Literary Devices
List for quiz on Wednesday 30, 2008.
Terms
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- Theme
- the unifying subject or idea of a story often conveying a message or lesson about life, society or human nature
- Onomatopoeia
- use of words that imitate the sounds of what the words represent (Ex: Buzz, crack)
- Personification
- endowing inanimate objects or abstract ideas with human qualities (Ex: The dead leaves danced in the wind)
- Apostrophe
- the direct address of an absent or imaginary person or object (Ex: "Oh World, I cannot hold thee close enough!" --Edna St. Vincent Millay
- Antagonist
- character that challenges the protagonist often creating conflict (Ex: Superman's archenemy Lex Luthor could also be described as an antagonist.)
- Climax
- highest point of interest of the story followed by the falling action and resolution
- Pun
- a humorous play on words based on multiple uses of the word (Ex: Marathon runners with bad footwear suffer the agony of defeat)
- Theme
- a main subject or topic
- Allusion
- a reference (often indirect) to something supposed to be known by the audience (Ex: As the cave's roof collapsed, he was swallowed up like Jonah.)
- Symbol
- something that stands for or represents something else (Ex: American flag represents freedom)
- Hyperbole
- exaggeration used for emphasis or effect (Ex: I told you a million times)
- Monologue
- a dramatic speech or statement to the audience that other characters on stage cannot hear. This can exists as "inner" and "outer."
- Euphony
- the use of pleasant-sounding letters or syllables (Ex: O star, the fairest one in sight)
- Rhyme
- use of matching sounds at the end of words or lines (Ex: cat, hat; observe, deserve)
- Motif
- a recurrent thematic element
- Soliloquy
- a poetic speech in drama to the audience by a single character. (Ex: "To be or not to be..." is a part of Hamlet's famous suicidal soliloquy.)
- Stanza
- a group of lines forming one division of a poem
- Plot
- the events leading towards the achievement of some particular artistic or emotional effect in a story
- Cacophony
- use of harsh-sounding letters or syllables (Ex: "Never my numb plunker fumbles" --John Updike)
- Setting
- the location of the story
- Character
- any person, persona, identity, or entity whose existence originates from a fictional work or performance
- Verse
- a single line of poetry
- Protagonist
- the hero or main character of a story or drama. Plot generally centers around this character. (Rainsford is the protagonist hero of "The Most Dangerous Game")
- Analogy
- a comparison of two unlike things based on one common trait (Ex: The operation of a computer is an analogy to the workings of the brain.)
- Narration
- the teller of a story from a specific point of view 1st,2nd or 3rd person, limited or omniscient
- Alliteration
- repetition of the same or similar sounds at the beginning of words or stressed syllables (Ex: She sells seashells by the seashore)
- Rhythm
- the flow of sound based on the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables
- Simile
- a comparison of two generally unlike things using "like" or "as" (Ex: He eats like a pig)
- Irony
- difference in what is expected and what actually occurs (Ex: Saying, "Great!" when you get bad news)
- Anaphora
- repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of two or more phrases or lines (Ex: "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight..." --Winston Churchill)
- Oxymoron
- a phrase that contradicts itself (Ex: Jumbo shrimp)
- Metaphor
- an expression used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to express a similarity (Ex: I am the warden for this classroom)
- Imagery
- the use of vivid language to create mental pictures