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Rachel Konop Summit HS English DEF (Own a Term)grades 9/10 literary response and analysis3.7 Recognize and understand the significance of various literary devices, including figura-tive language, imagery, allegory, and symbolism, and explain their appeal. Grade s 11/12 Literary Response and analysis 3.4 Analyze ways in which poets use imagery, personification, figures of speech, and sounds to evoke readers’ emotions.
DEF Analysis • DEF • Term: A literary or rhetorical device • Definition: What does the term MEAN? • Example: Where does that term appear in the text? What’s the context? Who’s speaking? • Function: What’s the EFFECT? What’s the tone/mood/theme that is communicated with the term? WHY would the author choose that term/technique? What idea is being emphasized?
When I ask for a DEF, you will select a term from your terms dictionary OR I will select the device for you. Define this term. • Describe its place in the selected passage, using MLA citations. • Explain its function: how is it used in the novel/play/poem? What is the overall effect and significance? WHY WOULD AN AUTHOR CHOOSE THAT PARTICULAR DEVICE TO CONVEY MEANING?????? Always question an author’s purpose!
Common errors in DEF • Example does not match the term selected or assigned. • Improper MLA format • No context given for example • Weak analysis in function • Summary in function, rather than analysis • Failure to elaborate
“The imagery gives the reader a better visual, a clearer picture.” “[The device] gives a better understanding…” • In a word…NO. • A device has a bigger purpose than providing a visual for you or simply making reading easier. • This visual is inherent, a given!! • You need to figure out the IDEA behind it!!!!
Example for Animal FarmTERM: Connotation • Definition: The implied meaning or meanings of a word. The associations a word has with other ideas. • Example: Once the animals discover who is stealing the apples and milk, Squealer addresses the animals in the hopes of explaining why these things are necessary. He addresses the animals as “ ‘comrades’” (52). • Function- consider the following when analyzing function: What associations does the word “comrade” have? How is this ironic given what Squealer is explaining? How is his use of DICTION and CONNOTATION effective in manipulating the animals?
Term: Paradox • Definition: A situation or statement that appears contradictory, but in fact, may be true • Example: The animals’ commandments are reduced to one commandment that appears to sum up everything: “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others” (133). • Function- consider the following when analyzing the function: How does this commandment make sense? What diction (words) is key? To the animals? To communism/animalism? What is Orwell communicating about the situation (theme)?
Term: Allusion • Definition: LOOK IT UP!! • Example: The Animal Farm flag is green “to represent the green” English fields, and features a white hoof and horn (48). • Function: What is the flag alluding to? What do the items represent? For the animals? For the Russians? How is this ironic in the context of the story? Consider the above questions to help formulate your paragraph on function.
Example for Scarlet Letter • D- TERM: Personification- A figure of speech where animals, ideas or inorganic objects are given human characteristics. Personification is most often used in poetry, coming to popularity during the 18th century • (www.uncp.edu).
E- Example: • In chapter one, as a crowd gathers outside the prison door, Hawthorne personifies nature, “…in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to [the prisoner]” (1).
F- Function in text • Nature seems to function as its own character in the passage with the ability to show compassion to the guilty. The personification lends itself to the idea that the stringent, Puritanical rules and societal intolerance to not apply to Nature, and that she is capable of forgiveness, unlike her human counterparts. The juxtaposition of the rose bush among the weeds seems to align Hester with Nature against her community.
TERM: Metaphor- a type of figurative language in which a statement is made that says that one thing is something else but, literally, it is not. In connecting one object, event, or place, to another, a metaphor can uncover new and intriguing qualities of the original thing that we may not normally notice or even consider important (www.uncp.edu)
E- In chapter one, Hawthorne refers to nature frequently, and ends the chapter with a metaphor, “a sweet moral blossom,” which he hopes will “relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow” (1).
F- FUNCTION • Your turn! I will help you (this time) with the effect/function by prompting you with questions. Consider the following in your response: • How is the moral blossom a metaphor? • What purpose does it serve? • How does it connect with other themes in the text? • What tone/effect does it have on the reader? • What IDEA does the metaphor emphasize?
Example for Brave New World • TERM DEFINITION: PERSONIFICATION- D: A figure of speech where animals, ideas or inorganic objects are given human characteristics. Personification is most often used in poetry, coming to popularity during the 18th century (www.uncp.edu).
E: In Chapter one, a group of students tour the Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, where in the lab, the light is personified as “frozen, dead, a ghost” (3).
FUNCTION- Huxley seems to focus on light, where finally it is personified to represent the coldness and starkness of society. Where light itself could symbolize life, in this dystopian society, it is juxtaposed with death, thereby illuminating the concept that energy and vitality no longer exist in this world.
TERM: CONNOTATION D- The implied meaning or meanings of a word. The associations a word has with other ideas; the feeling behind the words.
E- • In chapter one, the workers in the lab are described as wearing “white” with “pale” gloves like “corpse-coloured rubber” (3). The room is also described as “[wintry]” (3).
F- • Your turn! I will help you figure out the function by asking questions. This should get you thinking about Huxley’s purpose. • What do these words have in common? What associations do the words have? Is the diction effective in creating a certain tone? What kind of tone/mood do they create?
