Literary Devices Quiz

Literary Devices

• Literary devices are specific aspects of literature, used to express ideas through language, enabling recognition, identification, interpretation, and analysis.
• They are the components of the art form, and the author's means of creating meaning.
• They provide a framework for comparing literary works across genres.
• Allegory: A story where every element represents something else, typically a larger abstract concept or historical event.
• Anthropomorphism: Portraying animals or inanimate objects as people, e.g., walking, talking, having human form.
• Dramatic irony: When the audience or reader knows something crucial that the characters in the story do not.
• Figurative language: Uses language where the intended meaning differs from the literal meaning. Examples are metaphor, simile, hyperbole, personification, onomatopoeia, verbal irony, and oxymoron.
• Idiom: An expression whose meaning can't be understood from the individual meanings of its parts. Example: "kick the bucket," "under the weather."
• Pun: A word or words that sound alike but have different meanings, creating multiple interpretations. Example: "Using that pencil is pointless."
• Foreshadowing: Hints or suggestions of future events in a story. Can be subtle or blatant.
• Hyperbole: An extreme exaggeration used to create emphasis or humor.
• Imagery: Language that engages the senses to create vivid descriptions.

Other Literary Devices

• Personification: Giving human qualities to inanimate objects or abstract concepts.
• Repetition: Repeated words, phrases, or structures to emphasize an idea.
• Simile: A comparison using "like" or "as."
• Metaphor: A comparison that directly equates two unlike things.
• Onomatopoeia: Words that imitate sounds.
• Oxymoron: A combination of contradictory words. Example:"cold fire"
• Paradox: A statement that seems contradictory but may contain a deeper truth.
• Parallelism: Using similar grammatical structures to create balance and rhythm.
• Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds within words.
• Enjambment: Continuation of a sentence beyond the end of a line.
• Rhythm: The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.