Master List of Literary Devices for HCA English
Alliteration: The repetition of initial identical consonant sounds or any vowel sound in successive or closely associated syllables”
The repetition of the “st “sounds in lines 3 and 4 of the following poem.
They were women then
My mama’s generation
Husky of voice – Stout of Step
Example: “The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, the furrow followed free.”
–Coleridge
e.g. “There were princes and princesses, fairies and frogs.
Conflict: The stuggle that grows out of the interplay of two opposing forces … provides interest, suspense and tension.
* Person vs. person
* Person vs. nature
* Person vs. fate
* Person vs. society
* Person vs. self
* Person vs. Scripture
* Person vs. Technology (Machine)
Figure of Speech: The various uses of language that depart from customary construction, ordger of significance.
* Simile: A figure in which a similarity between two objects is directly expressed … using “as” or “like” or even such a word as “compare,” “liken,” or “resemble.”
* Metaphor: An analogy identifying one object with another and ascribing to the first object one or more attributes of the second.
Characterization: The development of a fictitious character through a character’s actions, words, thoughts and feelings, appearance, another character’s words or thoughts about the character, and the author’s opinion of the character.
* Flat: A character constructed around a single idea or quality; a stereotypical
character
* Round: A character sufficiently complex to be able to surprise the reader
without losing credibility; a realistic character.
* Static: A character that most likely does not change during the story.
* Dynamic: A character who develops or changes as a result of the action of
the plot.
Allusion: A figure of speech that makes brief reference to a historical or literary event, or object.
Personification: A figure that endows animals, ideas, abstractions, and inanimate objects with human form.
Negative Turn: A turn for the worse (bad) in the story line of the protagonist.
Positive Turn: A turn for the best (good) in the story line of the protagonist.
