8th Grade Literary Devices
Cantrell’s English Class
Tidwell Middle School
Alliteration
• The repetition of initial consonant sounds
Allusion
• A reference to a literary, mythological, or
historical person, place, or thing.
Anadiplosis
• The repetition of a word or clause at the
end of one sentence is repeated at the
beginning of the next successive
sentence.
Anaphora
• The repetition of a word or clause at the
beginning of successive sentences.
Antagonist
• The character opposing the protagonist;
can be a person, idea, or force.
Antithesis
• Using opposite phrases in close
conjunction – especially within a sentence.
Apostrophe
• The act of addressing something – idea or
personification of an idea that is not
physically present.
Archetype
• A type of character, action, or situation
that occurs over and over in literature; a
pattern or example that occurs in literature
and life.
Assonance
• Repetition of vowel sounds but not
consonant sounds
Character vs. Character
• When a character has a problem with
another character
Character vs. Fate
• Character vs. Fate
• When a character has a problem with
something he can’t do anything about,
such as God, luck, death, etc.
Character vs. Nature
• When a character has a problem with a
force of nature, such as cold, storms,
earthquakes, etc.
Character vs. Self
• When a character must make a decision
about a problem or struggle he is having
within himself.
Character vs. Society
• When a character has a problem with a
tradition or rule of society.
Characterization
• The methods used by an author to create
a character, including:
• The character’s physical appearance
• The characters own speech, thoughts,
actions, and or feelings
• Other characters’ feelings, actions,
thoughts, or speech toward the character
• Direct comments by the author about the
character
Climax
• The most critical moment in the story; the
point at which the main conflict is at its
highest; that is, the point of no return.
Conflict
• A struggle between two opposing forces
Connotation
• The emotions or associations a word
normally arouses in people using, hearing,
or reading the word. The feeling may be
positive, negative, or neutral.
Consonance
• The repetition of consonant sounds, but
not vowel sounds.
Denotation
• The specific dictionary definition of a word.
Detail
• Facts revealed by the author or speaker
that support the attitude or tone in the
work.
Device
• Any literary technique used to achieve a
specific effect.
Dialect
• The language of a particular district, class,
or group of persons. It encompasses the
sounds, spelling, grammar and diction
used by a specific group of people as
different from other people either
geographically or socially.
Diction
• Word choice. An author chooses words to
create a specific effect. It is the
appropriateness of the words with regard
to the emotions and or ideas associated
with them.
Dynamic Character
• A character that undergoes a change in
actions or beliefs during the course of a
story.
Epanalepsis
• The repetition of a word or clause at the
beginning and end of the same sentence.
Epiphany
• An event in which the essential nature of
something, a person, a situation, an
object, is suddenly realized in a new way;
a sudden realization; an “a-ha” moment.
Epistrophe
• The repetition of a word of clause at the
end of successive sentences.
Euphemism
• The substitution of an agreeable
expression to replace one that is offensive.
Exposition
• The author lays the groundwork for the
story by revealing the:
• -Setting
• -Relationships between the characters
• -Situation as it exists before the conflict
begins
Falling Action
• Events that occur after the climax and lead
up to closure and conclusion of the story.
Figures of Speech
• Words or phrases that describe one thing
in terms of something else. They always
involve some sort of imaginary comparison
between seemingly unlike things; not
meant to be taken literally.
Flashback
• An action that interrupts the plot to show
an event that occurred at an earlier time
which is necessary to better
understanding.
Foreshadowing
• The use in a literary work of clues that
suggest events that have yet to occur.
Hyperbole
• A deliberate, extravagant and often
outrageous exaggeration; may be used for
either serious or comic effect.
Iamb
• A combination of one unstressed, and
one stressed syllable in the following
pattern [ U / ]
Idiom
• An accepted phrase or expression having
a meaning different from the literal.
Imagery
• The words or phrases a writer uses to
represent persons, objects, actions,
feelings and ideas descriptively by
appealing to the five senses (sight,
sounds, smell, taste, and touch).
Inciting Incident
• Interrupts the peace and balance of the
situation and one or more of the
characters come into conflict with an
outside force, himself, or another
character.
Irony
• A contrast between appearance and
reality. It is usually one in which reality is
the opposite from what it seems; when
one thing is expected to happen or be, and
the exact opposite occurs.
Magic 3
• Three (or more) details in a series used for
emphasis or to create a specific effect.
Metaphor
• A comparison of two unlike things
WITHOUT the use of LIKE or AS.
Meter
• Measure of rhythm in a poem.
Mood
• The feeling created in the reader by a
literary work or passage.
Motif
• A recurrent element in a literary work. A
pattern or strand of imagery or symbolism
within a work of literature.
Motivation
• A reason that explains a character’s
thoughts, feelings, actions, or behavior.
Onomatopoeia
• A word that imitates the sound it
represents.
Oxymoron
• A form of paradox that combines a pair of
opposite terms into a single unusual
expression.
Paradox
• When elements of a statement contradict
each other; may appear illogical,
impossible, or absurd, but turns out to
reveal a hidden truth.
Personification
• Writing that gives nonhuman subjects
human characteristics.
Point of View
• The perspective from which a story is told.
• 1st Person – use of pronoun ‘I,’ ‘me,’ ‘we,’
‘us,’ ‘my’
• Third Person Limited- told from the
perspective of one character only.
• Third Person Omniscient – told from the
perspective of more than one character.
Protagonist
• The central character and focus of interest
that tries to accomplish or overcome an
adversity, and has the ability to adapt to
new circumstances.
Pun
• A play on words that are identical or
similar in sound but have sharply different
meanings. Puns can have serious as well
as humorous uses.
Refrain
• A stanza or line that is repeated within a
poem.
Repetition
• A device in which words, sounds, and or
ideas are used more than once to
enhance rhythm and to create emphasis.
Resolution
• The problem set up in the inciting incident
is unraveled; there is a revelation of
meaning.
Rhyme
• A pattern of words that contain similar
sounds.
Rhythm
• The movement with uniform occurrence of
a beat or accent.
Rising Action
• The action and events that take place in
the story and build up to the critical
moment when the main conflict is
confronted.
Setting
• The time and place of a literary work.
Simile
• A comparison of two different things or
ideas through the use of the words LIKE or
AS OR THAN.
Stanza
• A paragraph in a poem.
Static Character
• A character that does not grow or change
throughout the story.
Suspense
• The quality of a literary work that makes
the reader uncertain or tense about the
outcome of events.
Symbol
• The use of any object, person, place, or
action that both has a meaning in itself
and that stands for something larger than
itself, such as a quality, attitude, belief, or
value.
Theme
• A central message or insight into life
revealed through the literary work. A
lesson about life or people.
Tone
• The writer’s attitude toward his or her
subject. It can often be described by a
single adjective.
Trochee
• A combination of one stressed, and one
unstressed syllable in the following pattern
[ / U]