Literary Devices and Terms:Write ‘em, Learn ‘em, Love ‘em

Allegory

• A story with more than one level of meaning – a literal level and one or more symbolic levels.

• An allegory can make a moral, religious, or political point.

Characterization

• Direct characterization is when a writer states a character’s traits.

• Indirect characterization is when a writer reveals a character’s traits through:– His or her actions,

thoughts, feelings, words, and appearance.

– Another character’s observations and reactions.

• The act of creating and developing a character.

Flashback

• A section of a literary work that interrupts the sequence of events to relate an event from an earlier time.

Foreshadowing

• The use of clues that suggest events that have yet to occur.

Image

• A word or phrase that appeals to one or more of the five senses – sight, hearing, touch, taste, or smell.

Imagery

• Descriptive language used to create sensory experiences and word pictures for the reader.

Irony

• A contrast between what is stated and what is meant, or between what is expected to happen and what actually happens.

• Not to be confused with COINCIDENCE: the occurrence of events that happen at the same time by accident but seem to have some connection.

Mood

• The feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage.

• The mood may be suggested by:– The writer’s choice of words.– Events in the literary work.– The physical setting.

Moral

• A lesson taught by a literary work.

Always eat your vegetables.

Personification

• When a nonhuman subject is given human qualities.

• The perspective from which a story is told.– First person pov: “I”, “me”, “we”, “our”, etc.– Second person pov: “you”, “your”– Third person pov: “he”, “she”, “they”, etc

Point of View

Setting

• The time and place of the action.• The setting can provide a background for the

action, be a crucial element in the plot/conflict, or create a certain mood.

Symbol

• Anything that stands for or represents something else.

Theme

• A central idea, concern, or purpose in a literary work.

• The insight that the writer wants to pass along to the reader.