Literary Terms and Figurative Language

Irony, Point of View, Hyperbole, Simile and

Metaphor

Irony Irony is an implied discrepancy

between what is said and what is meant.

There are three kinds of irony:

1. Verbal irony is when an author says one thing and means something else. Otherwise known as sarcasm.

2. Dramatic irony is when an audience perceives something that a character in the literature does not know.

3. Situational irony is a discrepancy between the expected result and actual results.

Verbal Irony• Example:  Mother comes into the TV room and discovers her 11-

year-old watching television instead of doing his homework. Pointing to the screen she says, "Don't let me tempt you from your duties, but when you're finished with your serious studies there, maybe you could take some time out for recreation and do a little math."

• Example:  Dad is finally out of patience with picking up after his son, who can't seem to be trained to put his dirty clothes in the hamper instead of letting them drop wherever he happens to be when he takes them off.  "Would my lord please let me know when it pleases him to have his humble servant pick up after him?“

• Example: Someone replies, “Oh great!” after a horrible event has just occurred.

Dramatic Irony• Have you ever seen a horror movie that has a killer on the

loose? You, and the rest of the audience, know that the teenagers should not go walking in the woods late at night, but they think a midnight stroll would be romantic. Needless to say, the teens become the next victims.

• When watching a talk show, the audience knows why a person has been brought on the show. However, the person sitting in a chair does not know that he is going to be reunited with a former lover. This adds to the suspense and humor of the show.

Situational Irony• You break a date with your girlfriend so you can go to the ball

game with the guys. When you go to the concession stand, you run into your date who is with another guy.

• You stay up all night studying for a test. When you go to class, you discover the test is not until the next day.

• Reality television program puts an advertisement in the media to hire 'writers' for the reality show.

• When John Hinckley attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, all of his shots initially missed the President; however a bullet ricocheted off the bullet-proof windows of the Presidential limousine and struck Reagan in the chest. Thus, the windows made to protect the President from gunfire were

partially responsible for his being shot

Point of View

Point of view is the vantage point from which a writer tells the story.

Possible Points of View1. Omniscient or “all knowing”: the person telling the story

knows everything there is to know about characters and their problems. The narrator can tell us about the past, present or future of all the characters and can tell us what the characters are thinking. The narrator is not in the story at all. Example: John stood next to his grandmother. He wanted to help her down the stairs. Mrs. Smith looked at her grandson, her blue eyes sharp, and moved a strand of hair from her face. She was determined to do this on her own, to prove she wasn't an helpless

old lady . . . 2. Second person: used very rarely in literature. The narrator

addresses the reader or some other assumed "you“Example: You know how it is. You think you shouldn't intervene, you think she'll get mad at you if you don't let her do what she's always done . . .

Possible Points of view3. First-person point of view: one of the characters is telling the

story, using the pronoun I. We know only what the character knows, and we can observe only what the character observes.

Note: When reading a story with a first person narrator, readers must ask if the narrator is unreliable. An unreliable narrator does not always know what is happening in the story, or he or she might be lying to tell us only part of the story.

Example: “I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It’s awful. If I’m on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I’m going, I’m liable to say I’m going to the opera. It’s terrible.” Catcher in the Rye

Possible Points of View

4. Third person limited (or objective): the narrator, who plays no part in the story, zooms in on the thoughts and feelings of just one character. We observe the action through the eyes and with the feelings of this one character.

Example: “The last few nights he had had the most uncertain feelings about the sidewalk just around the corner here, moving in the starlight around his house. He had felt that a moment prior to his making the turn, someone had been there…” Fahrenheit 451

HyperboleA hyperbole is an extravagant exaggeration. Writers use

hyperbole to put a picture into the reader’s mind. Hyperbole is supposed to evoke a ridiculous picture in your mind, and in the process, make the point effectively.

Examples: "I had so much homework, I needed a pickup truck to carry all

my books home!" "I nearly died laughing." "He is as big as a house!" "I heard that a million times." "That's the worst idea I've ever heard." "You are the ugliest person in the world!" "This is the worst film ever made." "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse."

SimileDefinition: a comparison of two unlike things using like or as

(Bad) Examples:She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

MetaphorDefinition: a comparison between two things, based

on resemblance or similarity, without using "like" or "as“.

Examples:We would have had more pizza to eat if Tammy hadn’t been such a hog.

Brian was a wall, bouncing every tennis ball back over the net.

Cindy was such a mule. We couldn’t get her to change her mind.

The poor rat didn’t have a chance. Our old cat, a bolt of lightning, caught his prey.