What it is: a satire is a device which, through exaggeration
and humor, proves a point. The exaggeration acts as a way to mock
something (usually an idea that the author disagrees with) as being
absurd. Why it is important: satires are easy ways to make an
argument. Because they are humorous and/or ridiculous, readers take
an immediate interest in them and the information is easier to
process both because it is given in an entertaining format and
because it is exaggerated. Satire
Slide 3
Satire in A Modest Proposal comparison of humans to livestock
degrades them in the most extreme way shock factor - suggestion
proposed by Swift is exaggerated and ridiculous to audience,
bringing them to believe it cant possibly be serious. Relates to
satire proving a point. Jonathan Swifts satirical essay, A Modest
Proposal, uses the ridiculous suggestion of eating the lower class
children in order to enforce population control. Swift makes the
lower class the target of this suggestion as a way of pointing out
his times attitude towards this population (after all, who cares
about the poor?). The essay is so insane in its serious
presentation that even those prejudiced against the lower class
would have to scoff at the suggestion; this is the exact point of
satire.
Slide 4
What it is: antithesis is when something is the complete
opposite of something else. These two contrasting things can be
ideas or words, people, or objects and are usually presented within
the same sentence or within a few sentences of each other. Why it
is important: using antithesis can create contrast in a work. It
provides an immediate juxtaposition and comparison of two things.
Antithesis
Slide 5
Antithesis is used in Joseph Hellers Catch-22 in order to
highlight the hypocritical nature of people. This device combines
with the overall characterization of the novels characters in order
to depict hypocritical habits as symptoms of insanity. This
furthers the theme of condemnation of hypocritical nature in
humans. Antithesis in Catch-22 Condemns racial prejudice before
continuing to use racial slurs for every race but his own.
Hypocritical nature of character relates to theme of hypocrisy
among people.
Slide 6
What it is: an allusion is a brief reference to something.
Typically, an allusion is made to an event in history or another
piece of literature. Why it is important: allusions in literature
help to elaborate on an idea presented in the text or provide a
comparison that helps to clarify mood, tone, theme, etc. for the
readers. They can also give readers something familiar to identify
with. Allusion
Slide 7
Allusion in Frankenstein Mary Shelley makes an allusion to Rime
Of the Ancient Mariner in Frankenstein in reference to the
emotional similarities between Frankenstein and the mariner in Rime
Of the Ancient Mariner. Making an allusion to another literary work
and comparing the similarities not only provides clear explanation
of the characters state of mind to the readers, but also
legitimizes the importance of the subject by pointing out parallels
in the human experience.
Slide 8
What it is: an anecdote is a small, short story about a real
person or occurrence. Why it is important: anecdotes can be used
similarly to allusions, wherein they can provide elaboration,
explanation, and clarity for readers. However, anecdotes are
typically more relatable for an everyday person. Anecdote
Slide 9
Anecdote in The Damned Human Race related to personal
experience story presents proof for a point and validates the
insert of the anecdote Twain uses an anecdote to prove a point
about man having descended from the higher animals, a term he uses
to refer to all other animals besides the human race, including, in
this example, the anaconda. The anecdote is used as a form of
support for his statements, opinion, and message.
Slide 10
What it is: an allegory is a piece of work (story, poem, etc.)
that is seemingly simple on the surface, but hides a deeper
meaning, typically relating to morality or politics. Why it is
important: allegories work as an extended metaphor, helping to
portray an important message in a simple way. This often works best
for fairytales and folklore wherein the simple, almost childish
tales, are used to teach a moral lesson, usually to a young
audience. Allegory
Slide 11
Allegory of The Skylark & The Frogs Relation to real life.
Diverges slightly from the story to point out a real life
occurrence, showing the readers that the lesson of this story is
applicable to their lives. pause indicates a heavier tone to the
story and suggests the author is aware this ending is unexpected
This literary device encompases the entirety of the text. The
Skylark and the Frog is a story that seems very simple on the
surface. It is a short story about the life of a group of frogs,
obviously oppressed, and their savior, the Skylark. However, this
story carries a more moral meaning about the treatment of supposed
glorious symbols in life. The author especially indicates this
hidden meaning at the end.
Slide 12
Literary Devices by Patrick Kirk and Josh Denning
Slide 13
Diction Diction is often referred to as the authors word choice
when writing. Diction can be broken down into several different
sub-categories: Abstract - describing something that cannot be
perceived with the five senses. Concrete - describing physical,
material objects Euphonious - using pleasant and pleasing words
Cacophonous - using harsh, intense words. Colloquial - common
speech of a specific region or population Formal - sophisticated
word choice Informal - casual, non-elevated word choice
Slide 14
Mark Twains The Damned Human Race is a prime example of both
formal and cacophonous diction. Throughout his piece, Twain uses
formal diction to create a sophisticated, scientific tone which
helps attribute to his argument. He uses the cacophonous diction to
demean and characterize the human race as cruel and vicious in
comparison to the rest of the creatures in the animal kingdom.
This, too, furthers Twains argument on how the human race is far
more beastial than the creatures that they are above on the
evolutionary scale.
Slide 15
Syntax Syntax is referring to how the author structures their
sentences, including word placement and punctuation.
Slide 16
This selection from Wuthering Heights uses syntax to create a
scene and characterize Heathcliff. Emily Bront used commas in the
first sentence to create a series of brief clauses that, when put
together, create a hastened feeling when reading. It makes it feel
as though the action is happening right before the reader. It shows
how quickly Heathcliff tore open the lattice in his fit of passion.
In the second section of this selection, Bront uses varied syntax
to convey Heathcliffs passion and desperation for Cathy through the
use of hyphens, exclamation points, and choppy sentences.
Slide 17
Style Style is described as the way in which an author
writes
Slide 18
Style Annotation In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, the author
regularly breaks into sections of songs or speeches. When doing
this, it is always relevant to what the narrator is thinking or
involved in at that particular time. This use of style engages the
reader and enhances immersion into the novel by drawing the reader
in with different pieces of culture relevant to the plot.
Slide 19
Tone The writers attitude or specific feelings that are
portrayed through their writing.
Slide 20
Tone Annotation The tone of The Color Purple, by Alice Walker,
is one of self realization and of confrontation. As the narrator
confronts her own problems throughout the course of her letters to
god, she holds nothing back. The author uses this tone to portray
her stance on the treatment of women, more specifically black
women, as she relays the reprehensible acts faced by the main
character.
Slide 21
Point of View The perspective in which a piece is written in.
There are several points of view: 1st person (and 1st person
peripheral) - First person uses the pronoun I and is typically
written from the perspective of the main character. 1st person
peripheral is written from the perspective of a supporting
character, but still uses I in the work. 2nd - This perspective is
uncommon. The author uses the pronoun you. 3rd limited - The author
uses he/she/it but is limited to following a single character 3rd
multiple - Uses he/she/it but follows multiple characters 3rd
omniscient - Uses he/she/it and follows many characters, and
includes their thoughts as well as their actions.
Slide 22
POV Annotation In Catch 22, by Joseph Heller, the novel is
written in the third person omniscient. The use of third person
throughout the course of the novel contributes to the understanding
that the reader has of the characters involved. While mostly
focusing on Yossarian, point of view often switches between the
characters to give a broad idea of the events that happen to each
character. With this use of the third person, the innermost
thoughts of the characters usually are not fully described, but
readers are given a more limited perspective on each
character.
Slide 23
Literature Terms Erika Grandstaff Casey Quiel
Slide 24
Definition: Diction that appeals to the senses; can be: visual
(appealing to sight) auditory (appealing to hearing) kinesthetic
(appealing to touch) olfactory (appealing to scent) gustatory
(appealing to taste) Imagery
Slide 25
Imagery Example - From The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald 8)
Slide 26
Imagery in the passage from The Great Gatsby creates a
capricious and somewhat ethereal tone through visual imagery of the
two young women dressed in white with their dresses rippling and
fluttering. A sudden tone shift comes when Tom closes the windows
with a boom, which suddenly makes the setting uncomfortable and
changes the tone from whimsical to confined. Imagery Example - From
The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald 8)
Slide 27
Definition: A characters tendencies, attitudes, etc. are stated
straightforwardly rather than implied Direct Characterization
Slide 28
Direct Characterization Example - From The Canterbury Tales
(Chaucer 5)
Slide 29
The use of direct characterization allows Chaucer to quickly
summarize the character of the knight. This tactic proves useful
because of the many characters that Chaucer needs to explain in the
Prologue of The Canterbury Tales, and it also makes his irony more
subtle by comparison. Direct Characterization Example - From The
Canterbury Tales (Chaucer 5)
Slide 30
Definition: A characters tendencies, attitudes, etc. are
implied through the characters actions, which leaves them somewhat
more open to interpretation. Indirect Characterization
Slide 31
Indirect Characterization Example - From A Tale of Two Cities
(Dickens 59)
Slide 32
The indirect characterization of the supporting character Jerry
Cruncher in A Tale of Two Cities allows Dickens to inject some
tongue- in-cheek humor into his novel. Cruncher is akin to a
four-footed inmate of a menagerie, yet he makes an attempt to look
like an honest tradesman. Such a characterization also shows
Crunchers pride and disagreeable nature. Indirect Characterization
Example - From A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens 59)
Slide 33
Definition: an exaggerated statement not to be taken literally
Hyperbole
Slide 34
Frankenstein uses a hyperbole while contemplating the creation
of another monster as a way to talk his way out of bringing to life
the creatures wish. For all he knew, the female creature could be
benevolent, or he may be correct and she may terrorize entire
villages like her mate. However, he could not truly know the
outcome of this new creation, hence the hyperbole. Hyperbole Three
years before I was engaged in the same manner, and had created a
fiend whose unparalleled barbarity had desolated my heart, and
filled it for ever with the bitterest remorse. I was now about to
form another being, of whose dispositions I was alike ignorant; she
might become ten thousand times more malignant than her mate, and
delight, for its own sake, in murder and wretchedness. He had sworn
to quit the neighbourhood of man, and hide himself in deserts; but
she had not; and she, who in all probability was to become a
thinking and reasoning animal, might refuse to comply with a
compact made before her creation. They might even hate each other;
the creature who already lived loathed his own deformity, and might
he not conceive a greater abhorrence for it when it came before his
eyes in the female form? She also might turn with disgust from him
to the superior beauty of man; she might quit him, and he be again
alone, exasperated by the fresh provocation of being deserted by
one of his own species. (Shelley 125).quit
Slide 35
Definition: presentation of something being smaller than stated
Understatement
Slide 36
Lockwoods understatement in Wuthering Heights, when he is first
introduced to Heathcliff and Hareton, allows the readers to detect
Brontes slight hints at Lockwoods ignorance. The few sentences
prior to the understatement, as well as the previous chapter,
illuminate how Lockwood was unwanted, yet he barely perceives it
until a little into his visit. (Bronte 14) Understatement
Slide 37
Definition: figurative language comparing one unlike thing to
another by using conjunctions like or as Simile
Slide 38
Not only is there an affluent amount of metaphors in this
paragraph, but there are similes as well. The two similes
highlighted by Dickens reveal Pips age (because of the imagination
in the statements) as well as generally exhibit the overall
dreariness of the marshes and Pips own home. (Dickens 14)
Simile
Slide 39
AP Literature Vocabulary Project Tyler Garner & Heather
McLean
Slide 40
#1: Synecdoche Definition: o a figure of speech by which a part
is put for the whole (as fifty sail for fifty ships), the whole for
a part (as society for high society), the species for the genus (as
cutthroat for assassin), the genus for the species (as a creature
for a man), or the name of the material for the thing made (as
boards for stage).
Slide 41
Synecdoche Example: Frankenstein o I may there discover the
wondrous power which attracts the needle; and may regulate a
thousand celestial observations, that require only this voyage to
render their seeming eccentricities consistent for ever (Shelly
1).
Slide 42
Synecdoche Robert Walton, a character in Frankenstein is
referring to his desire to explore. He wants to find something that
no one has found before. In this quote, the needle refers to the
needle in a compass. The needle is standing for the whole of the
compass. Walton desires to make it to the North Pole where no one
has gone. He seeks for knowledge of the magnets and what makes it
point north.
Slide 43
#2: Theme Definition: o the main subject that is being
discussed or described in a piece of writing, a movie, etc.
Slide 44
Theme Example: Theme of Racism (Heart of Darkness) o Mind, none
of us would feel exactly like this. What saves us is
efficiency--the devotion to efficiency. But these chaps were not
much account, really. They were no colonists; their administration
was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I suspect. They were
conquerors...
Slide 45
Theme o...and for that you want only brute force--nothing to
boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident
arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they could
get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with
violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it
blind--as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness. The
conquest of the earth, which
Slide 46
Theme o...mostly means the taking it away from those who have a
different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is
not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems its
the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental
pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea (Conrad
4).
Slide 47
Theme The theme of racism is one of many in Heart of Darkness.
Marlow, one of the characters, undermines the colonists and
describes them as greedy and murderers.
Slide 48
#3: Aphorism Definition: o a pithy observation that contains a
general truth, such as, if it aint broke, dont fix it.
Slide 49
Aphorism Example: Great Expectations o My clothes were rather a
disappointment, of course. Probably every new and eagerly expected
garment ever put on since clothes came in, fell a trifle short of
the wearers expectation (Dickens 150).
Slide 50
Aphorism Charles Dickens shows aphorism in this quote to
elaborate on how being an orphan means that the clothes are
terrible, but the lifestyle is not a great expectation.
Slide 51
#4: Euphemism Definition: o a mild or indirect word or
expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt
when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.
Slide 52
Euphemism Example: The Great Gatsby o Whenever you feel like
criticizing anyone...just remember that all the people in this
world havent had the advantages that youve had (Fitzgerald 1).
Slide 53
Euphemism F. Scott Fitzgerald uses euphemism advantages for
wealth to describe how being rude and ignorant is not appropriate
even if they have money which does not make them a better
person.
Slide 54
#6: Irony Definition: o the expression of ones meaning by using
language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for
humorous or emphatic effect.
Slide 55
Irony Example: Invisible Man o I went toward the
microphone...entering the spot of light that surrounded me like a
seamless cage of stainless steel. I halted. The light was so strong
that I could no longer see the audience, the bowl of human faces
(Ellison 341).
Slide 56
Irony Ralph Ellison expresses irony with the narrator because
he could not see his audience. He states how there should be no
blindness among the people, but feels blind giving the speech.
Slide 57
Literature Terms Kayla Trevethan & Bailie Pickering
Slide 58
Oxymoron A contradiction. O serpent heart, hid with a flowering
face! Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave? Beautiful tyrant! fiend
angelical! Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb! - Romeo and
Juliet (3.2.8) Juliet is expressing frustration towards Romeo by
using an oxymoron to show both love and hatred.
Slide 59
Paradox Something that contradicts, but is still true. I do
repent: but heaven hath pleased it so, To punish me with this and
this with me, That I must be their scourge and minister. I will
bestow him, and will answer well The death I gave him. So, again,
good night. I must be cruel, only to be kind: Thus bad begins and
worse remains behind. - Hamlet
Slide 60
Personification Making an inanimate object pursue humanly
actions. A Dream Within A Dream Take this kiss upon the brow! And,
in parting from you now, Thus much let me avow-- You are not wrong,
who deem That my days have been a dream; Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day, In a vision, or in none,vision Is it
therefore the less gone? All that we see or seem Is but a dream
within a dream. I stand amid the roar Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand Grains of the golden sand-- How few! yet
how they creep Through my fingers to the deep, While I weep--while
I weep! O God! can I not grasp Them with a tighter clasp? O God!
can I not savesave One from the pitiless wave? Is all that we see
or seem But a dream within a dream? Edgar Allen Poe Yet if hope has
flown away and Grains on the golden sand- How few! yet how they
creep are both examples of personification. They show inanimate
objects performing humanly actions.
Slide 61
Pun Jokes about words that sound the same, but have different
meanings. What a group of people we were, I thought. I yam what I
am. I chuckled back at the store venders. Pg. 273 There is humor
found in this simple pun that is not often expressed in the
Invisible Mans character. After indulging in eating yams from a
vender on the street, the narrator begins to remember his past and
experiences feelings of acceptance and love which is something he
has not felt in a long time. He jokingly states : I yam what I am.
to the venders on the street, but this pun actually represents much
more than a simple silly statement. This pun affects the novel by
highlighting the idea that the narrator does have fond memories of
his past and even attempts to claim this part of him.
Slide 62
Metonymy The substitution of the name of an attribute or
adjunct for that of the thing meant. Heart of Darkness, Pg. 5
Hunters for gold or pursuers of fame, they all had gone out on that
stream, bearing the sword, and often the torch, messengers of the
might within the land. The sword refers to soldiers and the torch
refers to knowledge. The two are symbols for a deeper meaning.
Slide 63
Chuvang-tzu. The Skylark and the Frogs. n.p. Web. 14 February
2014. Heller, Joseph. Catch-22. Simon & Schuster Inc. New York.
1955. Pint. 18 February 2014. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein-Or The
Modern Prometheus. Random House Inc. New York. 2003. Print. 15
February 2014. Swift, Jonathan. A Modest Proposal. Renascence
Editions. 1729. Web. 19 February 2014. Twain, Mark. The Damned
Human Race. np. 1905. Print. 17 February 2014. Works Cited
Slide 64
Bront, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Tom Doherty Associates. 1988.
Print. 17 February 2014. Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York,
Vintage International. 1995. Print. 17 February 2014. Heller,
Joseph. Catch-22. Simon & Schuster. New York, 2011. Print. 17
February 2014. Twain, Mark. The Damned Human Race. 1905, N.p. 17
February 2014 Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. London: Women's
Press, 1992. Print. 17 February 2014.
Slide 65
Bkwillwm. Chaucer_ellesmere.jpg. Drawing. Wikipedia. Wikipedia,
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February 2014. Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. London:
Penguin, 1996. Print. 17 February 2014. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The
Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2004. Print. 17 February 2014.
Jmj713. Gatsby 1925 jacket.gif. Drawing. Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 19
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