28 different literary devices and their meanings
Allegory
Allegories are narratives that represent something else entirely, like a
historical event or significant ideology, to illustrate a deeper meaning.
Sometimes the stories are entirely fabricated and only loosely tied to their
source, but sometimes the individual characters act as fictional stand-ins
for real-life historical figures.
Examples: George Orwell’s Animal Farm, an allegory about the Russian
Revolution of 1917, is one of the most famous allegories ever written; a
more modern example is the animated film Zootopia, an allegory about
the prejudices of modern society.
Alliteration
Alliteration is the literary technique of using a sequence of words that
begin with the same letter or sound for a poetic or whimsical effect.
Examples: Many of Stan Lee’s iconic comic book characters have
alliterative names: Peter Parker, Matthew Murdock, Reed Richards, and
Bruce Banner.
Allusion
An allusion is an indirect reference to another figure, event, place, or work
of art that exists outside the story. Allusions are made to famous subjects
so that they don’t need explanation—the reader should already
understand the reference.
Example: The title of Haruki Murakami’s novel 1Q84 is itself an allusion to
George Orwell’s novel 1984. The Japanese word for the number nine is
pronounced the same as the English letter Q.
Amplification
Amplification is the technique of embellishing a simple sentence with
more details to increase its significance.
Example: “A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can
have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out
teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like
sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” —Roald Dahl, The Twits
Anagram
An anagram is a word puzzle where the author rearranges the letters in a
word or phrase to make a new word or phrase.
Example: In Silence of the Lambs, the antagonist Hannibal Lector tried to
trick the FBI by naming the suspect Louis Friend, which the protagonist
realized was an anagram for “iron sulfide,” the technical term for fool’s
gold.
Analogy
An analogy compares one thing to something else to help explain a
similarity that might not be easy to see.
Example: In The Dragons of Eden, Carl Sagan compares the universe’s
entire history with a single Earth year to better demonstrate the context
of when major events occurred; i.e., the Earth formed on September 9,
humans first appeared at 10:30 p.m. on December 31.
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is when non-human things like animals or objects act
human, exhibiting traits such as speech, thoughts, complex emotions, and
sometimes even wearing clothes and standing upright.
Example: While most fairy tales feature animals that act like humans,
the Beauty and the Beast films anthropomorphize household objects:
talking clocks, singing teapots, and more.
Antithesis
Antithesis places two contrasting and polarized sentiments next to each
other in order to accent both.
Example: “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” —Neil
Armstrong
Chiasmus
The literary technique of chiasmus takes two parallel clauses and inverts
the word order of one to create a greater meaning.
Example: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do
for your country.” —John F. Kennedy (adapted from Khalil Gibran)
Colloquialism
Colloquialism is using casual and informal speech, including slang, in
formal writing to make dialogue seem more realistic and authentic. It
often incorporates respelling words and adding apostrophes to
communicate the pronunciation.
Example: “How you doin’?” asked Friends character Joey Tribbiani.
Circumlocution
Circumlocution is when the writer deliberately uses excessive words and
overcomplicated sentence structures to intentionally convolute their
meaning. In other words, it means to write lengthily and confusingly on
purpose.
Example: In Shrek the Third, Pinocchio uses circumlocution to avoid giving
an honest answer to the Prince’s question.
Epigraph
An epigraph is an independent, pre-existing quotation that introduces a
piece of work, typically with some thematic or symbolic relevance.
Example: “He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a
man,” a quote by Samuel Johnson, is the epigraph that opens Hunter S.
Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a novel that deals largely
with substance abuse and escapism.
Euphemism
A euphemism is a soft and inoffensive word or phrase that replaces a
harsh, unpleasant, or hurtful one for the sake of sympathy or civility.
Example: Euphemisms like “passed away” and “downsizing” are quite
common in everyday speech, but a good example in literature comes
from Harry Potter, where the wizarding community refers to the villain
Voldemort as “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” in fear of invoking him.
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is the technique of hinting at future events in a story using
subtle parallels, usually to generate more suspense or engage the
reader’s curiosity.
Example: In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke Skywalker’s vision of himself
wearing Darth Vader’s mask foreshadows the later revelation that Vader is
in fact Luke’s father.
Hyperbole
Hyperbole is using exaggeration to add more power to what you’re saying,
often to an unrealistic or unlikely degree.
Example: “I had to wait in the station for ten days—an eternity.” —Joseph
Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Imagery
Imagery refers to writing that invokes the reader’s senses with
descriptive word choice to create a more vivid and realistic recreation of
the scene in their mind.
Example: “The barn was very large. It was very old. It smelled of hay and
it smelled of manure. It smelled of the perspiration of tired horses and the
wonderful sweet breath of patient cows. It often had a sort of peaceful
smell as though nothing bad could happen ever again in the world.” —E.
B. White, Charlotte’s Web
Metaphor
Similar to an analogy, a metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two
different things to show their similarities by insisting that they’re the
same.
Example:
“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts. . .”
—William Shakespeare, As You Like It
Mood
A story’s mood is the emotional response the author is targeting. A writer
sets the mood not just with the plot and characters, but also with tone and
the aspects they choose to describe.
Example: In the horror novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, the literary mood of
vampires is scary and ominous, but in the comedic film What We Do In
Shadows, the literary mood of vampires is friendly and light-hearted.
Motif
A motif is a recurring element in a story that holds some symbolic or
conceptual meaning. It’s closely related to theme, but motifs are specific
objects or events, while themes are abstract ideas.
Example: In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth’s obsession with
washing her hands is a motif that symbolizes her guilt.
Onomatopoeia
Fancy literary term onomatopoeia refers to words that represent sounds,
with pronunciations similar to those sounds.
Example: The word “buzz” as in “a buzzing bee” is actually pronounced
like the noise a bee makes.
Oxymoron
An oxymoron combines two contradictory words to give them a deeper
and more poetic meaning.
Example: “Parting is such sweet sorrow.” —William Shakespeare, Romeo
and Juliet
Paradox
Similar to an oxymoron, a paradox combines two contradictory ideas in a
way that, although illogical, still seems to make sense.
Example: “I know only one thing, and that is I know nothing.” —Socrates
in Plato’s Apology
Personification
Personification is when an author attributes human characteristics
metaphorically to nonhuman things like the weather or inanimate objects.
Personification is strictly figurative, whereas anthropomorphism posits
that those things really do act like humans.
Example: “The heart wants what it wants—or else it does not care . . .” —
Emily Dickinson
Portmanteau
Portmanteau is the literary device of joining two words together to form a
new word with a hybrid meaning.
Example: Words like “blog” (web + log), “paratrooper” (parachute +
trooper), “motel” (motor + hotel), and “telethon” (telephone + marathon)
are all portmanteaus in common English.
Puns
Puns are a type of comedic wordplay that involve homophones (different
words that are pronounced the same) or two separate meanings of the
same word.
Example: “Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.” —Groucho
Marx
Satire
Satire is a style of writing that uses parody and exaggeration to criticize
the faults of society or human nature.
Example: The works of Jonathan Swift (Gulliver’s Travels) and Mark Twain
(The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) are well known for being satirical. A
more modern example is the TV show South Park, which often satirizes
society by addressing current events.
Simile
Like metaphors, similes also compare two different things to point out
their similarities. However, the difference between similes and
metaphors is that similes use the words “like” or “as” to soften the
connection and explicitly show it’s just a comparison.
Example: “Time has not stood still. It has washed over me, washed me
away, as if I’m nothing more than a woman of sand, left by a careless
child too near the water.” —Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
Symbolism
Closely related to motifs, symbolism is when objects, characters, actions,
or other recurring elements in a story take on another, more profound
meaning and/or represent an abstract concept.
Example: In J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy (and The Hobbit), it
is said the ring of Sauron symbolizes evil, corruption, and greed, which
everyday people, symbolized by Frodo, must strive to resist.
Tone
Tone refers to the language and word choice an author uses with their
subject matter, like a playful tone when describing children playing, or a
hostile tone when describing the emergence of a villain. If you’re confused
about tone vs. mood, tone refers mostly to individual aspects and details,
while mood refers to the emotional attitude of the entire piece of work.
Example: Told in the first person, J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye uses
the angsty and sardonic tone of its teenage protagonist to depict the
character’s mindset, including slang and curse words.
When talking about language in prose fiction, there are a number of things
you could look for:
literary techniques, for example similes and metaphors
other language techniques, for
example emotive language, hyperbole or terms of address
connotations of particular word choices
language choices within dialogue, for instance if dialect is used to
reveal more about a character
types of words used in the text, for
example adjectives , nouns, verbs, adverbs
Many words can be understood in different ways:
denotations - their dictionary meaning
connotations - the ideas they link to
For example, the word 'desk' literally denotes a table, but it has
connotations of work and study.
Words can reveal a theme, such as death, or love, or create a particular
mood in a section of the narrative.
Patterns in Language
It’s useful to look for any patterns in the language chosen by the writer,
as these patterns may suggest important themes or deeper meanings
beyond the obvious. For example:
Is there a particular semantic field used by the writer? (For example
words linked to the military or hospitals.)
Does the writer repeat any ideas or images? (These could act as
a motif in the text.)
Does the writer favour a particular type of word? (For example using
lots of abstract nouns like dream, love, peace, friendship.)
Can words or phrases from different parts of the text be linked in
some way?
Questions to consider:
Where does this extract fit into the longer text – is it an opening or
ending?
Why are the paragraphs ordered in the way they are?
How does the focus of each paragraph change?
Is it important for the reader to know certain bits of information
before they get to the next part of the text?
Are there any links between the beginning and the end of the text?
Are there any repeated images?
Is there a significant change in an attitude, character or setting?
Is there a change of perspective?
Some structural devices within prose fiction
Repetition – of words, phrases or whole sentences.
Connectives – eg meanwhile, finally, although. These could be used to
shift the reader’s focus.
Sentence types – eg multi-clause or single clause. For example, a multi-
clause sentence could be used to build up layers of description to create a
vivid setting.
Sentence length – eg short to show tension.
Paragraph length – eg single line paragraphs to focus the reader.
Change of tense – eg from present to past.
Narrative structure
Fictional narratives may also follow an overall structure, which may fit
broadly into typical stages.
Exposition – the setting of the scene for the reader, this could be a
description of setting or the backstory of a character.
Crisis point or climax – an exciting or tense part of the text.
Resolution – the conclusion of the narrative, where conflicts are resolved
or meaning is revealed.
In a short extract, only one or two of these of these stages might be
evident. For example, if the extract is from the opening of a short story
there may only be an exposition stage.
These stages are not always in this order; a writer may choose to begin
with a climax or crisis point.
Example
This extract is taken from the end of a short story called The Tell Tale
Heart by Edgar Allan Poe. In this section the narrator is convinced he can
hear the beating heart of his murdered victim under the floor boards.
How has the writer structured this text to increase the sense of
tension?
No doubt I now grew very pale; but I talked more fluently, and with a
heightened voice. Yet the sound increased -- and what could I do? It was a
low, dull, quick sound -- much such a sound as a watch makes when
enveloped in cotton. I gasped for breath -- and yet the officers heard it
not. I talked more quickly -- more vehemently; but the noise steadily
increased. I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent
gesticulations; but the noise steadily increased. Why would they not be
gone? I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury
by the observations of the men -- but the noise steadily increased. Oh
God! what could I do? I foamed -- I raved -- I swore! I swung the chair upon
which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the boards, but the noise
arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder -- louder -- louder!
And still the men chatted pleasantly, and smiled. Was it possible they
heard not? Almighty God! -- no, no! They heard! -- they suspected! -- they
knew! -- they were making a mockery of my horror! -- this I thought, and
this I think. But anything was better than this agony! Anything was more
tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical smiles no
longer! I felt that I must scream or die! and now -- again! -- hark! louder!
louder! louder! louder!
"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! -- tear up the
planks! here, here! -- It is the beating of his hideous heart!"
The Tell Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe
Analysis
The structure of the text allows the reader to share the narrator’s
increased agitation.
In the first long paragraph the writer builds the tension, as the
narrator’s emotions become more extreme.
The whole first paragraph has the structure of a fragmented thought
process to show the narrator’s disturbed mind. The multi-clause
sentences further enhance the impression of this frantic mind. The
frequent use of dashes also adds to the feeling of broken and
jumping thoughts, “I gasped for breath -- and yet the officers heard
it not. I talked more quickly -- more vehemently…”
The calm, simple sentence “And still the men chatted pleasantly and
smiled…” shows the reader that this frantic energy is confined to
the mind of the narrator.
This is linked to later in the paragraph the narrator mentions their
“…hypocritical smiles…”, further emphasising the paranoia of the
character.
The repetition of the personal pronouns ‘I’ and ‘they’ at the start of
sentences shows the narrator’s focus and intensity.
The writer uses punctuation to structure the narrator’s changing
emotional state, at first question marks are used frequently, “What
could I do?” is repeated to show his desperation.
The abundance of exclamation marks later in the paragraph show
his extreme emotion, as he loses the little control he had - “no, no!
They heard! -- they suspected! --they knew! --they were making a
mockery of my horror!”
The dramatic repetition of “…louder! louder! louder! louder!...”
gives a manic impression of the narrative voice and increases the
tension for the reader.
The resolution in the text is reached in the final paragraph, when the
narrator manically confesses his crime, “I admit the deed!”
The use of dialogue here breaks the tension of the narrator’s
thoughts and leads to a final climax of emotion.
The alliterative “…hideous heart.” makes a gruesome, dramatic final
impression on the reader.
