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| repition of similar sounds, usually consonants, at the beginning of words. ex. "Sweet scented stuff" |
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| A reference within a literary work to a historical, literary, or biblical character, place or event. From Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice: "Come, come, Nerissa; for I long to see quick Cupid's post that comes so mannerly." |
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| The repetition of vowel sounds in a sequence of nearby words. "The monster spoke in low mellow tone" has assonance in its repetition of the "O" sound. |
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| A description or characterization that exaggerates or distors a charater's prominent features, usualy for pouposes of mockery. A cartoon of President Obama with big ears. |
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| A familiar expression that has been used ad reused so many times that it's lost its expressive power. Ex. "Happy as a clam." or "eyes like a hawk." |
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| Sudden, pwerful, and often spiritual or life changing realization that a character exepriences in an otherwise ordinary moment. |
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| An author's deliverate use of hints or suggewtions to give a preview of eents or themes that do not develop until later in the narrative. Images such as a storm rewing or a crow landing on a fencepost foreshadow ominous developments. |
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| Excessive overstatement or exaggeration of fact. Ex. "I could eat a million of them." |
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| Common exrepssion that has acquired a meaning that differes from its literal meaning, such as "Its raining cats and dogs." or "That one cost me an arm and a leg." |
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| Language that brings to mind sensory impressions. Ex. Odysssey, "Rosy fingered dawn." |
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| Uaually empahsizes the contrast between the way things are expected to e and the way they actually are. Ex. Mideval people believed that bathing would harm them when in fact not bathing led to the unsanitary conditions that caused the bubonic plague. |
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| Comparison of one thing to another that doews not use the terms like or as. Metaphors use a form of the verb to be to establish a comparison. Ex. Shakespeare's Macbeth: "Life is but a walking shadow." |
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| recurring structure contrast, idea, or other device that deveops a literary work's major ideas. Ex. Urban decay is a motif in the novel 1984. |
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| Use of words such as pop or hiss where the spoken wound resembles the actual sound. "Ex. "The whoosh of the waves at eh seashore" |
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| Association of two terms that seem to contradict each other. Ex. wise fool, jumbo shrimp, |
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| Statement tha6t seems contradictory on the surface but often expresses a deeper truth. Ex. Oscar Wilde, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, "All men destroy the things they love." |
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| Use of human characteristics to describe animals, things, or ideas. Ex. "babbling brook" |
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| Play on words that uses the similarity in sound between two words with distinctly different meanings. Ex. Oscar Wilde's paly, "The Importance of Being Earnest" pun cause earnest =serious and = name of character. |
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| Question asked not to elicit an actual response but to make an impact or call attention to something. Ex. "Will the world ever see the end of war?" |
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| Verbal tone in which its obious from context that the speaker means the opposite of what he says. Ex. "Mom, I's love to see "Howard the duck" with you. |
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| Comparison of two things that uses the words like or as. Ex. "Love is like a fire." |
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| Object, character, figure, place or color used to represent an abstract idea or concept. Ex. Robert Frost's poem, "The Road Not Taken" two roads symbolize the choice between two paths in life. |
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| Fundamental and universal idea explored in a literary work. Ex. Struggle to achieve the American Dream is common in 20th Century American Lit. |
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| Central argument that an author tries to make in a literary work. Ex. "Cather in the Rye" thesis: Society forces people to be phoney. |
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| Author's or narrator's attitude toward the story or the subject. Ex. tone of Declaration of Independence is determined and confident. |
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