Literary Devices and techniques

•Various elements and techniques used in writing that

construct the whole of your literature to create an intended
perception of the writing for the reader.

1. Imagery – the use of visually descriptive or figurative

language in writing. One way to describe this is showing
versus telling.
2. Point of view – how your story is told and through whose
perspective is what your point of view is. This could be first
person, second person, third person, or more.
3. Protagonist – this is the good guy in your story. The main
character in the story.
4. Antagonist – this is the bad guy, or the person trying to
prevent the protagonist from succeeding.
Literary Devices and techniques

10. Allusion – literary device that references a person, place,

thing, or event in the real world. It can use to paint a clear
picture or to even connect with your readers.
11. Diction – choice of words or style used by the writer in
order to convey their message.
12. Symbolism – it use to convey a broader message that
speaks to more readers.
13. Tone – conveys the narrator’s opinion, attitude, or
feelings about what is written.
14. Theme – central topic, subject, or message within a
narrative. It is what the story means.
Literary Devices and techniques

5. Foreshadowing – placement of clues about what will

happen in the future of the story.
6. Conflict – basic term to describe the difficulties of
protagonist. Any issue between characters or elements.
7. Rising Action – events that directly lead up to the climax
of your novel.
8. Falling action – the last chapter or two after the climax to
tie up loose ends in the story.
9. Climax – most pivotal point in the novel. This is when the
protagonist faced their challenges head on and either wins
or loses.
Literary Devices and techniques

15. Characterization – act of creating and describing characters in

literature.
• doppelganger
Duplicate or shadow of a character the
opposite personality of that character
• scapegoat
A character that takes the blame for everything
bad that happen
• Villain
A character whose main function is to go to any extent to
oppose the hero or whom the hero must annihilate in order to
bring justice
• Hero
A character whose main function is to save the day
• Rebel
A character that revolts against acceptable society
• Mentor
Character’s main role is to protect the protagonist. They provide
advice and training to the protagonist and work to help them
succeed
• Orphan
A character that was abandoned or lost their parents
• Caregiver
A character that is nurturing and plays a “mothering” role to other
characters
• Creator
An artistic or creative character that builds or makes culture, art,
inventions etc.
• Sage
The truth seeker, acquirer or knowledge. A character that thrives on
learning
• Ruler
Ruler A character that is in power, they keep order at any cost. Desire
control and power.
• . Mood - Mood is a literary element that
evokes certain feelings or vibes in readers
through words and description.
• 17. Author’s Purpose - The reason why they
wrote.
Figures of speech are words or phrases
used in a non-literal sense for
rhetorical or vivid effect. The most
common figures of speech are simile,
metaphor, onomatopoeia,
personification, apostrophe, hyperbole,
synecdoche, metonymy, oxymoron,
and paradox.
 Literal vs Figurative
• Literal language –is what we commonly use-
the language of everyday communication
• Figurative Language – use figure of speech
usually to compare two objects that are
different from each other. These are not
meant to be taken literally , for they to
represent something else related in some way
to the trope.
Literal Description Figurative Description
Roses are red Her love is like a rose
The bell rings at 12;00 Saved by the bell
The flower smell sweet You are the sweetest –
smelling flower
1. Simile – a figure of speech involving the
comparison of one thing with another thing of a
different kind
- uses comparing words "like" or "as“

Examples:
“Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”
– Langston Hughes, “Harlem”

You were as brave as a lion.

They fought like cats and dogs.
2. Metaphor – an implied comparison between two
unlike things that have something in common.

Examples:
1. Mary's voice is music to my ears:
2. You are my sunshine:
 Metaphor vs. Simile Examples

Similes and metaphors are often confused with one

another. The main difference between a simile and a
metaphor is that a simile uses the words "like" or "as" to
draw a comparison and a metaphor simply states the
comparison without using "like" or "as.“

An example of a simile is: She is as innocent as an angel.

An example of a metaphor is: She is an angel.
3. Personification – endows human qualities or abilities
to inanimate objects or abstraction.

Examples:
1. My alarm clock yells  at me to get out of bed every
morning.
2. Time flies  when you're having fun.
3. The moon played hide and seek  with the clouds
4. Apostrophe – is addressing an absent person or
thing that is an abstract, inanimate, or inexistent
character as if it is present and were able to respond

Examples:
“Blow, wind! Blow!”
‘Hello darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to talk to you
again”
5. Hyperbole – a figure of speech which contains an
exaggeration for emphasis.

Example:
“To make enough noise to wake the dead.”
– R. Davies, “What’s Bred in the Bone”

He is drowning in his tears.

This bicycle is a thousand years old.
6. Synecdoche – a figure of speech in which the part
stands for the whole, and thus something else is
understood within the thing mentioned.

Example:
“Give us this day out daily bread”
*Bread stands for the meals taken each day.
“Wheels”refer to a car
7. Oxymoron – a figure of speech which combines
incongruous and apparently contradictory words and
meanings for a special effect.
Example:
“Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love.
Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate! O anything!
Of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! Serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!”
-William Shakespeare, “Romeo and Juliet”
8. Anaphora- same word or phrase is repeated at the
beginning of successive clauses or verses.
Example: 
I remember a piece of old wood with termites
running around all over it the termite men found under
our front porch.
I remember when one year in Tulsa by some freak
of nature we were invaded by millions of grasshoppers
for about three or four days.
I remember, downtown, whole sidewalk areas of
solid grasshoppers.
I remember a shoe store with a big brown x-ray
machine that showed up the bones in your feet bright
green.
- "I Remember" by Joe Brainard
9. Consonance- like alliteration; repetition of consonant
sound but in the final or middle position.

Example:
The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard
And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
-“Out-Out” by Robert Frost
The consistent “d” sounds create rhythm and unity in
this poem, while the “L” sounds in the first line add to a
sense.
10. Epiphora- what is repeated is a word or phrase at the
end of succession of clauses or verses.

Example:
There was never any more inception than there is now,
Nor any more youth or age than there is now,
And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now .
-“Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman
11. Euphemism- refers to the substitution of an
inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit.

Example:
He is a little tipsy (drunk) in a polite way.
Uncle passed away(died) last year.
12. Anadiplosis- this is different in that the last word of a
verse or sentence is repeated at the beginning of the
next one.

Example:
Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to
suffering.
She opened a café, a café that ruined her financially.
13. Paradox – a statement which seems on its face to be
logically contradictory or absurd yet turns out to be
interpretable in a way that makes sense.

Examples
This is the beginning of the end.
"I must be cruel to be kind."
14. Alliteration- repetition of an initial consonant sound.

Examples
picture perfect
rocky road
quick question
15. Assonance- refers to the repetition of internal
vowel sounds in words that do not end the same

Example:
he fell asleep under the cherry tree
Go slow over the road
Try as I might, the kite did not fly
16. Rhetorical question- a question that needs no
answer. Its purpose is to impress the readers.

Example:
"Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who would
want to live in an institution? "
-H. L. Mencken
17. Onomatopoeia – uses words that imitate
sounds associated with objects or actions.

Examples:

The car horn beeped loudly.

The corn went pop in the microwave.
18. Metonymy – a figure of speech in which the name of an
attribute or a thing is substituted for the thing itself.

Examples:

suit  for business executive, or the track for horse racing.

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.”
– William Shakespeare, “Julius Caesar”
19. Irony- statement or situation that is contradicted by
the appearance or the presentation of idea.

Examples:
The name of Britain’s biggest dog was “Tiny.”
His friend’s hand was as soft as a rock.
DIRECTIONS: Identify the Figures of Speech that has been used in
each sentence. Write your answer on the space provided before
each number..
 
_______________ 1. Monica's cheeks are like pink roses.
_______________ 2. Your mobile looks a hundred years
old.
_______________ 3. It was that day that the flowers
danced in the rain.
_______________ 4. Meena's microphones made much
more music than expected.
_______________ 5. Infancy is the beginning of life as
dawn is the beginning of the day.
_______________ 6. The curfew tolls the knell of parting
day.
_______________ 7. His rash policy let lose the dogs of war.
_______________ 8. A lie has no legs.
_______________ 9. Thus Nature spake – the work was done – How
soon my Lucy’s race was run!
_______________ 10. O, Captain! My captain! Our fearful trip is done.
 
_______________ 11. Soldiers fought like a lion.
_______________ 12. This watch must have cost millions of dollars.
_______________ 13. Give us this day our daily bread (for food)
_______________ 14. . Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. 
_______________ 15. A heart means love .