8th Grade Literary Devices

Cantrell’s English Class

Tidwell Middle School

Alliteration

• The repetition of initial consonant sounds

Allusion

• A reference to a literary, mythological, or historical person, place, or thing.

Anadiplosis

• The repetition of a word or clause at the end of one sentence is repeated at the beginning of the next successive sentence.

Anaphora

• The repetition of a word or clause at the beginning of successive sentences.

Antagonist

• The character opposing the protagonist; can be a person, idea, or force.

Antithesis

• Using opposite phrases in close conjunction – especially within a sentence.

Apostrophe

• The act of addressing something – idea or personification of an idea that is not physically present.

Archetype

• A type of character, action, or situation that occurs over and over in literature; a pattern or example that occurs in literature and life.

Assonance

• Repetition of vowel sounds but not consonant sounds

Character vs. Character

• When a character has a problem with another character

Character vs. Fate

• Character vs. Fate

• When a character has a problem with something he can’t do anything about, such as God, luck, death, etc.

Character vs. Nature

• When a character has a problem with a force of nature, such as cold, storms, earthquakes, etc.

Character vs. Self

• When a character must make a decision about a problem or struggle he is having within himself.

Character vs. Society

• When a character has a problem with a tradition or rule of society.

Characterization

• The methods used by an author to create a character, including:

• The character’s physical appearance• The characters own speech, thoughts,

actions, and or feelings• Other characters’ feelings, actions,

thoughts, or speech toward the character• Direct comments by the author about the

character

Climax

• The most critical moment in the story; the point at which the main conflict is at its highest; that is, the point of no return.

Conflict

• A struggle between two opposing forces

Connotation

• The emotions or associations a word normally arouses in people using, hearing, or reading the word. The feeling may be positive, negative, or neutral.

Consonance

• The repetition of consonant sounds, but not vowel sounds.

Denotation

• The specific dictionary definition of a word.

Detail

• Facts revealed by the author or speaker that support the attitude or tone in the work.

Device

• Any literary technique used to achieve a specific effect.

Dialect

• The language of a particular district, class, or group of persons. It encompasses the sounds, spelling, grammar and diction used by a specific group of people as different from other people either geographically or socially.

Diction

• Word choice. An author chooses words to create a specific effect. It is the appropriateness of the words with regard to the emotions and or ideas associated with them.

Dynamic Character

• A character that undergoes a change in actions or beliefs during the course of a story.

Epanalepsis

• The repetition of a word or clause at the beginning and end of the same sentence.

Epiphany

• An event in which the essential nature of something, a person, a situation, an object, is suddenly realized in a new way; a sudden realization; an “a-ha” moment.

Epistrophe

• The repetition of a word of clause at the end of successive sentences.

Euphemism

• The substitution of an agreeable expression to replace one that is offensive.

Exposition

• The author lays the groundwork for the story by revealing the:

• -Setting

• -Relationships between the characters

• -Situation as it exists before the conflict begins

Falling Action

• Events that occur after the climax and lead up to closure and conclusion of the story.

Figures of Speech

• Words or phrases that describe one thing in terms of something else. They always involve some sort of imaginary comparison between seemingly unlike things; not meant to be taken literally.

Flashback

• An action that interrupts the plot to show an event that occurred at an earlier time which is necessary to better understanding.

Foreshadowing

• The use in a literary work of clues that suggest events that have yet to occur.

Hyperbole

• A deliberate, extravagant and often outrageous exaggeration; may be used for either serious or comic effect.

Iamb

• A combination of one unstressed, and one stressed syllable in the following pattern [ U / ]

Idiom

• An accepted phrase or expression having a meaning different from the literal.

Imagery

• The words or phrases a writer uses to represent persons, objects, actions, feelings and ideas descriptively by appealing to the five senses (sight, sounds, smell, taste, and touch).

Inciting Incident

• Interrupts the peace and balance of the situation and one or more of the characters come into conflict with an outside force, himself, or another character.

Irony

• A contrast between appearance and reality. It is usually one in which reality is the opposite from what it seems; when one thing is expected to happen or be, and the exact opposite occurs.

Magic 3

• Three (or more) details in a series used for emphasis or to create a specific effect.

Metaphor

• A comparison of two unlike things WITHOUT the use of LIKE or AS.

Meter

• Measure of rhythm in a poem.

Mood

• The feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage.

Motif

• A recurrent element in a literary work. A pattern or strand of imagery or symbolism within a work of literature.

Motivation

• A reason that explains a character’s thoughts, feelings, actions, or behavior.

Onomatopoeia

• A word that imitates the sound it represents.

Oxymoron

• A form of paradox that combines a pair of opposite terms into a single unusual expression.

Paradox

• When elements of a statement contradict each other; may appear illogical, impossible, or absurd, but turns out to reveal a hidden truth.

Personification

• Writing that gives nonhuman subjects human characteristics.

Point of View

• The perspective from which a story is told.

• 1st Person – use of pronoun ‘I,’ ‘me,’ ‘we,’ ‘us,’ ‘my’

• Third Person Limited- told from the perspective of one character only.

• Third Person Omniscient – told from the perspective of more than one character.

Protagonist

• The central character and focus of interest that tries to accomplish or overcome an adversity, and has the ability to adapt to new circumstances.

Pun

• A play on words that are identical or similar in sound but have sharply different meanings. Puns can have serious as well as humorous uses.

Refrain

• A stanza or line that is repeated within a poem.

Repetition

• A device in which words, sounds, and or ideas are used more than once to enhance rhythm and to create emphasis.

Resolution

• The problem set up in the inciting incident is unraveled; there is a revelation of meaning.

Rhyme

• A pattern of words that contain similar sounds.

Rhythm

• The movement with uniform occurrence of a beat or accent.

Rising Action

• The action and events that take place in the story and build up to the critical moment when the main conflict is confronted.

Setting

• The time and place of a literary work.

Simile

• A comparison of two different things or ideas through the use of the words LIKE or AS OR THAN.

Stanza

• A paragraph in a poem.

Static Character

• A character that does not grow or change throughout the story.

Suspense

• The quality of a literary work that makes the reader uncertain or tense about the outcome of events.

Symbol

• The use of any object, person, place, or action that both has a meaning in itself and that stands for something larger than itself, such as a quality, attitude, belief, or value.

Theme

• A central message or insight into life revealed through the literary work. A lesson about life or people.

Tone

• The writer’s attitude toward his or her subject. It can often be described by a single adjective.

Trochee

• A combination of one stressed, and one unstressed syllable in the following pattern [ / U]