Figures of speech powerpoint

Literary Devices, Techniques and Figures of Speech

Reading passages (both long and short) include questions about the authors’ use of literary

techniques and figures of speech—tools authors use to convey meaning or to lend depth and

richness to their writing.

The following list contains 25 common literary techniques and figures of speech. The most useful

ones have been underlined:

Alliteration: The repetition of similar sounds, usually consonants, at the beginning of words. For

example, Robert Frost’s poem “Out, out—” contains the alliterative phrase “sweet-scented stuff.”

Allusion: A reference within a literary work to a

historical, literary, or biblical character, place, or

event. For example, the title of William Faulkner’s

novel The Sound and the Fury alludes to a line

from Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds in a sequence of nearby words. For example, the line

“The monster spoke in a low mellow tone” (from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem “The Lotos-

Eaters”) contains assonance in its repetition of the “o” sound.

Caricature: A description or characterization that exaggerates or distorts a character’s prominent

features, usually for purposes of mockery. For example, a cartoon of a gaunt Abraham Lincoln

with a giant top hat, a very scraggly beard, and sunken eyes could be considered a caricature.

Cliché: An expression, such as “turn over a new leaf,” that has been used and reused so many

times that it has lost its expressive power.

Epiphany [ih-pif-uh-nee]: A sudden, powerful, and often spiritual or life changing realization that a

character experiences in an otherwise ordinary moment. For example, the main character in

James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man has an

epiphany during a walk by the sea.

Foreshadowing: An author’s deliberate use of hints or suggestions to

give a preview of events or themes that do not develop until later in

the narrative. Images such as a storm brewing or a crow landing on a

fence post often foreshadow ominous developments in a story.

Hyperbole [hi-pur-buh-lee]: An excessive overstatement or conscious exaggeration of fact. “I’ve

told you that a million times already” is a hyperbolic statement.

Idiom: A common expression that has acquired a meaning that differs from its literal meaning,

such as “It’s raining cats and dogs” or “That cost me an arm and a leg.”

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Imagery: Language that brings to mind sensory impressions. For example, in the Odyssey, Homer

creates a powerful image with his description of “rosy-fingered dawn.”

Irony: Broadly speaking, irony is a device that emphasizes the contrast between the way things are

expected to be and the way they actually are. A historical example of irony might be the fact that

people in medieval Europe believed bathing would harm them when in fact not bathing led to the

unsanitary conditions that caused the bubonic plague.

Metaphor: The comparison of one thing to another

that does not use the terms “like” or “as.” A

metaphor from Shakespeare’s Macbeth: “Life is but

a walking shadow.”

Simile [sim-uh-lee]: A comparison of two things

through the use of the words like or as. The title of

Robert Burns’s poem “My Love Is Like a Red, Red

Rose” is a simile.

Motif: A recurring structure, contrast, or other device that develops a literary work’s major

themes (see below). For example, shadows and darkness are a motif in Charles Dickens’s A Tale of

Two Cities, a novel that contains many gloomy scenes and settings.

Onomatopoeia: The use of words like pop, hiss, or boing, in which the

spoken sound resembles the actual sound.

Oxymoron: The association of two terms that seem to contradict each

other, such as “same difference” or “wise fool.”

Paradox: A statement that seems contradictory on the surface but

often expresses a deeper truth. One example is the line “All men