Literary Terms

1. Red Badge of Courage Literary Terms

2. Figurative Language • Describing something by comparing it with something else • Any language that goes beyond the literal meaning of words in order to furnish new effects or fresh insights into an idea or a subject.

3. Imagery • Language that appeals to the five senses • Example: “A sputtering of musketry was always to be heard. Later the cannon had entered the dispute. In the fog-filled air their voices made a thudding sound” (Crane 66).

4. Simile • A figure of speech which involves a direct comparison between two unlike things, usually with the words like or as • Example: The muscles on his brawny arms are strong as iron bands.

5. Metaphor • A figure of speech which involves an implied comparison between two relatively unlike things using a form of be. The comparison is not announced by like or as. • Example: “The shells, which had ceased to trouble the regiment for a time, came swirling again, and exploded in the grass or among the leaves of the trees. They looked to be strange war flowers bursting into fierce bloom” (Crane 29).

6. Personification • A figure of speech which gives the qualities of a person to an animal, an object, or an idea • Example: “He found himself in a region of shells [. . .]. As he listened he imagined them to have rows of cruel teeth that grinned at him” (Crane 32).

7. Hyperbole • An exaggerated statement • Example: She’s said so on several million occasions.

8. Alliteration • Repeated consonant sounds occurring at the beginning of words or within words. • Example: wide-eyed and wondering while we wait for others to waken

9. Tone • The author’s attitude, stated or implied, toward a subject. • Some possible attitudes are pessimism, optimism, earnestness, seriousness, bitterness, humorous, and joyful. • An author’s tone can be revealed through choice of words and details.

10. Mood • The climate of  feeling in a literary work. • The choice of setting, objects, details, images, and words all contribute towards creating a specific mood. • For example, an author may create a mood of mystery around a character or setting but may treat that character or setting in an ironic, serious, or humorous tone.

11. Allusion • Reference in literature to a person, place, event, or another passage of literature • Allusions can originate in mythology, biblical references, historical events, legends, geography, or earlier literary works. • Example: “They might not be distinctly Homeric, but there seemed to be much glory in them” (Crane 3).

12. Dialect • The language of a particular district, class, or group of persons • includesthe sounds, spelling, grammar, and diction employed by a specific people as distinguished from others either geographically or socially • A technique of characterization that reveals the social or geographic status of a character

13. Dialect • “What reg’ment do yehb’long the? Eh? What’s that? Th’ 304th N’ York? [. . .] An’ these here hull woods is a reg’lar mess” (Crane 55).

14. Realism • Any artistic or literary portrayal of life in a faithful, accurate manner • The tendency to create detailed, probing analyses of the way "things really are," usually involving an emphasis on nearly photographic details and the author's inclusion of in-depth psychological traits for his or her characters.

15. Realism • “The orderly sergeant of the youth’s company was shot through the cheeks. Its supports being injured, his jaw hung afar down, disclosing in the wide cavern of his mouth a pulsing mass of blood and teeth” (Crane 92).