Literary Elements/Devices

(Figurative Language

• Figurative language is a tool that an author uses to help the reader visualize what is happening in a story or poem. Figurative language is meant to be interpreted imaginatively, not literally

Types of Figurative Language:• Simile• Metaphor• Personification• Hyperbole

• Irony• Symbol• Imagery• Alliteration• Paradox

Simile• a figure of speech that compares two

dissimilar things by using the key words “like” or “as”.

Example: Her feet felt like iceAs old as timeDead as a doornail.

Metaphor•a figure of speech that compares two unlike things describing one as if it were like the other.

*Does not use “like” or “as”Examples: Blanket of Darkness

My brother’s room is a pigpen.

Personification• a figure of speech in which human

qualities are given to a nonhuman subject

Example: • The leaves danced in the autumn wind.• The lightening lashed out with anger.

Hyperbole•an exaggerated statement or overstatement. It’s a figure of speech that is not to be taken literally.Example – •I’m so hungry I could eat a horse!•I’m so full I’m about to pop.

Irony• The use of words to express something

different or opposite from their literal meaning (Not what you expected).–There are three types of irony• Situational Irony•Dramatic Irony•Verbal Irony

Situational Irony• When things turn out differently than

expected.Examples:–A greedy millionaire winning the lottery.–Two bank robbers have their car stolen

while robbing a bank.–A man survives a plane crash only to be

killed on the way to the hospital in an ambulance wreck.

Dramatic Irony

• When the audience knows something the character doesn’t.– Example: When we know as an audience

that someone is hiding in the closet, but the character doesn’t.

Verbal Irony•When the author says one thing but means another.•Example: •When somebody drops a tray of food and someone tells them “good job”.•When a person trips and someone tells them “Slick move, Rick”.

Symbol• Symbols are animals, elements, things, places, or colors, writers use to represent other things.–Example:• Snake – Evil, Temptation.•Black - Death

Imagery • When an author uses words that appeal to one or

more of our senses.– Examples:• The cold of late December blew against my

skin as I walked up to my family’s festive house for our holiday dinner. As I walked in the door, the aromas of warm apple pie and honey baked ham made me feel at home once again.

Alliteration• The repetition of an initial consonant sound

(consonants are all of the letters of the alphabet that are not vowels. – Example: • "The soul selects her own society.“• “A moist young moon hung above the

mist of a neighboring meadow."

Paradox• a statement that is seemingly contradictory

or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true.– Example: • Freedom is Slavery• Ignorance is bliss• I know that I know nothing.