Literary Devices

Feelings evoked by a literary work

“She looked like a withered tree in a field of wheat.”

“Shadows around me roused themselves as if from a deep sleep.”

“As for my mother, she was walking, her face a mask without word, deep in thought”

Recollection of an experience or action that helps the action of the plot.

When the reader or audience know something the characters do not know.

The character that the action revolves around.

A literary device in which a writer gives a hint of what is to come later in the story.

"The Soviet leader was smoking a cigarette, while humming a tune from Madame Butterfly ."

a literary work whose use of symbols can be interpreted to reveal a hidden overall meaning

A recurrent image, idea or a symbol that develops or explains a theme

"...A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed longer. "

Descriptive language that appeals to the five senses

We were walking slowly, as one follows a hearse.

"My throat was dry and the words were choking me..."

The train's steam hissed as it pulled into the railroad station.

“This conversation lasted no more than a few seconds. It seemed an eternity.”

The fire swallowed the entire forest.

An indirect reference to a person, event, or thing in a literary work

White signs with black skulls looked down and mocked us.

The main or central idea of a literary work.

The attitude a writer has for their subject

"We'd been trying to touch the sky from the bottom of the ocean"

Tears, like drops of wax, flowed from my eyes.

Feelings of uncertainity about the outcome of events.

"From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me."

“The wind of revolt died down.”

Character in opposition to the main character.

The literal or primary meaning of a word.

“My imagination is a three-hundred-ring circus.

Sam said, "There I was. I was face-to-face with the Angel of Death"

Which is not a method of characterization?

An idea or feeling that a word invokes with in-depth meaning.

Using a more in-depth meaning to represent something.

Our very skin was whispering its aching. It was as though madness had infected us all.