LITERARY DEVICES IN

LITERATURE
 LITERARY DEVICES

• a.k.a. Literary Techniques

• specific, deliberate constructions or choices of language to
convey meaning
 APHORISM

• Subjective truth or observation

Examples:
Actions speak louder than words.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
A barking dog never bites.
All that glitters is not gold.
 CHEKHOV’S GUN

• Insertion of apparently irrelevant objects, scenes, characters

• purpose is revealed later

Examples:
Big Hero 6: Baymax’s cease of function
The Incredibles: Edna explaining that supers had been killed by
their own cape
 CLIFFHANGER

• open ending
• leaving the conflict unresolved
• purpose is to draw audience back to next chapter or episode

EPIPHANY

• sudden revelation or insight of

a character
 FLASHFORWARD

• temporary time jump in narrative

FLASHBACK

• taking characters back to the

beginning
 FORESHADOWING

• hint at event to occur later

Ex: Romeo preferring to die without Juliet’s love.

JUXTAPOSITION

• two elements side by side for contrast

Ex: Better late than never.
Making a mountain out of a molehill.
FIGURES OF SPEECH

• creative group of words used

beyond its literal meaning
• enhance sense of impression
and intensify ideas
 SOUND DEVICES

1.Alliteration  repetition of initial consonant sound

While walking wearily home I wondered where Wally was.

2.Assonance  repetition of vowel sounds

It beats as it sweeps as it cleans!

3.Onomatopoeia  words that imitate sounds

 ALLUSION

• indirect reference to a person or event

• historical, mythological, biblical, scientific

Examples:
Your background is a Garden of Eden. (Biblical)
Don’t carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. (Myth)
You’re a regular Einstein. (Scientific)
Your plan will sink like the Titanic. (Historical)
APOSTROPHE

• inanimate object or person is directly addressed

Examples:
O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Car, please get me to work today.
Oh rose, how sweet you smell and how bright you look!
PERSONIFICATION

• Writer attributes human traits or qualities to inanimate

objects

Examples:
Lightning danced across the sky.
My alarm clock yells at me every morning.
 EUPHEMISM

• substitution of words or phrases that may be considered

unpleasant to hear
• “more polite” expressions

Examples:
His father is in a correctional facility. (jail)
The company has to let you go. (fire)
 HYPERBOLE

• exaggerated statement

Examples:
• I’ve told you to clean your room
a million times!
• Her brain is the size of a pea.
• “Your mother’s so old that her
breast milk is powdered.”
 SIMILE

• comparisons using “like” or “as”

Example:
Life is like a box of chocolates.

METAPHOR

• comparisons using “is” or “are”

Example:
Love is a battlefield.
 METONYMY

• one object is used to substitute for another closely related item

Example:
The White House will be making an announcement later.

SYNECDOCHE

• part of a thing is used to stand for the whole

Example:
I plan to ask for her hand.
 PARADOX

• contradictory statement conveying emotional sense

Example:
This is the beginning of the end.
Deep down, you’re really shallow.
OXYMORON

• contradictory terms
Example:
Learn to act naturally.
I like my coffee bittersweet.