Literary Terms Review Round 1

1. Literary Terms ReviewRound 1

2. litotes “I have to have this operation. It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.” Holden Caulfield in The Catcher In The Rye, by J. D. Salinger understatement

3. parallelism “Our transportation crisis will be solved by a bigger plane or a wider road, mental illness with a pill, poverty with a law, slums with a bulldozer, urban conflict with a gas, racism with a goodwill gesture.” ~ Philip Slater, The Pursuit of Loneliness a set of similarly structured words phrases or clauses

4. allusion “The town’s gone wild, I think. She speak of Abigail, and I thought she were a saint, to hear her. Abigail brings the other girls into court, and where she walks the crowd will part like the sea for Israel.” ~ Arthur Miller a reference to another text or assumed knowledge of a reference

5. syllogism “All books from that store are new.These books are from that store.Therefore, these books are new.” a form of reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion is drawn from them

6. periodic sentence While pondering the stars and deciding never to fall in love again, nor even date, our heroine fell asleep and dreamed. a long sentence where your main point is at the end

7. malapropism “There’s no stigmata connected with going to a shrink.” ~Little Carmine in The Sopranos absurd or humorous misuse of a word, especially by confusion with one of similar sound

8. euphemism “I’m afraid I am going to have to let you go.” an inoffensive expression that is substituted for one that is considered offensive or harsh

9. antithesis “…it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…” ~ Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities the placing of opposing words within the same sentence to emphasize their disparity

10. synecdoche “Take thy face hence.” ~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth using part of a thing to represent the whole thing

11. oxymoron “I hate intolerant people.”~ Gloria Steinem a figure of speech composed of contradictory words or phrases: a contradiction in terms

12. apostrophe “Hello darkness, my old friendI've come to talk with you again . . ..” ~ Paul Simon, “The Sounds of Silence” an address to the dead as if living; to the inanimate as if animate; to the absent as if present; to the unborn as if alive

13. hyperbole “I was helpless. I did not know what in the world to do. I was quaking from head to foot, and could have hung my hat on my eyes, they stuck out so far.” ~ Mark Twain, “Old Times on the Mississippi” deliberate exaggeration for emphasis

14. paradox “The swiftest traveler is he that goes afoot.” ~ Henry David Thoreau, Walden 1854 a statement that appears to be contradictory but, in fact, has some truth

15. anadiplosis “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. I sense much fear in you.” ~ Frank Oz as Yoda in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menance repeats the last word of one phrase, clause, or sentence at or very near the beginning of the next

16. chiasmus "I flee who chases me, and chase who flees me."Ovid "Fair is foul, and foul is fair."William Shakespeare, Macbeth a verbal pattern (a type of antithesis) in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first with the parts reversed – an ABBA Pattern

17. simile “Ogres are like onions.” ~Mike Myers as the voice of Shrek in Shrek an explicit comparison between two unlike things with the use of “like” or “as”

18. metonymy The White House asked the television networks for air time on Monday night. a figure of speech that uses the name of an object, person, or idea to represent something with which it is associated, such as using “the crown” to refer to a monarch

19. anaphora “I'm not afraid to die. I'm not afraid to live. I'm not afraid to fail. I'm not afraid to succeed. I'm not afraid to fall in love. I'm not afraid to be alone. I'm just afraid I might have to stop talking about myself for five minutes.” Kinky Friedman, When the Cat's Away repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row: this is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer’s point more coherent

20. epistrophe “For no government is better than the men who compose it, and I want the best, and we need the best, and we deserve the best.” Senator John F. Kennedy, speech at Wittenberg College, Oct. 17, 1960 the repetition of a group of words at the end of successive clauses

21. polysyndeton "Oh, my piglets, we are the origins of war--not history's forces, nor the times, nor justice, nor the lack of it, nor causes, nor religions, nor ideas, nor kinds of government--not any other thing. We are the killers."Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter, 1968 the repetition of conjunctions in a series of coordinate words, phrases, or clauses

22. irony "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room." Peter Sellers as President Merkin Muffley in Dr. Strangelove, 1964 a situation or statement in which the actual outcome or meaning is opposite to what was expected

23. onomatopoeia “It went zip when it moved and bop when it stopped,And whirr when it stood still.I never knew just what it was and I guess I never will.”Tom Paxton, “The Marvelous Toy” a literary device in which the sound of a word is related to its meaning

24. personification “Oreo: Milk’s favorite cookie.” the giving of human characteristics to inanimate objects

25. alliteration “[S]he had no room for gaiety and ease. She had spent the golden time in grudging its going.”Dorothy Parker, “The Lovely Leave” the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words

26. asyndeton “Anyway, like I was saying, shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That--that's about it.” Bubba in Forrest Gump, 1994 the omission of conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses