Literary elements, devices, and techniques

1. Literary elements, devices, and techniques Some review, some new terms

2. A comparison between two unlike things using “like,” “as,” or another comparison word. “I wandered lonely as a cloud Which floats on high o’er vales and hills” Simile

3. A comparison between two unlike things in which one thing becomes the other. “Hope is a thing with feathers That perches in the soul” Metaphor

4. Giving human characteristics to nonhuman things. The stars danced playfully in the night sky. Personification

5. Language that appeals to the senses • Often, figurative language is also an example of imagery “The sword of divine justice is every moment brandished over their heads, and it is nothing but the hand of arbitrary mercy, and God’s mere will, that holds it back.” Imagery

6. Using the same pattern of words or structure to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Parallel Structure

7. Situational – When the outcome of the event is the opposite of what you expect. • Verbal – When a person means the exact opposite of what they say. Ex: Sarcasm • Dramatic – When the audience or reader knows something that the characters in a work of fiction do not. Irony

8. A literary genre / technique that exposes folly, vice, and shortcomings, typically through the use of humor or irony like sarcasm • How is the Onion article on Visa satirical? How does the writer use irony to expose a flaw? Satire

9. The author’s attitude or feeling toward a subject or audience. • Tone words must be feeling words. A tone cannot be good, bad, smart, dumb. • When we talk about tone, we will always tie our tone word to language from the author’s text. Authors use their words, images, figurative language, sentence structure, etc. to convey tone. Tone

10. The author’s message about the content, humanity, the world, etc. given through a piece of literature. • Themes take a big idea and form a statement about it. • Example: Macbeth • Big Idea – Ambition • Theme – Too much ambition can lead to corruption. • What is the theme of the movie Wall-E? Theme