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.
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