Literary Devices SIMILE Definition Comparing two things using

Literary Devices

SIMILE Definition: Comparing two things, using “like” or “as”

Simile… “Ray had exceptionally large glasses, like an underwater mask, ” (Miriam Toews, in A Complicated Kindness) “[The helicopters] hovered in the air like giant dragonflies, peering down at the clearing. ” (Lloyd Jones, in Mister Pip)

METAPHOR Definition: Comparing two things (not using “like” or “as”)

Metaphor… “With just one glance I discovered that the sea is a city. Just below me, all around, unsuspected by me, were highways, boulevards, street and roundabouts bustling with submarine traffic. In water that was dense, glassy and flecked by millions of lit-up specks of plankton, fish like trucks and buses and cars and bicycles and pedestrians were madly racing about, no doubt honking and hollering at each other. ” (Yann Martel in Life of Pi)

PERSONIFICATION Definition: Giving human qualities to nonhuman things

Personification… “I stood on the screen porch that jutted off the back of the kitchen and watched the clouds bruise dark purple over the treetops and the wind whip the branches. ” (Secret Life of Bees) “But this was a monsoon sea, wild and savage, and it had eaten up the beach. ” (Shyam Selvadurai, in Swimming in the Monsoon Sea)

ALLITERATION Definition: The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of words in the same sentence (often right next to each other)

Alliteration… “The next morning we woke to the helicopters again. My mum was bent over me, her face pinched with panic. She was yelling at me to hurry. I could hear people shouting outside, and the beating of the blades. ” (Lloyd Jones, in Mister Pip)