AP lit terms #3

monologue

"some nights I lay awake and I go over the things I've said. confidently. the things I've said confidently and they - they fall to pieces."

comic relief

the gravedigger in shakespeares hamlet makes dark, witty puns just before a tragic funeral scene.

personification

the wind whispered through the trees, the sun smiled down on us, the flowers danced in the breeze

bildungsroman

the harry potter series by J.K. rowling: chronicles harry's growth from an 11-year-old boy in a cupboard under the stairs to a mature adult defeating voldemort.

foreshadowing

romeo and juliet by william shakespeare: the prologue directly states that “star-crossed lovers” will take their own lives, telling the audience the ending before the play begins.

flashback

the great gatsby by F. scott fitzgerald: the narrator, nick carraway, begins the novel in the present, then uses a flashback to share the advice his father gave him and details jay gatsby’s past.

metaphor

the exam was a piece of cake, time is a thief, she has a heart of gold

simile

busy as a bee, blind as a bat, light as a feather

soliloquy

romeo and juliet: romeo's balcony speech in Act 2, Scene 2, where he expresses his deep admiration for juliet before she knows he is there.

aside

ferris buellers day off: ferris looks straight into the camera to tell the audience, "life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you may miss it."

hyperbole

this bag weighs a ton, I have a million things to do today, im so hungry I could eat a horse

dystopia

fahrenheit 451 by ray bradbury: a government-backed society outlaws and burns books to suppress independent thought.

frame story

titanic: an elderly rose looks back on her youth and tells the story of her time on the doomed ship.

foil

harry potter and draco malfoy: dracos prejudice and entitlement highlight Harry’s humility and strong moral compass.

interior monologue

did I leave the stove on? I definitely turned it off. wait, did I touch the burner before I left? no, I remember clicking the knob. I have to go back and check anyway.

in medias res

deadpool: drops the viewer straight into a violent highway shootout before jumping back to explain the origin story.

anaphora

martin luther king jr (“I have a dream”) speech: "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up... I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia... I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation..."

allegory

animal farm by george orwell: the novel about farm animals taking over their farm is a political allegory for the russian revolution and the corruption of soviet communism. the pig napoleon represents joseph stalin, and snowball represents leon trotsky

apostrophe

in william shakespeare's Hamlet, the prince holds the skull of his former jester and cries, "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy."

asyndeton

julius ceaser: "I came, I saw, I conquered." (Instead of "I came, and I saw, and I conquered.")

caesura

william shakespeares hamlet: "To be, || or not to be — that is the question"

chiasmus

john f. kennedy: Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate." 

enjambment

“so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow"

epiphany

a christmas carol by charles dickens: ebenezer scrooge is visited by ghosts and experiences a massive realization that his selfish greed is ruining his life, causing him to become a generous man.

epistolary

frankenstein: told mostly through letters from a sea captain recording a stranger's monstrous tale.

alliteration

she sells seashells by the seashore, Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

meiosis

romeo and Juliet: when Mercutio receives a fatal stab wound, he downplays the massive injury by telling Benvolio it is merely "a scratch, a scratch".

metonymy

the crown, the White House, Hollywood

paradox

1984 by george orwell: "War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength."

satire

a modest proposal by jonathan swift: a famous essay that suggests impoverished Irish families sell their children as food to wealthy English landlords to expose British cruelty and indifference toward Ireland.

symbolism

white dove (peace or hope), red rose (romance, passion)

synecdoche

all hands on deck, mouths to feed, suit

tragic flaw

macbeth: his flaw is excessive ambition, which leads him to commit murder to become king and ultimately brings his ruin.