• Simile: the comparison of two unlike things
using “like” or “as”
Example: The wind was howling like a wolf.
• Personification: Where animals, ideas, things,
etc are represented as having human qualities
Example: The dog smirked after he knocked the trash
can over.
• Hyperbole: an exaggerated statement that is used
to emphasize a point
Example: I’m so hungry I could
eat a horse!
• Alliteration: The repetition of initial sounds in
neighboring or stressed syllables
Example: She sees sheep sleeping
• 3rd Person Limited Narrator: A story told through
the point of view of a single character.
Example: Winston in 1984
• 3rd Person Omniscient Narrator: A story told
through multiple points of view of different
characters.
Example: Their Eyes Were
Watching God
• Tone: a literary technique which encompasses
the attitudes toward the subject and toward the
audience implied in a literary work
• Voice: The way a story is told so the reader can
connect to it
• Mood: The feeling that a piece of literature evokes
• Anecdote: A short story about a real person or
an interesting event that is told to make a point
Example: Young George
Washington cutting down the
cherry tree– always tell the truth!
• Allusion: An implicit reference to an historical,
literary, or biblical character, event, or element
Example: The laptop incident in Pennsylvania was
something out of 1984!
• Irony: A contradiction between appearance or
expectation and reality; a figure of speech in which
the literal meaning of the words is the opposite of
their intended meaning
Example: It’s like rain on your
wedding day (“Ironic” by
Alanis Morissette)
• Parable: A brief story that is told to illustrate a
moral or religious lesson
Example: Anansi the Spider
• Compare: To see if two or more ideas are
similar to one another
• Contrast: To see if two or more ideas are
different from one another
Example: To compare/contrast, you
can use a T-Chart or Venn diagram or
some kind of organizer to see the
comparisons and differences
• Genre: A category of a piece of literature
Example: Romance, Comedy, Horror, Science
Fiction
• Theme: The broad idea, moral, or message
behind a story
Example: Anansi and the sticky gum person
• Imagery: A literary technique an author uses to
create a mental image in the reader’s mind (i.e. 5
senses)
Example: The smell of turkey
reminds me of Thanksgiving.
• Folk Tale: A traditional prose narrative
Example: Bre’r Rabbit
• Fable: A usually short narrative making a
cautionary point and often employing as
characters animals that speak and act like
humans.
Example: Big Bad Wolf in Little Red Riding Hood
• Blank Verse: A type of poetry that has a regular
meter, but no rhyme
Example: “The Ball Poem” by John
Berryman
What is the boy now, who has lost his ball,
What, what is he to do? I saw it go
Merrily bouncing, down the street, and
then
Merrily over-there it is in the water!
• Iambic Pentameter: A poem or sonnet defined by
its rhythm of pairing ten syllables for each line into
five pairs.
Example: John Donne’s sonnetBatter my heart three-personed God, for you
as yet but knock, breathe, shine and seek to mend.
That I may rise and stand o'erthrow me and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn and make me new.
RhythmDUM da | da DUM | da DUM | da DUM | da DUM
da DUM | da DUM | DUM DUM | da DUM | da DUM
da DUM | da DUM | da DUM | DUM DUM |dada DUM
da DUM | da DUM | DUM DUM | da DUM | da DUM
• Iambic Tetrameter: A meter of poetry with lines
that consist of four iambic feet
Example: Christopher Marlowe’s “The
Passionate Shepherd to His Love”Come live with me and be my love
Rhythm-
da DUM | da DUM | da DUM | da DUM |
• Free Verse: A form of poetry that does not use
meter, rhyme, or any other pattern
Example: “After the Sea-Ship” by Walt Whitman
After the Sea-Ship—after the whistling winds;
After the white-gray sails, taut to their spars and ropes,
Below, a myriad, myriad waves, hastening, lifting up their necks,
Tending in ceaseless flow toward the track of the ship:
Waves of the ocean, bubbling and gurgling, blithely prying,
Waves, undulating waves—liquid, uneven, emulous waves,
Toward that whirling current, laughing and buoyant, with curves,
Where the great Vessel, sailing and tacking, displaced the surface;
• Motif: A recurring element that has symbolic
significance to the story
Example: Urban decay in 1984 (i.e. Winston’s run
down home, the city of London)
• Mystery: One that is not fully understood or
eludes meaning that can be a challenge for the
reader
Example: Julia and O’Brien in 1984
• Realism: A genre of literature that avoids any
magical or fantastic elements in favor of realistic
settings
Example: Their Eyes Were
Watching God (to a point)
• Fantasy: A genre of literature that uses elements
of magic and supernatural to tell a story
Example: Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter
• Satire: A form of genre that uses irony, wit,
sarcasm, and parodies to reveal the troubles of
the world and the faults in people
Example: 1984 and Animal Farm
• Science Fiction: A type of genre that combines
the elements of realism and fantasy with a set of
rules that could make it appear the story could
happen.
Example: 1984 and I, Robot
• Historical Fiction: A type of genre that tells a
story in an actual historical period with fictional
characters
Example: Their Eyes Were
Watching God