Literary Devices

To help us understand Vince’s language in Son of the Mob

Simile

A comparison using “like” or “as” Examples:

My family eats like an army.

The pine trees stand like soldiers around our cottage.

That book was as thrilling as the Behemoth.

Metaphor

A comparison between two unlike things, without using “like” or “as”

Examples:“Life is a highway.” -- songwriter, Tom Cochrane

“Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. it’s had boards torn up And splinters on the stairs.” -- poet, Langston Hughes

“For if dreams dieLife is a broken-winged birdThat cannot fly.” – Langston Hughes

Personification

Giving human qualities to non-human (inanimate) objects

Examples:

“that rifle… leaves the silence terrified” --poet Sid Marty

“the river snuffled on the beach” –poet Irving Layton

“the monstrous anger of the guns” – poet Wilfred Owen

Alliteration

Neighbouring words start with the same sound

Examples:

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep” – poet Robert Frost

“Then a hood covered my head.

‘Don’t make it harder for us,’ the hangman whispered.” –poet Alden Nowlan

Hyperbole (Exaggeration)

Obvious exaggeration of the facts (can have a comic or serious effect)

Example: “I have seen many amazing things in my long and

troubled life history. I have seen a series of corridors built entirely of human skulls. I have seen a volcano erupt and send a wall of lava crawling toward a small village. I have seen a woman I loved picked up by an enormous eagle and flown to its high mountain nest. But I can still not imagine what it was like to watch Aunt Josephine’s house topple into Lake Lachrymose.”

-- from Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events

Irony

Irony occurs when someone says something but the reverse is true

Or, it occurs when a situation is the opposite of what is expected

Example: “Mikey’s father Peter is a great champion. He wins

bets in the pubs by drinking more pints than anyone… He wins all that money but he doesn’t bring it home. Sometimes he’s like my father and drinks the dole itself…” –author Frank McCourt, in Angela’s Ashes

Allusion

An allusion is a reference to a well-known person, event or thing in life, literature or history. The audience is familiar with the term.

Example: “He realized that by coming to the dance he

had brought his problems with him like a Trojan Horse, and he could only hope he would be able to keep them bottled up“

– from Catch 22 by Joseph Heller