactory imagery
her teeth chattered and the leaves crunched under her feet
which type of imagery?
auditory imagery
the sinking sun shimmered on the water as the blue sky transformed into various shades of purple and pink
what type of imagery?
visual imagery
He has a heart of stone.
figurative language (often includes metaphors or similes)
My mouth nearly watered as I stared at the decadent chocolate mousse and imagined the sweet, creamy dessert rolling on my tongue
type of imagery?
gustatory imagery
yum yum
