Literary Devices
Brought to you by Harry Potter!
Fiction:
A type of writing in which the
events are imaginary and invented
by the author
Non-Fiction:
a type of writing in which the
events are true, really happened
and understood to be facts
Plot:
the events that makeup a story
Conflict
Plot: Exposition
setting and characters
Example: “Harry Potter 3”
Setting: Hogwarts Castle, United
Kingdom
Characters: Harry Potter, Ron
Weasley, Hermione Granger
Conflict
Plot: Conflict
the main problem
Example: Harry Potter 3
Conflict: Sirius Black has
escaped from Azkaban and
appears to be after Harry
Conflict
Plot: rising action
details leading to the climax
Example: Harry Potter 3
Rising Action: Harry sees a large
black dog everywhere, the
dementors are seriously
affecting him, Sirius Black gets
into the castle
Conflict
Plot: climax
the moment after which nothing is
the same for the characters in the
story
Example: Harry Potter 3
Climax: Ron gets pulled into the
Whomping Willow by a giant
black dog
Conflict
Plot: Falling Action
details leading to the resolution
Example: Harry Potter 3
Falling Action: Harry finds out
Peter Pettigrew is alive and
Lupin and Black plan to prove
Black’s innocence
Conflict
Plot: Resolution
conclusion
Example: Harry Potter 3
Conclusion: Although Pettigrew
escapes, do does Black and
Harry returns home for the
summer
Conflict
Characterization:
characterization: the personality of the
character (Its about what the character says,
does and feels, not JUST what he or she
looks like)
Ex: “Harry Potter was a highly unusual boy in many ways. For
one thing, he hated the summer holidays…For another, he
really wanted to do his homework but was forced to do it in
secret, in the dead of night. And he also happened to be a
wizard.”
-Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban, pg 1
Point of View:
The perspective from which the story is
written
1st person POV: A type of POV where the narrator is
telling the story and is a character in the story. Uses
words like “I”, “me”, or “we”
3rd person POV: A type of POV where the narrator is
telling the story and is NOT a character in the story.
Uses words like “he”, “she”, “they”
Imagery:
Using language that make you think of a
specific image or invokes one of your five
senses
Ex: “It’s this sweetshop…where they’ve got everything…Pepper
Imps- they make you smoke at the mouth- and great fat
Chocolateballs full of strawberry mousse and clotted cream,
and really excellent sugar quills, which you can suck in class
and look just like you’re thinking about what to write next.”
-Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban, pg 62
Metaphor:
comparing one unlike thing to
another NOT using “like” or “as”
Ex: “Crabbe was taller, with a pudding-bowl haircut and a very
thick neck; Goyle had short bristly hair and long, gorilla-ish
arms.”
-Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban, pg 80
Simile:
comparing one unlike thing to another
using “like” or “as”
Ex: “There was a hand protruding from the cloak and it was
glistening, grayish, slimy looking, and scabbed, like something
dead that had decayed in water…”
-Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban, pg 83
Mood:
How the reader feels when he or she is
reading a story; The situation’s
atmosphere or the charcter’s feelings
Ex: “An intense cold swept over them all. Harry felt his own
breath catch in his chest. The cold when deeper than his skin .
It was inside his chest, it was inside his very heart…”
-Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban, pg 83
How do I feel when I read this: Creepy, cold, scared, concerned
Tone:
The author’s attitude about his or her
subject
Ex: “Harry was watching the painting. A fat, dapple-grey pony
had just ambled onto the grass and was grazing nonchalantly.
Harry was used to the subjects of Hogwarts paintings moving
around and leaving their frames...A moment later, a short,
squat knight in a suit of armor clanked into the picture after his
pony. By the look of the grass satins on his metal knees, he had
just fallen off.”
-Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban, pg 99
How does the author feel: humorous, silly, comic
Theme:
the authors message or moral of the
story
Fairy Tale: The boy who cried wolf
Moral or theme of the story: Don’t lie about needing help
because when you really need it, no one will be there!