Literary Devices!

Fun to be had by all.

Idiom: A phrase that can be traced to a specific area.

• Examples:

• “I have a bone to pick with her!”

• “High five!”

• “He woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”

• “The early bird gets the worm.”

Idiom Pop Quiz

• See if you can determine what these

idioms are really saying. • On your paper, replace the bolded words

with the actual meaning and see if they make more sense!

• 1) He was all ears when his boss called.

• 2) She was just a chip off the old block.

• 3) His comments threw a wet blanket on the discussion.

• 4) They were beat after a hard day’s work.

• 5) After the manager quit, they were all in the same boat.

Mood vs. ToneWhat’s the difference?

• Tone: The author’s attitude towards what he is writing about.

• Mood: The emotions the reader feels. Usually a result of the author’s tone, however not always the same. – One piece of literature can evoke several

moods among readers based on the reader’s own experience.

For Example…

• Imagine you are a normal teenager like Cary Ramos:

and to win the love of fair Alexandra

you decide to write a love note…

Tone = Depends on the Author

• The TONE of his letter is romantic because that is his attitude toward this subject.

However, the letter could evoke several different moods based on Alexandra’s experiences:

Hyperbole

• Extreme exaggeration!

• Exaggeration so extreme that many times the claim cannot possibly be true.

• For Example:

• - “Mom you NEVER let me go anywhere.” (chances are, she let’s you go SOMEWHERE…)

Try your hand at Hyperbole:

• Check out this picture and see if you can complete this sentence hyperbolically.

• “My sister wears so much make-up…”

• Ex: “…she loses thirty pounds when she takes it off!”

Allusion• Indirect of casual reference to another’s

work.

• The author assumes that the reader is familiar with the movie, book, song, or event he is referring to.

• Most times the author wants to apply elements the reader knows of the original piece to his own literary work.

For example…• "The girl's love of sweets was her

Achilles heel," referencing the warrior in Greek mythology, Achilles, who could only be harmed if something hit his heel because he was dipped in magic water as baby when his mother held him by a heel. Achilles' only weakness is his heel, so an Achilles heel reference means a downfall or weakness, in this example a weakness for sweets.

Works based on Literary Allusions:

• Wicked, the novel and musical based on The Wizard of Oz

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs, based on The Three Little Pigs fable.

CONFLICT

where things get complicated…

The Four Types of Conflict:

Man vs. Man

Man vs. Nature

Man vs. Society

Man vs. Himself

Man vs. Man

Man Vs. Nature

Man vs. Society

Man Vs. Himself

• Should I do my homework or check my myspace? Hmmm…

Theme

• This is the point the author is trying to make.

• Often considered to be the “moral” of the story.

• Usually the author’s commentary about life, society, or human nature.

Connotation vs. Denotation

• Connotation: the implied or emotional meaning.– This may mean different things to different

people.

• Denotation: The Dictionary definition. – Although a word can have more than one

definition in a dictionary, the meaning does not vary from person to person.

Understanding Connotation

• Mother in the dictionary is defined as “a female parent,” thus making it the denotation.

• However, the feelings evoked by the word mother may be different for every person in the class. This is the connotation.

“Isn’t it ironic…don’t ya think?”

• There are four different types of literary irony.

• The term “ironic” is often misused in everyday language. Read on and violate no longer!

The Three Types of Irony

• Situational Irony: An event of outcome of events opposite to what was or might naturally have been expected.

• For example: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.

Dramatic Irony

This is when one of the characters is unaware of important information that the audience is made aware of.

For example: In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet Romeo believes Juliet to be dead when she is merely asleep. This turns into tragic irony when he decides to end his life to be with her.

Verbal Irony

• The speaker or writer of verbal irony says one thing while INTENDING the reader to get a different meaning.

• For example, when using Sarcasm, the speaker says one thing but his tone implies another meaning.

How is this ironic?

And this?

ImageryImagery is words or phrases that appeal to one or more of the five senses. Writers use

imagery to describe how their subjects look, sound, feel,

taste, and smell.

Point of View

Point of View is the perspective, or vantage point, from which a story is told. It is the relationship of the narrator to the story.

First-person is told by a character who uses the first-person pronoun “I”.

Third-person limited point of view is the point of view where the narrator uses third-person pronouns such as “he” and “she” to refer to the characters.

PersonificationPersonification is a

figure of speech in which an animal, object, force of nature, or idea is given human qualities or characteristics.

Example: Tears began to fall from the dark clouds.

OxymoronAn Oxymoron is a figure of speech that is a

combination of seemingly contradictory words.

Examples: Same difference

Pretty ugly

Roaring silence

The protagonist is the maincharacter in the story.

The antagonist is the character opposing the protagonist.

epiphany

• Literally means “a manifestation.”• Traditionally, Christianity used the word to

signify a manifestation of God’s presence in the world.

• Irishman James Joyce, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, first adapted the word to a secular meaning: a sudden radiance and revelation while observing a commonplace object.

• Joyce replaced what earlier writers had called “the moment,” an instance or moment of revelation.

symbol

• An object, place, setting, prop, event or person that represents or stands for some idea or event.

• Never hidden, but interwoven throughout the text.

• It may also retain its own literal meaning while taking on the symbolic qualities.