Literary Devices

Literary Devices Mr. Witts Haycock Elementary 5th grade

Summary of Devices • Mood • Flashbacks • Simile • Metaphor • Personification • Idiom • Alliteration • Hyperbole • Onomatopeia • Rhyme • Rhythm • Repetition • Imagery • Dialogue • Foreshadowing

Mood • Mood is the feeling the reader gets from a story : happy, sad, peaceful, angry and so on

Flashbacks • A break in continuity, when a character from a book revisits an event from their past • In Eve Bunting’s So Far From the Sea … the scenes parts of the story about the father’s time in the relocation camp.

Simile • Simile – compares two different things using the word like or as • a dresser like a sunken treasure chest • loud as an old train • like loose litter in the wind • slow as an old fly • Old Man Mackenzie was as ornery as a bear that sat on a bee

Metaphor • Metaphor – compares two different things without using like or as. When you describe something using a metaphor, you describe it as if it were something else. • My closet is a time machine. • The full moon is a shiny balloon. • How can you live in that pigsty?

Personification • Makes something seem human that isn’t; a comparison in which something that is not human is described in human qualities. • the breeze whispers through the porch screen • Terror grabbed at the hero’s heart … was his famous courage hiding under the bed?

Idiom • A peculiar expression in language or dialect that can not be determined based on the grammatical construction. • An example …. get on board does not mean stand on a board or climb aboard a ship … it means follow the rules or follow the procedures outlined.

Alliteration • Repeating the consonant sound or sounds in a line of text or poetry • dance, dare and drop • peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

Hyperbole • An exaggeration or overstatement • Their lunchroom stretches to another county. • He was so hungry, he ate everything in the refrigerator.

Onomatopeia • Uses words that sound like the noises they name • …where rainbow colored birds, flutter, squawk, and fly! • Other examples of words … thump, buzz, snap, plop, pop, bam, splat,oof

Rhyme • Using sounds in two or more words, particularly in the lines of poetry Fin, fur and feather and the human race Must share Mother Earth as she spins through space “Share!” says my grandpa. “Please share this place! And we’ll care for Mother Earth as she spins through space.” Taken from Earthsong by Sally Rogers.

Rythm • The pattern of sounds and beats that helps poetry flow from one idea to the next. This gaggle of parrots of colorful hue are macaws of scarlet and yellow and blue. From If I ran the Rainforest by Bonnie Worth.

Repetition • The repeating of a word or phrase to add rhythm and emphasis. • The wind hissed, hissed down the alley. • Clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop went the hooves as they trotted down the lane.

Imagery • Using words, particularly descriptive adjectives and adverbs to paint a picture for the reader. The garden glows with cone flowers, purple-blue, and marigolds, latana, bright as flame. And thistles, too. From Butterfly House by Eve Bunting

Dialogue • Where two or more characters in a book are talking to each other. Keys to look for are quotations and words such as: said, whispered, asked.

Foreshadowing • To suggest or indicate something before hand. When there is a clue in the text that might predict what will happen later in the book.

Literary Devices