SIMILE

“Because the way you grow old

is kind of like an onion or like
the rings inside a tree trunk or
like my little wooden dolls that
fit one inside the other, each
year inside the next one. That's
how being eleven years old is.”

“Eleven”
Sandra Cisneros

A simile is a comparison between two unlike

things, using like, as, than, or of in
the comparison.
 IRONY
“Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.”

“The Rime of the

Ancient Mariner”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Irony occurs when a situation or results are the

opposite of what was anticipated.
 IRONY
“Now, as Stanley lay on his cot, he
thought it was kind of funny in a
way. Nobody had believed him
when he said he was innocent. Now,
when he said he stole them, nobody
believed him either.”

Holes
Louis Sachar

Irony occurs when a situation or results are the

opposite of what was anticipated.
 HYPERBOLE
“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’ll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry.”

“As I Walked
One Evening”
W.H. Auden

Hyperbole is an obvious exaggeration which is

not meant to be taken literally but is instead
used for emphasis.
 HYPERBOLE
“You're darn right it's like a war,”
Hortensia cried. “And the casualties are
terrific. We are the crusaders, the
gallant army fighting for our lives with
hardly any weapons at all and the
Trunchbull is the Prince of Darkness,
the Foul Serpent, the Fiery Dragon with
all the weapons at her command.”

Matilda
Roald Dahl

Hyperbole is an obvious exaggeration which is

not meant to be taken literally but is instead
used for emphasis.
PERSONIFICATION
“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”

“I Wandered Lonely
as a Cloud”
William Wordsworth

Personification is when an inanimate object or

idea is given human characteristics.
Anthropomorphism is when animals act like people.
PERSONIFICATION
"Whoever invented these boots
should be shot because once the
boots got ahold of your shoes
they wouldn't let them go for
anything."

The Watsons Go to
Birmingham-1963
Christopher Paul Curtis

Personification is when an inanimate object or

idea is given human characteristics.
Anthropomorphism is when animals act like people.
PERSONIFICATION
"Like two giants they crashed against
each other. They rose high in the air,
bending first one way and then the other.
There was a roar as if great spears were
breaking in battle and in the red light of
the sun the spray that flew around them
looked like blood.
Slowly the second wave forced the
first one backward, rolled slowly over it,
and then as the victor drags the
vanquished, moved in toward the island.”

Island of the Blue

Dolphins
Scott O’Dell

Personification is when an inanimate object or

idea is given human characteristics.
Anthropomorphism is when animals act like people.
 SIMILE
“It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul,—
Let me not name it to you, you chaste
stars!
It is the cause. Yet I’ll not shed her blood;
Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than
snow,
And smooth as monumental alabaster.”

Othello
William Shakespeare

A simile is a comparison between two unlike

things, using like, as, than, or of in
the comparison.
 SIMILE
“Because the way you grow old
is kind of like an onion or like
the rings inside a tree trunk or
like my little wooden dolls that
fit one inside the other, each
year inside the next one. That's
how being eleven years old is.”

“Eleven”
Sandra Cisneros

A simile is a comparison between two unlike

things, using like, as, than, or of in
the comparison.
 SIMILE
“The question hit me like a
hammer between the eyes.
I felt the color drain from
my face. My legs went cold.
Numb.”

The Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini

A simile is a comparison between two unlike

things, using like, as, than, or of in
the comparison.
 METAPHOR
“Fame is a bee.
It has a song —
It has a sting —
Ah, too, it has a wing.”

“Fame is a Bee”
Emily Dickinson

A metaphor makes a comparison between two

unlike things without using the words like, as,
than, or of.
 METAPHOR
“I dive into the stream of
fourth-period lunch
students and swim down
the hall to the cafeteria.”

Speak
Laurie Halse Anderson

A metaphor makes a comparison between two

unlike things without using the words like, as,
than, or of.
 METAPHOR
“I was gawky and she was
gorgeous and I was hopelessly
boring and she was endlessly
fascinating. So I walked back to
my room and collapsed on the
bottom bunk, thinking that if
people were rain, I was drizzle
and she was a hurricane.”

Looking for Alaska

John Green

A metaphor makes a comparison between two

unlike things without using the words like, as,
than, or of.
 METAPHOR
“Nenny is too young to be my friend.
She's just my sister and that was not
my fault... And since she comes right
after me, she is my responsibility.
Someday I will have a best friend all
my own. One I can tell my secrets to.
One who will understand my jokes
without my having to explain them.
Until then I am a red balloon, a balloon
tied to an anchor.”

The House on
Mango Street
Sandra Cisneros

A metaphor makes a comparison between two

unlike things without using the words like, as,
than, or of.
 EUPHEMISM
“Do not go gentle into that good
night,
Old age should burn and rave at
close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of
the light.”

“Do Not Go Gentle Into

That Good Night”
Dylan Thomas

A euphemism is a polite, indirect way to

describe something unpleasant, harsh or
impolite.
 EUPHEMISM
“A large variety of insects try to avoid
predators by making themselves
extremely unpleasant to eat. Most
children have learned that grasshoppers,
for instance, spit “tobacco juice” when
threatened. The juice is actually the
partly digested food from the insect’s
crop, and it is not so much spit as
vomited. It is as unappealing to some
predators as it sounds...”

“Surviving, for Better

and Worse”
Marc Zabludoff

A euphemism is a polite, indirect way to

describe something unpleasant, harsh
or impolite.
 ALLUSION
“A carrion crow sat on a yew:
On Bosworth Field lies a crimson
dew.

A carrion crow sat on a thorn,

Where the crown of England had
rolled, forlorn.”

“The Carrion Crow”

John Heath-Stubbs

* King Richard III was killed at the Battle of Bosworth

Field, the last major battle in the War of the Roses.

An allusion is a brief reference in one story to a

well-known character or event from another
story, history, or place.
 ALLUSION
“I was wearing a mask.”
“Wow. A pretty mask?”
“Uh, more like a pig mask.
It’s a long story.”
Shay blinked. “A pig mask.
Okay. So let me guess, someone
blew your house down?”

Uglies
Scott Westerfield

An allusion is a brief reference in one story to a

well-known character or event from another
story, history, or place.
 ALLUSION
“Maybe it’ll rain so hard it will fill
up the whole lake,” said Squid. “We can
go swimming.”
“Forty days and forty nights,” said
X-Ray. “Guess we better start building
us an ark. Get two of each animal,
right?”
“Right,” said Zigzag. “Two
rattlesnakes. Two scorpions. Two
yellow-spotted lizards.”

Holes
Louis Sachar

An allusion is a brief reference in one story to a

well-known character or event from another
story, history, or place.
 FLASHBACK
“We are the dead; short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.”

“In Flanders Fields”

John McCrae

A flashback is an interruption of present events

to insert an event that took place earlier; this
gives the reader additional information to better
understand a current event or a character’s
motivations.
.
 FLASHBACK
“I have no recollection of when I first
began to use that gift. But I can
remember, at the age of four,
holding my pencil in the firm first
grip of a child and transfering the
world around me to pieces of paper,
margins of books, bare expanses of
wall...”
My Name is Asher Lev
Chaim Potok

A flashback is an interruption of present events

to insert an event that took place earlier; this
gives the reader additional information to better
understand a current event or a character’s
motivations.
.
FORESHADOWING
JULIET: What's he that follows there,
that would not dance?

NURSE: I know not.

JULIET Go ask his name: if he be married.

My grave is like to be my wedding bed.

Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare

Foreshadowing occurs when an author provides

clues to alert the reader about events that may
occur later.
FORESHADOWING
“And Johnny, who was the most law-
abiding of us, now carried in his back
pocket a six-inch switchblade. He'd use it,
too, if he ever got jumped again. They had
scared him that much. He would kill the
next person who jumped him. Nobody
was ever going to beat him like that
again. Not over his dead body...”

The Outsiders
S.E. Hinton

Foreshadowing occurs when an author provides

clues to alert the reader about events that may
occur later.
 REPETITION

“O Captain! my Captain! rise up

and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is
flung— for you the bugle trills…”

“O Captain! My Captain!”
Walt Whitman

Repetition is the repeated use of words or

phrases to create rhythm or suspense, or to
emphasize an idea.

.
 REPETITION
“My first real beat-down, and I was
furious and ashamed, but above all
else I was afraid. Afraid of my
assailants. Afraid they would corner
me again. Afraid of a second
beat-down. Afraid and afraid and
afraid. ”
“The Terror”
Junot Diaz

Repetition is the repeated use of words or

phrases to create rhythm or suspense, or to
emphasize an idea.

.
 TONE
Fresh out of middle school, we
all understand the rules: wear
whatever’s in, scowl on cue to convince the
world we’re fearless — anything to mask
the million insecurities that
Pockmark our skin like acne. Gone the grins
when we strut down the hall. We talk tough and
hope to God it’s enough to get us by. It’s all lies.

“Jabari Unmasked”
Nikki Grimes

Tone is the author’s attitude toward a subject or

audience, revealed by choice of words and details.
 TONE
“Not every thirteen-year-old girl is
accused of murder, brought to trial, and
found guilty. But I was just such a girl,
and my story is worth relating even if it
did happen years ago. Be warned,
however: If strong ideas and action
offend you, read no more. Find another
companion to share your idle hours. For
my part I intend to tell the truth as I
lived it.”

The True Confessions

of Charlotte Doyle
Avi

Tone is the author’s attitude toward a subject or

audience, revealed by choice of words and details.
JUXTAPOSITION
Seeing photos
of ancestors
a century past
is like looking
at your own
fingerprints—
circles
and lines
you can’t
recognize
until someone else
with a stranger’s eye
looks close and says
that’s you.
“Prints”
Joseph Bruchac

A juxtaposition places two ideas side-by-side

for comparison and contrast.
JUXTAPOSITION
You know, it's one thing to have a girl
in a bathing suit down on the beach,
where what with the glare nobody can
look at each other much anyway, and
another thing in the cool of the A & P,
under the fluorescent lights, against
all those stacked packages, with her
feet paddling along naked over our
checkerboard green-and-cream
rubber-tile floor.

“A&P”
John Updike

A juxtaposition places two ideas side-by-side

for comparison and contrast.
DRAMATIC IRONY
BOTTOM: “I see their
knavery. This is to make
an ass of me, to fright me,
if they could."
A Midsummer
Night’s Dream
William Shakespeare

Dramatic Irony is when the reader knows

important information in a story, film, or play
that the characters do not.
.
DRAMATIC IRONY
“First they close the schools. Next it
will be your shoe store. No one will buy
from us with Nazi soldiers telling
people, ‘Don’t buy from Jews...’”
“This will pass,” my father said.
“They’ll crack down for a time and then
things will get easier again. It’s always
the same. We just have to keep our
heads down.”

Prisoner B-3087
Alan Gratz

Dramatic Irony is when the reader knows

important information in a story, film, or play
that the characters do not.
.
 MOOD
“Once upon a midnight
dreary, while I pondered,
weak and weary...”

“The Raven”
Edgar Allan Poe

Mood is the atmosphere or feeling evoked

through individual words and descriptions.
 MOOD
“It was as if the sun had been stolen. Only
thin ribbons of light seeped down through
the green and milky air, air syrupy with
the scent of pine , huckleberry, and
juniper. From the rolling, emerald-
carpeted earth, fingers of lacy ferns curled
up, above which the massive fir and pine
trees stood, pillar-like, to support an
invisible sky. Hovering over everything
was a silence as deep as the trees were tall.”

Poppy
Avi

Mood is the atmosphere or feeling evoked

through individual words and descriptions.