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RHETORICAL DEVICES. Analysis of Literature. Rhetorical Devices. Rhetorical Devices: ways of expressing ideas that are unusual. Writers use rhetorical devices to achieve special effects in a passage. Authors achieve these effects by the way they arrange their words.
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RHETORICALDEVICES • AnalysisofLiterature
RhetoricalDevices • Rhetorical Devices: ways of expressing ideas that are unusual. • Writers use rhetorical devices to achieve special effects in a passage. • Authors achieve these effects by the way they arrange their words. • These devices can be found in poetry, stories, essays, speeches, editorials, and advertisements.
Alliteration • Alliteration: the repetition of the same consonants in lines of poetry or prose. • Examples: 1. “Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,” - Langston Hughes (repetition of “d” and “o” sounds). 2. “I like to see it lap the miles. / And lick the valleys up.” - Emily Dickinson (repetition of “l” sounds)
Analogy • Analogy: a comparison between two things or ideas. • Examples: comparing life to a journey, comparing students in a school to the members of a family.
Euphemisms • Euphemisms: using mild words to describe something instead of using offensive or sexist words. • Examples: 1. passed away for died 2. perspire for sweat 3. restroom for bathroom 4. sanitation engineer for trash man
Hyperbole • Hyperbole: exaggeration to create an effect. • Examples: 1. I would rather die than eat Brussels sprouts! 2. I was so surprised you could knock me over with a feather!
Metaphor • Metaphor: direct comparison between two unlike things without using the words “like” or “as.” • Examples: 1. The sun was a ball of fire. 2. “Life is but an empty dream!” Longfellow
Onomatopoeia • Onomatopoeia: words whose sound suggests their meaning. • Examples: 1. splash, buzz, hiss, boom 2. “The moan of doves in immemorial elms; / And murmuring of innumerable bees,” Tennyson
Personification • Personification: giving human qualities to something not human. • Examples: 1. “As she sang softly at the evil face of the full moon.” Jean Toomer 2. “The oak trees whispered softly in the night breeze.” John Steinbeck
Rhyme • Rhyme: occurs when the last words have the same sounds. • Examples: 1. “The old horse thrust his long head out, / And grave with wonder gazed about.” Whittier (out and about rhyme.) 2. “Happy the man who, safe on shore, / Now trims, at home, his evening fire; / Unmov’d, he hears the tempests roar, / That on the tufted groves expire.” “The Hurricane” by Philip Freneau (rhymes are shore/roar and fire/expire)
Simile • Simile: comparison between two things using “like” or “as.” • Examples: 1. “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child.” African-American Spiritual 2. “My love is like a red, red rose.” Robert Burns 3. Free as a bird.
Tips for Understanding Rhetorical Devices • Study the definitions and examples of alliteration, analogy, euphemisms, hyperbole, metaphor, onomatopoeia, personification, rhyme, and simile.
Tips for Answering Questions about Structural and Rhetorical Devices • Read the literary selection at least twice. • Try to summarize the selection in your own words. • Decide which answer best describes the structural or rhetorical device you are asked to read. • Choose your answer, and then confirm it by going back to the selection.
Reference • Chapter 7, Passing the New Alabama Graduation Examination in Reading, American Book Company