(Keep this handout as part of your notes)
Literary Devices
for study of The Catcher in the Rye
hyperbole: exaggerated statement not meant to be taken literally
example: My kid is going to hit the roof when I tell her she can’t go.
Catcher in Rye Example: “…my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told
anything pretty personal about them” (1).
irony: the effect of language in which the intended meaning is the opposite of what is stated
(i.e. 3 types: verbal, situational and dramatic).
three types of irony:
1. verbal irony:
words that come across opposite to the intended meaning; words that have another meaning
than intended typically for humorous effect; sarcasm.
Ex. When you’re caught in a freezing downpour, and you say, “How delightful.”
2. situational irony: an event that turns out to be the opposite of what is expected; an event
that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result.
examples:. In a story, book, play or movie, we the reader/audience expect the good guy to get
the girl or the good guys to win or the bad guy to get caught, but it doesn’t happen.
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, the servant kills his boss, the sickly old man, and hides
his body parts under the floorboard. The police come to the house upon hearing neighbors’
complaints about a scream coming from the house. The servant’s conscience gets to him and
he reveals that he committed the crime. The servant initially gloats that he got away with
murder, and the reader thinks the servant got away with it too.
In the movie Drag Me to Hell: The girl thinks she’s free from the old woman gypsy’s curse, but
she still has the button from her coat and gets dragged to hell in the end.
3. dramatic (or tragic) irony: a literary technique in which the character’s words or actions are
clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character(s). Audience or reader is in
the know.
examples: The audience knows that Peter Parker is Spiderman or Bruce Wayne is Batman or
Clark Kent is Superman but the characters don’t know that.
In Romeo and Juliet, the reader/audience knows that Juliet is not really dead and that she only
took a temporary sleeping potion to feign death so she could run away with Romeo. Romeo
doesn’t and kills himself to be with his “dead” Juliet.
(Keep this handout as part of your notes)
litotes: ironical understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its
contrary. (i.e., You won’t be sorry, meaning you’ll be glad.)
example: You get into a car accident and are badly hurt, but when asked about your injury you
say, “It was just a scratch.”
metaphor: a comparison for the purpose of emphasis, not using like or as
example: She is a tigress. (what is comparing her to a tigress supposed to emphasize about
her?)
oxymoron: a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear side by side. It is
a compressed paradox.
examples: true lies, forced elective, jumbo shrimp, stupid genius, smart idiot, Biggie
Smalls, slim thick figure
paradox: a self-contradictory statement that when investigated or explained may prove to be
well founded or true
examples: “I’m being cruel to be kind.” -Shakespeare, Hamlet; “Youth is wasted on the
young.” -George Bernard Shaw)
simile: a comparison using like or as
example: Yesterday Ms. Romanski lay on the couch and was like a lump of coal.)