Literary Elements

What a Long, Strange Dip its Been…What a Long, Strange Dip its Been…AllusionAllusion Situational Situational IronyIrony

ParallelismParallelism Verbal Verbal IronyIrony

RepetitionRepetition SymbolSymbol

MetaphorMetaphor ThemeTheme

CharacterizationCharacterizationPersonificationPersonification

Use of DictionUse of Diction ImageryImagery

HyperboleHyperbole Tone Tone ShiftShift

AlliterationAlliteration OxymoronOxymoron

AnaphoraAnaphora Motif MotifConnotationConnotation

DefinitionDefinition: A reference to a person, a place, an event or a literary work which a writer expects the reader to recognize and respond to. An allusion may be drawn from history, geography, literature, or religion.

AllusionAllusion

Examples:

1. Math has always been my Achilles heel. Mythical Allusion

2. Like the prodigal son, he returned to his home town and was welcomed by all who knew him". Biblical Allusion from Luke

3. Peter Pan syndrome – Literary Allusion

4. Sold down river – Historical Allusion to slaves being sold farther south down the Mississippi River

DefinitionDefinition: The coordination of sentence syntax, word order and ideas. Used for effect and emphasis.

Parallel Parallel StructureStructure

Example:

1.Raphael paints wisdom; Handel sings it, Phidias carves it, Shakespeare writes it, Wren builds it, Columbus sails it, Luther preaches it, Washington arms it, Watt mechanizes it. – Emerson

2. I came; I saw; I conquered. 3. Ask not what your country can do for you;

ask what you can do for your country. JFK

Definition:Definition: A word, sound, phrase, idea; used for emphasis. An excellent technique in persuasive speeches. Always pay attention to repetition in writing. The author is trying to tell you something.

RepetitionRepetition

Examples:

1.Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. FDR

2. Reputation, reputation, reputation!  O!  I have lost my reputation. Shakespeare’s Othello

MetaphorMetaphorDefinitionDefinition: Saying one thing in terms of something else.

Examples:

1.In battle, the soldier is a tiger.

2.The streets were a furnace, the sun an executioner.

CharacterizatiCharacterizationon

Definition:Definition: The act of creating and developing a character. Generally a writer develops a character in one or more of the following ways:

1. by showing the character in action2. by revealing the character’s thoughts, and

by letting the character speak3. by giving a physical description of the

character4. by telling what others think of the character5. by analyzing the character or by giving a

direct evaluation of the character

DictioDictionnDefinition:Definition: A writer’s or

speaker’s choice of words.

HyperboHyperboleleDefinition:Definition: A figure of speech using

exaggeration, or overstatement for special effect.

Examples:

1.I’ve told you a million times to clean your room!

2.The path went on forever.

AlliteratioAlliterationnDefinition:Definition: The repetition of initial

consonant sounds .

Examples:

1.But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound into saucy doubts and fears.–Shakespeare

2.The deep churned. Something had happened down in the dim, foggy-green depths.

AnaphoAnaphorara

Definition:Definition: A special type of repetition with a repeated element at the beginning.Examples:

1."Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong. Last night, Japanese forces attacked Guam. Last night, Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands. Last night, the Japanese attacked Wake Island. And this morning, the Japanese attacked Midway Island." Roosevelt

2. "To raise a happy, healthy, and hopeful child, it takes a family; it takes teachers; it takes clergy; it takes business people; it takes community leaders; it takes those who protect our health and safety. It takes all of us." Clinton

IronyIronyDefinition:Definition: Involves differences between appearances and reality, expectation and result or meaning and intention.Verbal ironyVerbal irony: Words are used to suggest the opposite of what is meant.Dramatic ironyDramatic irony: A contradiction between what the character(s) thinks and what the audience or reader knows to be true.Situational ironySituational irony: An event which occurs that directly contradicts the expectations of the characters, the reader or the audience.

SymboSymbollDefinition:Definition: When something stands

for something else or when something takes on another abstract meaning.Examples:

1.Sunshine suggesting happiness, rain suggesting sorrow, or storm clouds suggesting despair.

2. A flag that stands for a nation or movement

3. An empty cupboard used to suggest hopelessness, poverty, and despair.

ThemThemeeDefinition:Definition: The central message or

insight into life revealed through a literary work. It is not a plot summary. It is a generalization about human beings or about life that the literary work communicates. Can be directly stated or implied. If implied, the readers think about what the work seems to say about the nature of people or about life.

PersonificatiPersonificationonDefinition:Definition: When human-like

qualities are given to non-human things.Examples:

1. The lights blinked in the distance.

2. Time marches on.

ImageImageryryDefinition:Definition: Words or phrases that

create pictures, or images, in the reader’s mind. Images are primarily visual.Examples:

1.“At night I could hear the blood in my veins, black and whispering as the rain.”

2. “My father’s house shines hard and bright, it stands like a beacon calling me in the night.”

3. “One tear hit the hard wood and it fell like broken glass.”

ToneToneDefinition:Definition: The attitude a writer takes toward his or her subject, characters and readers. Through tone an author can amuse, anger or shock the reader. Often the reader must figure out a writer’s tone in order to understand a literary work.Examples:

Accusatory, Contemplative, Fanciful, Judgmental, Mocking, Obsequious, Reverent etc.

OxymoroOxymoronnDefinitionDefinition: A self-contradictory

combination of words.

Examples:

1.cruel kindness

2.dead man walking

3.sweet sorrow

MotifMotifDefinition:Definition: Recurring structures, contrasts or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the piece’s major themes. The motif can be an idea, an object, a place or a statement.

Examples:

Dip, journey, long, road, ride, trip

ConnotatiConnotationonDefinitionDefinition: All emotions and

associations that a word or phrase may arouseExamples:

Heidelburg – alludes the reader to Germany; The “H” also alludes to Hitler & Holocaust, which ties into the diction “worst experience,” “night,” “stinky,” “trash,” “thick,” “dust”