Literary Elements

Literary Elements Mrs. Brach’s English Class

Hyperbole • An obvious and intentional exaggeration. • An extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally. • Examples: • He is older than the hills. • I’m so hungry I could eat a horse! • I had a ton of homework.

Idiom • A set expression of two or more words that means something other than the literal meaning of its individual words. • A language, dialect, or style of speaking peculiar to a certain group of people or language. • Examples: • Every cloud has a silver lining. • It’s raining cats and dogs. • Kick the bucket.

Simile • A figure of speech, in which two unlike things are directly compared, with "like" or "as.“ • Examples: • As clear as mud. • As tough as nails. • Fits like a glove.

Personification • Is giving human traits (qualities, feelings, action, or characteristics) to non-living objects (things, colors, qualities, or ideas). • Examples: • Lightning danced across the sky. • The flowers danced in the breeze. • The stars winked at me.

Flashback • A shift in a narrative to an earlier event that interrupts the normal chronological development of a story and to tell the backstory and show character motivation. • Example: • I walked out of the room, and saw the portrait of my mother in the otherwise empty hallway. I remembered, years ago, my father would stare mindlessly at it for minutes, sometimes hours, before a bird chirping would awaken him from his trance.Withoutwarning, a bird chirped, and I immediately tore my eyes away from that portrait.

Foreshadowing • The presentation of details, characters, or incidents in a narrative in such a way that later events are prepared for. • Examples: • When Ruth Jones's alarm clock woke her at seven o'clock that morning, she had no idea that today would be the longest day of her life. • We are in the cockpit of an airplane. The plane suddenly hits turbulence and the captain struggles to regain control.

Suspense • The tension that the author uses to create a feeling of discomfort about the unknown. • Example: • The baying of the wolves sounded nearer and nearer, as though they were closing round on us from every side. I grew dreadfully afraid, and the horses shared my fear.... Suddenly, away on our left, I saw a faint flickering blue flame. The driver saw it at the same moment; he at once checked the horses, and, jumping to the ground, disappeared into the darkness. I did not know what to do, the less as the howling of the wolves grew closer.... --Dracula (Bram Stoker)

Tone • Tone is the feeling or atmosphere a book, story, or poem gives off. It's almost like its energy. • Example: • It was a dark and stormy night. The trees were flailing in the night as the wind tore threw their branches. While rain was rapping on the windows trying to get in.

Literary Elements