Learn: Literary and Rhetorical Devices

Persona

The voice or character a writer adopts on the page (from the Greek for "mask") to serve a specific purpose with their audience. Example: Benjamin Franklin's "Poor Richard's Almanack": Franklin, an urbane intellectual, wrote under the folksy persona of "Poor Richard" to make his practical wisdom feel more trustworthy to an everyday colonial audience.

Metaphor

A figure of speech that describes one thing as if it were another, without using "like" or "as". Example: Shakespeare's As You Like It: "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players" casts life itself as a theatrical performance.

Simile

A figure of speech that compares two unlike things using "like" or "as". Example: In Mrs. Johnson's class, the students sat upright in straight and even rows, like books on a shelf.

Alliteration

The repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of nearby words. Example: Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven": "And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain" repeats the soft, hushed "s" sound to build the poem's eerie, whispering atmosphere.

Allusion

A brief, indirect reference to a person, place, event, or work that a writer expects the audience to recognize. Example: calling a weakness someone's "Achilles' heel": This alludes to the Greek myth in which Achilles was invulnerable except for his heel, condensing a whole story into a shorthand for a single fatal flaw.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech that combines two contradictory or opposing terms side by side. Example: John Milton's Paradise Lost: Milton describes the fires of Hell as producing "darkness visible," a two-word oxymoron that captures a hell lit just enough to reveal its own horror.

Paradox

A statement that seems self-contradictory on its surface but reveals a deeper or unexpected truth. Example: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." - Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Juxtaposition

The placement of two contrasting elements, ideas, or images side by side to sharpen their differences. Example: Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird: The innocent, sleepy charm of Maycomb, Alabama is juxtaposed with the town's deep-seated racism and injustice.

Anaphora

The deliberate repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences. Example: This has been a difficult time for the economy, a difficult time for the retail industry, and a difficult time for our clothing stores.

PARALLELISM

The deliberate repetition of the same grammatical structure or pattern across a series of words, phrases, or clauses, used to create rhythm, balance, and emphasis while linking related ideas together.