Literary devices

As promised I will continue up by telling the reader some of the most important literary devices that can be found in almost every novel. To understand literary devices is crucial because many times we don`t understand anything when reading a text and that ocurred just because we don`t know how the author is playing with language and therefore we can`t understand his ideas.





Allusion: an implicit, brief reference to a famous character or a historical moment.

Hyperbole: exaggeration of something. Ex: "I'm so hungry that I'd eat an entire cow".
Metaphor: an implicit comparison between two (very) different things.
Onomatopoeia: use of words that imitate sounds. Ex: "hiss".
Personification: human attributes are given to an object.
Simile: direct comparison between two things, using the words "as" or "like".
Understatement/litote: says less than intended. Opposite from hyperbole.
Oxymoron: a figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect. Ex: “cruel kindness”.
Irony: the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning.
Pun - A word is used which has two meanings at the same time, which results in humor.
Analogy - the comparison of two pairs which have the same relationship.

Important words: You must know what do they mean!

Plot: sequence of event of a story, that include characters and a conflict.
Climax: the moment with more intensity in the plot.
Setting: time and place of the story's action.
Tone: the author's attitude towards the story and the reader.
Mood: general atmosphere created by the author's words. Feeling that the reader gets.
Theme: an insight of human life that is revealed in a literary work. What is the text about.
Thesis: the organizing thought of an entire essay or piece of writing and which contains a subject and an opinion
Soliloquy: a long speech made by a character who is alone in the stage, revealing his thoughts and emotions.
Connotation: associations and implications that go beyond the written-literal words.
Denotation: dictionary definition of a word.
Symbol: something that means more than its literal interpretation.
Flashback: scene in which the character(s) go to the past, to tell us more about the context of the plot.
Foreshadowing: hints and clues that the story gives us to create an idea of what will happen.
Gothic: use of mysterious elements in literature. Dark and gloomy settings.
Hero: character whose actions are inspiring or noble.
Stanza: a group of lines in a poem, that should be a unit.
Narrative poem: tells a story in verse.
Lyric poem: a melodic poem which describes an object or emotion.