Literary Devices

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

Feelings evoked by a literary work

The literal or primary meaning of a word.

We were walking slowly, as one follows a hearse.

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

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

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

Feelings of uncertainity about the outcome of events.

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

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

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

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

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

Which is not a method of characterization?

The main or central idea of a literary work.

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

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

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

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

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

The character that the action revolves around.

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

The attitude a writer has for their subject

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

“The wind of revolt died down.”

Using a more in-depth meaning to represent something.

White signs with black skulls looked down and mocked us.

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

The fire swallowed the entire forest.

Descriptive language that appeals to the five senses

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

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

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

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

Character in opposition to the main character.