Literary Devices
8th Grade Reading
Allegory
• A narrative that serves as an extended
metaphor.
• Usually written in the form of fables, parables,
poems, or stories
• Tells a story that has characters, a setting, and
other types of symbols that have literal and
figurative meaning
• Writers use allegory to add different layers
of meanings to their works.
• Allegory makes their stories and
characters multidimensional, so that they
stand for something larger in meaning
than what they literally stand for.
• Allegory allows writers to put forward their
moral and political point of views.
Alliteration
• A pattern of sound that includes the repetition
of consonant sounds.
• Used to call attention to a phrase and fix it
into the reader’s mind-emphasis
1.But a better butter makes a batter better.
• Remember it is not necessarily the letters but
the letter sounds that are repeated.
Allusion
• A reference in a literary work to a person,
place, or thing in history or another work of
literature.
• Allusions are often indirect or brief references
to a well-known character or event.
• “Hey! Guess who the new Newton of our
school is?”
• “Newton”, means a genius student, alludes
to a famous scientist Isaac Newton.
Antagonist
• A character in a story or poem who deceives,
frustrates, or works against the main character
in some way.
• Doesn’t necessarily have to be a person could
be (Evil, death, etc.)
• Just prevents the main character from having
a “Happily Ever After”
• In the Batman series, Batman and Robbin are
the “good guys” saving the world
• The antagonist could be a character like Joker
Ballad
• A narrative folk song.
• Ballads were created by common people and
passed on orally due to the illiteracy of the
Middle Ages.
• A traditional story that is passed down in
simple language for others to understand
• The three little pigs could be an example
Character
• A person who is responsible for the thoughts
and actions within a story, poem, or other
literature.
• They serve as the medium that readers
interact with throughout the piece of
literature
• Characters are the main things people
remember about a story
Connotation
• An association that comes along with a
particular word
• Connotation relates to the ideas or qualities
that are implied by the word
• Example: Gold
• Connotations for gold could be greed or luxury
• NOT necessarily what gold means
Couplet
• A style of poetry defined as a complete
thought written in two lines with rhyming
ends
• Couplet means two
• So long as men can breathe or eyes can see
• So long as lives this, and this gives life to thee
Denotation
• The exact meaning of a word, without the
feelings or suggestions that the word may
imply.
• The opposite of “connotation”
• Denotation is the Dictionary definition of the
words meaning
• Heart: an organ that circulates blood
throughout the body. (Denotation)
• In context, people associate the word heart
with love or heartache. (Connotation)
Dialogue
• The conversation between characters in a
drama or narrative
• Often remembered as character conversations
Elegy
• A type of literature defined as a song or poem,
written in couplets that expresses sorrow
usually for someone who has died
• Often remembered as a “Eulogy”-spoken at a
wake service for someone who has passed on
Figurative Language
• A type of language that varies from the norms
of literal language, in which words mean
exactly as they say.
• Most common types: Similes and Metaphorsdiscussed later
Flashback
• An interruption of the chronological sequence
of an event of earlier occurrence
• Allows the writer to present past events
during current events in order to provide
background for the current narration
• Flashbacks can occur throughout the story or
sometimes given at the end to wrap the story
up and make sure the reader doesn’t miss the
meaning of the story
Genre
• A type of literature
• Each story relates to a particular genre based
on its characteristics
• Many types of genres
• Example:
• The gothic genre often features things such as
supernatural elements and attempts to horrify
the reader
• Historical fiction, mystery, fantasy, folktale,
poetry, non-fiction, autobiography, biography,
realistic fiction, and science fiction
Hyperbole
• An extravagant exaggeration.
• A figure of speech that is a major exaggerated
description of a statement
• Used to emphasize descriptions
Irony
• A literary term referring to how a person,
situation, statement, or circumstance is not as
it would actually seem.
• Usually it is the EXACT opposite of what it
appears to be
• I posted a video on YouTube about how
boring and useless YouTube is.
• The name of Britain’s biggest dog was “Tiny”.
• You laugh at a person who slipped stepping
on a banana peel and the next thing you
know, you slipped too.
• The butter is as soft as a marble piece.
• “Oh great! Now you have broken my new
camera.”
Lyric
• A lyric is a song-like poem written mainly to
express feelings of emotions or thought from
a particular person
• Generally these are short expressing vivid
imagination as well as emotion and all flow
fairly concisely
• Often times, you can think about music as
music consists of lyrics written about a certain
topic
Metaphor
• A type of figurative language in which a
statement is made that says that one thing is
something else but, literally it is not.
• A comparison NOT using like or as
1.My brother was boiling mad. (This implies he
was too angry.)
2.The assignment was a breeze. (This implies
that the assignment was not difficult.)
3.It is going to be clear skies from now on. (This
implies that clear skies are not a threat and life
is going to be without hardships)
4.The skies of his future began to darken.
(Darkness is a threat; therefore, this implies
that the coming times are going to be hard for
him.)
5.Her voice is music to his ears. (This implies
that her voice makes him feel happy)
Motif
• A recurring object, concept, or structure in a
work of literature
• Can be two contrasting elements in a work,
such as good and evil
• Allows one to see main points and themes
that the author is trying to express, in order
that one might be able to interpret the work
more accurately
Myth
• Any story that attempts to explain how the
world was created or why the world is the way
that it is
• Myths are stories that are passed down from
generation to generation and normally involve
religion
Narrative
• A collection of events that tells a story, which
may be true or not, placed in a particular
order and recounted through either telling or
writing
Narrator
• One who tells a story, the speaker or “voice” of
an oral or written work
• Narrator is not usually the same person as the
author
• One of these types of narrators:
– Participant-protagonist or participant in any action in
the story
– Observer- someone who is indirectly involved in the
action of the story
– Non participant- one who is not at all involved in any
action in the story
Parable
• A brief and often simple narrative that
illustrates a moral or religious lesson
Persona
• The persona is the narrator, or storyteller, of a
literary work created by the author
• The persona is not the author, but the
author’s creation-the voice through which the
author speaks
Personification
• A figure of speech where animals, ideas or
inorganic objects are given human
characteristics
• Example: animals being able to talk/walk
Point of View
• A way of the events of a story are conveyed to the reader.
•
First Person-narrator is a character in the book
•
Third Person Objective-narrator is outside of the story and
can only report what he or she sees or hears
•
Third Person Limited-narrator is outside of the story but
can see into the mind of the characters
•
Third Person Omniscient-omniscient means “ALL
knowing” so this is when the narrator is outside of the
story but can see into ALL aspects of the story
Protagonist
• Considered to be the main character or lead
figure in a story
• Can also be referred to as the “hero” of the
story
• Would be Batman in referring back to that
example
Rhyme
• Repetition of and identical or similarly
accented sound or sounds in a work
• Can be words that rhyme at the end of lines or
words that rhyme within the line
Setting
• The time, place, physical details, and
circumstances in which a situation occurs
• Includes the background, atmosphere or
environment in which the characters live in
Simile
• A simile is a type of figurative language that
does not mean exactly what it says, that
makes a comparison between two unlike
objects or ideas by connecting them with the
words “like” or “as”
•
•
•
•
•
Our soldiers are as brave as lions.
Her cheeks are red like a rose.
He is as funny as a monkey.
The water well was as dry as a bone.
He is as cunning as a fox.
Short Story
• A prose narrative that is brief in nature
• Also has many of the same characteristics of a
novel including characters, setting, and plot
• Sometimes the explanation of ideas is not as
well-written as it should be due to the length
of the story
Symbol
• A symbol is a word or object that stands for
another word or object
• The object can be seen with the eye or not
visible
• Example: A dove stands for peace
Symbolism
• The use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities
by giving them symbolic meanings that are
different from their literal sense
• Black is a symbol that represents evil or
death.
• A ladder may stand as a symbol for a
connection between the heaven and the
earth.
• A broken mirror may symbolize separation
Theme
• A common thread or repeated idea that is
incorporated throughout a literary work
• A thought or idea the author presents to the
reader that may be deep, difficult to
understand, or even moralistic
Imagery
• Means to use figurative language to represent
objects, actions, and ideas in such a way that
appeals to our physical sense
• It was dark and dim in the forest. – The words
“dark” and “dim” are visual images.
• The children were screaming and shouting in the
fields. - “Screaming” and “shouting” appeal to
our sense of hearing or auditory sense.
Non-Fiction
• All of the information is based on true facts
and is not made up