Literary Devices-Definitions

The word choice used by the author.

Giving inanimate objects human characteristics.

The attitude or feeling of the author.

The feeling a reader gets when reading a story.

The use of detail and description to evoke the five senses.

The enemy of the main character; the person or idea that causes the conflict.

The development of a character throughout the story.

The time and environment where the story takes place.

Placing opposing ideas side by side to highlight one another.

The central problem in a story.

A dominating or unifying idea expressed throughout a work of literature.

A phrase of contrasting ideas that contain a central truth.

An extreme exaggeration.

The main character.

The fictional "I" assumed by the narrator.

A comical play on words.

A reference to a famous person, idea, or work of literature.

When the audience knows something that a character does not.

To hint or indicate beforehand.

When something happens that is opposite of what we would expect to happen.

Comparing two objects or ideas to suggest similarities.

Using sarcasm to expose human flaws or mistakes.

When an event taking place before the present time is inserted into the story.

When an object or ideas represents more than its literal meaning.

The solution to the conflict.

A phrase of two contradictory words.

Comparing two objects or ideas using "like" or "as".

The position of the narrator in relation to the story (i.e. 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person).

The interruption of a serious work by a brief comical episode.

The sentence structure used by the author.