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English: Literature, Rhetoric & AP Essays · Module 2 of 13

Literary Devices & Figurative Language

The techniques writers use to create meaning, sound, and deeper significance beyond the literal words.

In this module
  1. Figurative Language
  2. Sound Devices & Imagery
  3. Irony
  4. Symbolism & Allegory
  5. Check yourself

Figurative Language

  • Simile compares two things using "like" or "as"; metaphor states one thing is another without those words.
  • Personification gives human qualities to nonhuman things; hyperbole is deliberate exaggeration for effect.
Worked example

Identify the figurative language: "The wind whispered through the trees."

Solution. Personification — the wind (nonhuman) is given the human quality of whispering.

Sound Devices & Imagery

  • Alliteration repeats initial consonant sounds; onomatopoeia is a word that imitates the sound it describes.
  • Imagery uses descriptive, sensory language — sight, sound, touch, taste, smell — to help the reader visualize a scene.
Worked example

Identify the device: "The bees buzzed busily beside the blooming bushes."

Solution. Alliteration — repetition of the "b" consonant sound at the start of several words.

Irony

  • Verbal irony: saying the opposite of what is meant. Situational irony: the opposite of what's expected happens. Dramatic irony: the audience knows something a character does not.
Worked example

A fire station burns down. What type of irony is this?

Solution. Situational irony — the outcome (a place meant to prevent fires burning down) is the opposite of what would be expected.

Symbolism & Allegory

  • A symbol is an object, person, or place that represents a larger idea beyond its literal meaning (e.g. a dove often symbolizes peace).
  • An allegory is an entire narrative in which characters and events symbolically represent a deeper moral, political, or spiritual meaning.
Worked example

In a story, a wilting flower reappears throughout, growing more withered as a character's health declines. What is the flower likely a symbol of?

Solution. The flower likely symbolizes the character's declining life or health, mirroring their condition throughout the story.

Check yourself

2 of this module's 5 quiz questions. Pick your answers, then check them in the app, with an explanation for every question.

1. "Her smile was as bright as the sun" is an example of what device?

2. What does personification do?

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