lit terms examples (ongoing)

Animal farm- communism

Allegory

To my dog, our neighborhood park is the Garden of Eden

Allusion

I analyzed video game dialogue. I analyzed magazine articles. I analyzed the fluffy genre fiction I read on the beach

Anaphora

I’m fixin’ to go to the park

Colloquialism

The Beast- Beauty and the Beast

Dynamic Character

You know, when I was a kid, my dog was my best friend. My childhood was better because of him.

Anecdote

You can lead a horse to water, but you cant make it drink

Aphorism

Animal farm- communism

Asyndenton

To my dog, our neighborhood park is the Garden of Eden

Conceit

He asked for her hand in marriage

Synecdoche

Better late than never

Cliche

Why rove my thoughts beyond this last retreat?
Why feels my heart its long-forgotten heat?

Couplet

We will swear loyalty to the crown

Metonymy

I can’t believe I was robbed. Everything is gone. My television and electronics are gone. The money I left on my nightstand is gone. Never in my wildest dreams would I expect this to happen to me.

Epistrophe

He's going to the store

Apostrophe

Harry Potter, Catcher in the Rye

Bildungsroman

We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother’s countenance
Could not unfrown itself

Cadence

Civic, Kayak, Radar

Palindrome

Romeo and Juliet killing themselves

Denouement

break, brake

right, write

see, sea

Homophone

I'm reading a book about anti-gravity. I can't put it down

Pun

If there be cords, or knives, Poison, or fire, or suffocating streams, I'll not endure it

Polysyndeton

Too cool for school

Assonance

Ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country

Anastrophe

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene

Caesura

Batman / Walter White

Antihero

Edna & Adele / Woody & Buzz

Foil

Night & Day / War & Peace

Juxtaposition

Just as a Sword is the Weapon of a Warrior, a Pen is the Weapon of a Writer.

Analogy

Beowulf / The Odessy

Epic

It's hard to take your claims seriously because you spend your days playing video games

Ad hominem

Spaceballs / Star Wars

Farce

a modern-day couple pulling up to a dinner party in downtown Manhattan on a horse-drawn chariot

Anachronism

Textbooks and “do it yourself” (DIY) tutorials on YouTube or “how-to” books

Didactic

When the going gets tough, the tough get going

Chiasmus

The gentle breeze whispered secrets through the trees

euphony

The serum oozed and slopped out of the drain

cacophony

winnie the pooh, animal farm

anthropomorphism

i’m feeling under the weather

euphemism

harry potter and voldermort, twins

doppelganger

Ethos

If my years as a Marine taught me anything, it's that caution is the best policy in this sort of situation

Logos

teen pregnancy has decreased in the last five years

Pathos

A bag of chips can bring the whole family together

Mood

Describing an abode as an “abandoned, creaking shack”

Motif

Hamlet- spying secrecy