The document provides examples of different literary devices including alliteration, personification, similes, metaphors, imagery, symbolism, assonance, hyperbole, and onomatopoeia. It gives definitions and examples for each device to illustrate its proper use in writing.

1. Alliteration
Name 4 adjectives for each of the following
words. Each adjective must start with the same
letter as the word provided.
Ex.: Parasol: Pretty, petite, pocket-sized,
purple parasol.
1. sandwich
2. pencil
3. closet
4. banjo
5. donut
Personification
Give a human characteristic to each of the
following inanimate objects.
Ex. Bicycles fly
1. sandwich
2. pencil
3. closet
4. banjo
5. donut

2. Similes
Concrete mixers
Move like elephants
Metaphors
I think the sun is a flower,
That blooms for just one hour.
("All Summer in a Day"}
Imagery
Sight
Sound
Taste
Touch
Smell
The hot July sun beat relentlessly down, casting an orange glare
over the farm buildings, the fields, the pond. Even the usually
cool green willows bordering the pond hung wilted and dry. Our
sun-baked backs ached for relief. We quickly pulled off our
sweaty clothes and plunged into the pond, but the tepid water
only stifled us and we soon climbed onto the brown, dusty bank.
Our parched throats longed for something cool--a strawberry
ice, a tall frosted glass of lemonade.
We pulled on our clothes, crackling underbrush, the sharp briars
pulling at our damp jeans, until we reached the watermelon

3. patch. As we began to cut open the nearest melon, we could
smell the pungent skin mingling with the dusty odor of the dry
earth. Suddenly, the melon gave way with a crack, revealing the
deep, pink sweetness inside.
Symbolism
• In Citizen Kane, a child's sled symbolizes the lost innocence of
childhood ... although you don't realize this until the end of the movie.
• In the novel Animal Farm, the entire story is a symbol for the evils of
communism, with the main animal characters representing key figures in
the Russian revolution. The novel can be read entirely as a children's
story, but when you come to realize what the various elements and
characters in the story symbolize, the novel takes on a whole new
meaning. That's why this particular work has become such a classic. This
kind of story is called an allegory.
• In The Lord of the Flies, Ralph with his conch shell represents order and
democracy, while Jack symbolizes savagery and anarchy. The island itself
symbolizes the world in which we live, and the actions of the characters
are symbolic of the way different people conduct their lives. The beast
represents the darker side of human nature.
• The movie series Star Wars has been described as symbolic of faith and
religion in our world overcoming evil.
• The song I Hope You Dance by Lee Ann Womack is full of symbolism.
The song isn't really about dancing at all ... dancing is a symbol for getting
the most out of life. When she sings '"I hope you never fear those
mountains in the distance", the mountains symbolize our fears about the
future, or obstacles in life we must overcome.
• The play MacBeth by William Shakespeare uses blood, both real and
imagined, as a symbol of guilt, both of MacBeth and Lady MacBeth.
Another symbol used in the play is a raven, which usually represents ill
fortune.
• The Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling could be seen as containing a
lot of symbolism, although there are as many interpretations as there are
creatures in the books! (The author isn't saying). One clear example is a
commonly used one; the use of a snake to represent evil. It is no
coincidence that the symbol of Slytherin House is a serpent.
Assonance

4. Slow things are beautiful:
The closing of the day,
The pause of the wave
That curves downward to spray.
--Elizabeth Coatsworth, "Swift Things are Beautiful"
Night came on, and a full moon rose high over the trees
into the sky, lighting the land till it lay bathed in ghostly
day.
--Jack London, The Call of the Wild
Hyperbole
Hyperbole is common in tall tales. Here is an example:
At three weeks, Paul Bunyan got his family into a bit of trouble
kicking around his little tootsies and knocking down something
like four miles of standing timber.
Hyperbole is often used in descriptions. It emphasizes some
qualities of a person or thing by exaggerating them, as in this
selection
The skin on her face was as thin and drawn as tight as the skin of
onion and her eyes were gray and sharp like the points of two picks
. —Flannery O’Connor, "Parker’s Back"
Hyperbole can also be used to describe a person’s emotions. In the
following selection, a boy is pulling a man up from a deep hole.
See how hyperbole is used to describe the boy’s thoughts as he
struggles.

5. It was not a mere man he was holding, but a giant; or a block of
granite. The pull was unendurable. The pain unendurable.
—James Ramsey Ullman, "A Boy and a Man"
What is exaggerated in the following examples?
There did not seem to be brains enough in the entire nursery, so to
speak, to bait a fishhook with.
—Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Onomatopoeia
Cynthia in the Snow
Gwendolyn Brooks
It SHUSHES
It hushes
The loudness in the road.
It flitter-twitters,
And laughs away from me.
It laughs a lovely whiteness,
And whitely whirs away,
To be
Some otherwhere,
Still white as milk or shirts,
So beautiful it hurts.