Topics: Art › Symbolism
Type: Narrative Essays
Sample donated: Dan Chambers
Last updated: April 24, 2019
Simile
Comparing two things using the words like or as (as busy as a bee or school is like a prison)
Metaphor
Comparing two things without using like or as.Often metaphors use forms of to be such as is and are (the sky is a vast ocean or a book is a window to a new world)
Symbolism
Representing one person or object or idea by using something else (a dove could be a symbol of love and a snake might be a symbol of evil)
Allusion
An allusion is a reference in a literary text to something else-to a real or fictitious person,place,event,or thing. Many texts contain allusions to the bible
Allegory
An extended metaphor, where the entire story or poem has a secondary symbolic meaning.
Flashback
In a fictional passage, when a character pauses to remember something that happened prior to the current action
Foreshadowing
A device in which the writer places clues in a story to prepare the for events that are going to happen later
Genre
The category a particular literary work belongs to
Theme
This is what the writer wants to convey about life through the literary work
Motif
A motif is a recurring element or device that expresses a literary work’s theme
Tone
The writers attitude towards the literary work
Mood
Tone and Mood are often confused , but tone is the author writes and mood is the feeling the reader takes away from the piece
Point Of View
The relationship of the narrator or story teller to the story
Setting
Is the time and place in which the events of a literary work occur
Author’s Purpose
An Authors Purpose is the reason an author decides to write about a specific topic
Denotation
The literal meaning of a word
Connotation
The emotional meaning of word
Stereotype
A character who looks and behaves not like an individual but like a typical member of a particular group
Irony
This is when two opposite words or things are compared usually in a humorous way
Satire
The tone writer’s use when they are trying to make fun of what they are trying to write about
Narrative
A spoken or written account of connected events
Personification
The attribution of a human like quality to something non human
Non-Fiction
Prose writing that is based on facts,real events and real people
Biography
An account of someone’s life written by some one else
Auto-Biography
An account of a persons life written by that person
Hyperbole
Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally
Imagery
Visual description of figurative language
Free Verse
Poetry that does not rhyme or has a regular rhythm(meter)
Internal Rhyme
A rhyme involving a word in the middle of a line and another at the end of the line
Alliteration
The occurrence of the same letter or soundat the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
Repetition
The same words repeated over and over again
Plot
The sequence of events in a story
Characters
The people animals or beings in a work
Conflict
The struggle between two or more characters
Dialogue
The exact words that are spoken between two characters(or more)
Style
The choices that a writer makes about words and sentence structure that determine the mood
Archetype
The basic part or model of a wide spread idea
Bandwagon
Tries to persuade the reader to do, think, or buy something because it is popular or everyone is doing it
Testimonial
Attempts to persuade the reader by using a famous person to endorse a product or idea
Snob Appeal
Persuading by making people feel as though they are one of the elite if they are using a particular product or thinking a certain way
Name Calling
A method of propaganda that is an attempt to turn people against and opponent or an idea by using unpleasant labels or descriptions for that person or idea
Emotional Appeal
Tries to persuade the reader by using words that appeal to the reader’s emotions instead of to logic or reason
Plain Folks Appeal
Trying to show that a person or product is good for “ordinary” people because a person is “just like you and understands you”