Literary Devices

just in case

Third-person limited narration

told from 3rd person perspective, focuses only on thoughts/feelings of MC

• Bullet in the Brain, Tobias Wolff

  • Anders

Irony

an instance of language conveying the opposite of its literal meaning

• Bullet in the Brain, Tobias Wolff, Anders’ critical nature and career contrasts with last pure childlike memory

• Passing, Nella Larson, Irene’s admiration for Clare “passing” so well while being jealous of it, Clare leaving her hometown because she hated it but returning because she missed the community

Symbolism

something used to represent a larger concept or idea

• Bullet in the Brain, Tobias Wolff, bullet symbolizes death, baseball game Anders’ lost innocence and passion

• Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig, painting her pink walls white symbolizing new beginnings and maturity, name change symbolic of her quest to find herself

• Moonlight, Barry Jenkins, water being symbolic of rebirth, vulnerability, transformation

Foreshadowing

hinting at future or subsequent events to come to build tension

• Bullet in the Brain, Tobias Wolff, Anders’ murderous temperament foreshadows his murder, story starts with Anders suspended in time waiting in line and ends with him in the same place awaiting death

• Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig, film opening quote about Sacramento being boring at Christmas foreshadowing how Lady Bird feels about the place; Grapes of Wrath Scene where they finish the book then argue foreshadows the complex relationship

Metaphors

a comparison of two ideas, events, objects, or people that does not use “like” or “as”

Allegory

a work that symbolizes or represents an idea or event

• Moonlight, Barry Jenkins, allegory for the challenges of intersectional identity as a young, black, queer man

Allusion

an indirect reference to a person, place, thing, event, or idea

Analogy

a parallel between disparate ideas, people, things, or events that is more elaborate than a metaphor or simile

Anthropomorphism

the interpretation of a nonhuman animal, event, or object as embodying human qualities or characteristics

Diction

the word choice and speaking style of a writer or character

Euphemism

a less provocative or milder term used in place of a more explicit or unpleasant one

• NLMG, Kazuo Ishiguro, “completion” used instead of death

Hyperbole

a statement that is obviously and intentionally exaggerated

• Passing, Nella Larson, exaggerate Irene’s anxiety and the way she describes racial pressure with word choice (suffocated, crushed, etc.)

Juxtaposition

ideas, people, images, or objects placed next to one another to highlight their differences

Paradox

an apparent contradiction that, upon further unraveling, may contain truth, used for effect on the reader

• Moonlight, Barry Jenkins, how Chiron wants to be himself but has to adopt a new persona to survive in his world/life

personification

lending descriptions generally applied to human beings to nonhumans, merely described in these terms NOT thought of as human