AP Lit Vocab F-J

Fable

Examples:

- The Tortoise and the Hare

- The Ant and the Grasshopper

- Animal Farm (Not short but counts)

Farce

Examples:

- The Importance of Being Earnest (Mistaken identity reaches a peak of nonsense when a baby is accidentally misplaced inside a hand luggage handbag at Victoria Station.)
- Tartuffe (Over-the-top moral hypocrisy, hidden eavesdroppers under tables, and chaotic household revelations.)

Figurative Language

Examples:

- Metaphor
- Simile
- Personification
- Hyberbole

Flashback

Examples:

- Nick Carraway reflects on advice his father gave him and later recounts Jay Gatsby’s history with Daisy Buchanan. (Great Gatsby)
- When Johnny carries a knife, a flashback reveals a past instance where he was severely beaten up by a rival group. (The Outsiders)
- The story opens with the adult narrator sitting in a parlor, and the sound of a grindstone triggers a memory of his disabled younger brother, Doodle. (The Scarlet Ibis)

Foil

Examples:

- Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy
- Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
- George and Lennie

Foreshadowing

Examples:

- As Romeo leaves Juliet’s house, Juliet says he looks "as one dead in the bottom of a tomb". (Romeo & Juliet)
- Carlson shoots Candy’s old, suffering dog out of mercy, and Candy later regrets not doing it himself. (Mice & Men)
- A soothsayer warns Julius Caesar to "Beware the Ides of March".(Julius Caeser)

Free Verse

Example:

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Hyperbole

Examples:

- “If I told you once, I’ve told you a million times….”
- “I'll love you, dear, I'll love you till China and Africa meet, And the river jumps over the mountain, and the salmon sing in the street”
- "I had to wait in the station for ten days– an eternity."

Hypotactic (Hypotaxis)

Examples:

- John Keats (Ode to a Nightingale): Expands the noun phrase "draught of vintage" using dependent relative clauses starting with "that".
- Tintern Abbey): Employs nested "In which" and "Until" clauses to layer descriptions before delivering the main predicate.

Imagery

- Sight (“cold, windy street”)
- Sound (cracking and roaring ice)
- Touch (cold as a stone)
- Smell (rich barnyard aromas)
- Taste (taste of chocolates described)
- Motion (illustration of leaping into a room)

Inversion

Examples:

- “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
- “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.”
- “Into the darkness they flew, their hearts beating fast with fear.”

Irony

- Verbal (Calling a violent, freezing thunderstorm "lovely weather for a picnic.")
- Situational (A fire department goes on fire)
- Dramatic (audience knows that Juliet has taken a sleeping potion and is only temporarily faking her death. Romeo, unaware of this, believes she is truly dead and takes his own life)

Juxtaposition

Examples:

- “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness..”
- Romeo describes Juliet as the sun while she is surrounded by the darkness of night.
- Victor Frankenstein describes the creature's flowing black hair and pearly white teeth against the horror of his watery, dull eyes and shriveled complexion