Glossary

Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is a literary device in which an author drops subtle hints about plot development in the story.

Simile

A figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds (usually formed with `like' or `as')

Personification

The metaphorical representation of an animal or inanimate object as having human attributes--attributes of form, character, feelings, behavior, and so on. As the name implies, a thing or idea is treated as a person:

Metaphor

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness between them. Example: He was drowning in money.

Allusion

In literature an indirect reference to some historical or cultural person, event, statement, or fact.Writers using allusions in a text assume that the reader will recognize the reference and in some fashion apply the extra-textual information in their interpretation of the text.

Irony

Saying one thing whilst meaning another. Irony occurs when a word or phrase has a surface meaning, but another contradictory meaning beneath the surface.