Review of Literary Terms

The flowers danced in the gentle breeze.

Author's insight about Life or the Human Condition based on a big idea developed in the text

Struggle between opposing forces.

A class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form, content, or technique.

"I'm not pretty.  I am not beautiful. I am as radiant as the sun." Katniss Everdeen

An interruption to present events to show something that took place at an earlier time

When a nonhuman thing is given human qualities or traits

"A hospital bed is a parked taxi with the meter running" Groucho Marx

Comparison between two unlike things defining one in terms of the other

Something represents something else. It stands for something more than itself.

A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect

"The soul selects her own society." Emily Dickinson

A word that sounds like the word it describes

The repetition of usually initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words

Language that appeals to the senses 

Using comparison words to liken two things that seem to have little or nothing in common

A reference to a statement, person, place or event that is known from literature, history, etc.

One winter it was so cold that all the geese flew backward and all the fish moved south.

Language based on some sort of comparison that is not literally true

Apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction