AP LITERARY TERMS2014

ANAPHORA

It rained on his lousy tombstone, and it rained on the grass on his stomach. It rained all over the place."

(Holden Caulfield in J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, 1951)

ANAPHORA

We saw the bruised children of these fathers clump onto our school bus, we saw the abandoned children huddle in the pews at church, we saw the stunned and battered mothers begging for help at our doors."

(Scott Russell Sanders, "Under the Influence," 1989)

ANAPHORA

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."

(Winston Churchill, speech to the House of Commons, June 4, 1940)

ANASTROPHE

Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer."

(Winston Churchill, address delivered at the Guildhall, London, Sep. 14, 1914)

ANASTROPHE

Gracious she was. By gracious I mean full of graces. . . .

"Intelligent she was not. In fact, she veered in the opposite direction."

(Max Shulman, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Doubleday, 1951)

ANASTROPHE

On a black cloak sparkle the stars.

ANTIMETABOLE/CHIASMUS

•"We didn't land on Plymouth Rock; Plymouth Rock landed on us."

(Malcolm X)

ANTIMETABOLE/CHIASMUS

•"Stops static before static stops you."

(Advertising slogan of Bounce fabric softener sheet, 1990s)

Antimetabole/Chiasmus

•"You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance.“ Ray Bradbury

•"Don't sweat the petty things--and don't pet the sweaty things.“ anonymous

Antimetabole/chiasmus

People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power."

(President Bill Clinton, August 2008)

ANTITHESIS

“They promised freedom and provided slavery.”

ANTITHESIS

Hillary has soldiered on, damned if she does, damned if she doesn't, like most powerful women, expected to be tough as nails and warm as toast at the same time."

(Anna Quindlen, "Say Goodbye to the Virago." Newsweek, June 16, 2003)

ANTITHESIS

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way."

(Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities)

ANTIHERO

JAY GATSBY

ANTIHEROINE

LADY MACBETH

ANTIHERO

Holden Caulfield – THE CATCHER IN THE RYE (J. D. Salinger)

ANTIHERO

RASKOLNIKOV

APHORISM

Youth is a blunder; manhood a struggle; old age a regret.

Benjamin Disraeli

APHORISM

The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky

APHORISM

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Henry David Thoreau

APHORISM

When written in Chinese, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

APOSTROPHE

"Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art--"

(John Keats, "Bright Star")

APOSTROPHE

Blue Moon, you saw me standing alone

Without a dream in my heart

Without a love of my own."

(Lorenz Hart, "Blue Moon)

APOSTROPHE

•"Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are.

Up above the world so high,

Like a diamond in the sky."

(Jane Taylor, "The Star," 1806)

APPOSITION

Miniver Cheevy, child of scorn,

grew lean while he assailed the seasons."

(E.A. Robinson, "Miniver Cheevy

APPOSITION

•"This was not Aunt Dahlia, my good and kindly aunt, but my Aunt Agatha, the one who chews broken bottles and kills rats with her teeth."

(P.G. Wodehouse)

ASSONANCE

•"Try to light the fire

If I bleat when I speak it's because I just got . . . fleeced."

(Al Swearengen in Deadwood, 2004)

ASYNDETON

He tried to betray you, to cheat you, to deceive you.

Smile, talk, bye-bye.

ASYNDETON

"I came, I saw, I conquered.”

ASYNDETON

"...and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

-Quoted by Abraham Lincoln at the Gettysburg Address

Balance

Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it."

(Samuel Johnson, quoted by James Boswell in The Life of Samuel Johnson, 1791)

BALANCE

•"Buy a bucket of chicken and have a barrel of fun."