American Literature Final Exam Review Flashcards

Flashcards covering literary terms, movements, and devices from the American Literature review notes.

Simile

A figure of speech that compares two different things using the words 'like' or 'as'.

Metaphor

A figure of speech that compares two unlike things by saying one thing is another.

Personification

A device where human qualities, characteristics, or actions are attributed to non-human entities.

Apostrophe

When a speaker directly addresses someone/something that is not present or cannot respond in reality.

Theme

A central idea, message, or underlying meaning explored within a story or work.

Foreshadowing

When an author hints at or alludes to events that will happen later in the story.

Romanticism

A movement that took place in the late 18th and early 19th century that emphasized emotions, imagination, and individuality; uses the five I's: Individualism, Idealism, imagination, intuition, inspiration.

Transcendentalism

A philosophical and literary movement that emerged in the 19th century, emphasized intuition, individualism, and the inherent goodness of both humanity and nature.

Expressionism

A style where writers aim to convey emotions and inner experiences rather than simply depicting the external world as it is.

Aphorism

A saying (often humorous) that concisely expresses a moral observation about the world in the form of a general/universal truth.

Allusion

An indirect reference to a person, place, event, or literary work.

Frame Tale

A storytelling technique where a main story is used to enclose or frame one or more other stories; a story within a story.

Rhetorical Question

When a speaker utilizes a question for a reason other than to get an answer -- usually to make a persuasive point by challenging the listener, raising doubt, and emphasizing key ideals.

Anaphora

Deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or lines of poetry.

Mood

Overall feeling or atmosphere evoked in the reader.

Tone

Author’s attitude or perspective towards the subject matter, expressed through word choice, style and voice.

Imagery

Descriptive language that appeals to the senses to create mental images or pictures in the reader's mind.

Motif

A recurring element, symbol, image, or idea that is repeated throughout a narrative to reinforce a theme or develop a specific idea.

Irony

Creates a contrast between what is said and what is meant, or between what is expected and what happens.

Hyperbole

Uses exaggeration for emphasis or effect, used to create a strong impression or to make a statement sound more dramatic or humorous.

Hope is the thing with feathers

• Emily Dickinson 

• uses bird to show that hope isn’t definable, but instead a feeling, it is internal and something we carry within ourselves

• hope is selfless and doesn’t ask for anything in return, it is something that everyone has 

• it is resilient and enduring, it doesn’t go away during hard times

• Intuition- feelings

• Idealism-looking towards hope

• Inspiration- hope through nature

To a waterfowl

• Bryant 

• Speaker learns that there is a force that guides everything (God) on their own journey

• inspiration-faith

• never alone because of God

• God can get you where you need to go even when it seems unsafe 

• the long and unsafe flight of the bird represent the journey through life

Wild geese

• Mary Oliver

• nature offers a place and sense of belonging for people even during bad times

• let go of what people want you to do and start doing what you want

• nature also gives freedom to people

• the world will always exist and have a place for you in it 

• encourages people to find their place in the world through nature

• geese=freedom

ralph Waldo Emerson

main ideas of his writing

• self reliance

• value of innocence

• anti-society

• nonconformity

• inconsistency

• importance of nature

Nature

• importance and appreciation of nature

• seeing nature and valuing it as

• in nature you return to faith and reason 

• when you are open to nature you learn things, but you don’t want to learn everything about nature because then it becomes less special

• nobody can ever truly own nature

• children see nature better than adults because they actually see it and have wonder about it 

• to enjoy it as an adult your inward and outward sense have to be in tune and you have to retain the spirit of infancy

Self Reliance

• accept where God has put you and flourish there

• society wants people to conform→self reliance is the opposite of 

• don’t blindly follow others and what they say

• don’t lose curiosity as you grow older

• don’t conform- that’s what society wants you to do

• don’t lose your curiosity to be something in the world as you grow older

• “To be great is to be misunderstood”

Civil Disobedience

• Henry David Thoreau

• you don’t have to work to completely eradicating a problem but you can do your part in getting rid of it by not supporting it or other people that do

• our job isn’t to fight against every injustice we see but we shouldn’t be part of that problem

• chase your goals and dreams but don’t use others

• we’re told to follow rules/ laws for the good of the country but it makes us tolerant of bad things

“What to the slave is the fourth of July”

• Frederick Douglas- an american abolitionist, social reformer and writer

• utilizes rhetorical questions

• America is young so there is still time for change and for it to become what people hope

• African American people are not included in this national holiday because they are not free-this holiday only highlights the difference between them 

• reveals the injustice that happens every day