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Rhetorical Devices
English 9 Rhetorical Devices Explanation
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Allusion | A reference to historical or fictional characters, places, or events, or to other works the writer assumes the reader will recognize. It pulls meaning into the text from external source. |
| Characterization | The ways an author reveals a character (physical description based on what the character says, what others say about them, their actions, and direct description). |
| Flat Character | Usually only has one outstanding trait or feature; they are immediately recognizable. |
| Round Character | Much more complex and is shown in much more detail; capable of surprising the reader in a convincing way. |
| Protagonist | The main character in works of fiction, drama or narrative poetry |
| Antagonist | A character who opposes or blocks the protagonist. |
| Dynamic | A character who changes or grows during the course of the story |
| Static | A character who remains the same |
| Direct Characterization | Author flat out describes the character |
| Overt | Not a secret, open to view knowledge |
| Indirect | The author reveals the character through his thoughts, words and actions. |
| Foil | A character used to contrast another character. |
| Diction | A writers or speakers choice of words. |
| How is diction used to create tone? | Through denotation and connotation. |
| Denotation | The literal, dictionary definition of a word |
| Connotation | The associations and emotions a word suggests |
| Flashback | A scene that interrupts the present action of the plot to tell what happened at an earlier time |
| Foreshadowing | Clues that hint at what will happen later in the story |
| Hyperbole | A figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration to express strong emotion or to create a comic effect |
| Imagery | Language that appeals to the senses. Imagery can be sight, sound, smell or taste |
| Irony | A contrast or discrepancy between expectation and reality |
| Verbal Irony | Occurs when words say one thing but mean something else |
| Situational Irony | What actually happens is opposite of what you expect or are led to believe |
| Dramatic Irony | Occurs when the reader or the audience knows something important that a character doesn't know |
| Metaphor | A figure of speech in which one thing is spoken or written abut as if it were another. It is a comparison between the two things. |
| Motif | Anything repeated over and over throughout a story, lending it unity and suggesting thematic meaning. |
| Oxymoron | A figure of speech of combining contradictory ideas. |
| Personifcation | A figure of speech in which a non-human object is given human like qualities. |
| Plot | A series of related events that make up a story or drama. |
| Point of View | The point from which the story is seen or being told from. |
| First Person | The story is told by someone who was there ("I") |
| Third Person | The narrator is anonymous ("he, she, it") |
| Omniscient | Third person point of view revealing the thoughts and feelings for several major characters |
| Limited | The narrator reveals the thoughts and feelings for just one character. |
| Objective or Camera | The narrator does not enter the mind of any of the characters but describes the events from the outside, leaving away any thoughts or feelings. |
| Rhyme | The repetition of similar or duplicate sounds at regular intervals, usually the repetition of the terminal sounds of words at the end of lines of verse. |
| Alliteration | The repetition of beginning constant sounds in words close to each other. |
| Assonance | The repetition of similar vowel sounds by different constant sounds in words close to each other. |
| Consonance | Occurs when the rhymed words or phrases have the same consonant sounds but a different vowel. |
| Setting | The time and place where the story or a play takes place |
| Similie | A figure of speech that compares two things, indicate by some connective words such as like, than, as or a verb such as resembles. |
| Subject | The abstract topic that the writer addresses in a piece of fiction. |
| Theme | The moral of the story; the lesson to be learned. |
| Symbol | A person, place, thing, or event that stands both for itself and for something beyond itself. |
| Tone | The attitude a writer or speaker take towards his or her subject, audience, or both. |
| Understatement | The opposite of hyperbole; a figure of speech that says much less than is really meant; a form of irony. |
| Antithesis | The contrasting items places next to each other. |
| Anaphora | The repetition of the words or phrases at the beginning of consecutive clauses, phrases or sentences. |
| Metonymy | A type of metaphor in which a part represents a whole. |
| Euphemism | Making something sound better than it really is. "sugar coding" |
| Extended Metaphor | A metaphor that is developed throughout the whole story. |
| Pathetic Fallacy | A personification in which nature reflects human emotions or conditions. |
Created by:
Turicek
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