1. Elements of Style: Literary Devices
Feature Menu
What Is Style?
Figures of Speech
Irony
Imagery
Dialect
Practice

2. What Is Style? Style is the way a writer uses language.
In fashion, style comes from the choices people make when they get dressed.
In writing, style comes from the choices writers make when they put words on a page.

3. What Is Style? Many writers have a style that is easy to recognize.
Because of the way these writers use language—
the words they choose,
the length and shape of their sentences,
the images they create,
the tone they use—
people read their words and know who they are.

4. What Is Style?
Can you tell which poem was written by Dr. Seuss? By E. E. Cummings?
who are you,little i
who are you,little I
(five or six years old) peering from some high
window;at the gold
of november sunset
(and feeling that if day has to become night
this is a beautiful way)
from Green Eggs and Ham
I would not like them here or there I would not like them anywhere I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like them, Sam-I-am

5. What Is Style?
If you’ve read anything by Dr. Seuss, you will know that this poem was written by him.
from Green Eggs and Ham
I would not like them here or there I would not like them anywhere I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like them, Sam-I-am.

6. What Is Style?
If you’ve ever read anything E. E. Cummings, you will probably recognize his unique style in this poem.
who are you,little i
who are you,little I
(five or six years old) peering from some high
window;at the gold
of november sunset
(and feeling that if day has to become night
this is a beautiful way)

7. What Is Style? How did you know which writer wrote each poem?
You probably recognized the regular rhythm and rhyme pattern in the poem by Dr. Seuss—as well as the silly sounding, made-up word Sam-I-am.
Dr. Seuss has a style that most readers learn to love early in life.

8. What Is Style? How did you know which writer wrote each poem?
You may have recognized the lowercase letters and unusual punctuation in the poem by E. E. Cummings . . .
a poet who isn’t afraid to break the rules.

9. What Is Style?
Every writer has a style, and many elements come together to create that style.
Irony
Imagery
In this collection, you will learn about four of those elements:
Figures of Speech
Dialect
[End of Section]

10. Figures of Speech
Figures of speech are expressions that are not literally true
It was a shot in the dark . . .
but that suggest similarities between usually unrelated things.
I had forgotten to study for the test, so every answer was a shot in the dark.
No one is actually shooting into the darkness. . .
but taking a test without studying is like shooting in the dark—
you’re not likely to get it right.

11. Figures of Speech There are four main types of figures of speech:
similes
personification
metaphors
symbols
Similes compare two unlike things using a word of comparison such as like, than, as, or resembles.
The car’s tire was as flat as a pancake.

12. Figures of Speech
Metaphors compare two unlike things directly, without using a specific word of comparison.
Sunlight poured down onto the fields.
Sometimes metaphors go on for more than a sentence. These are called extended metaphors.

13. Figures of Speech
Personification speaks of a nonhuman or inanimate thing as if it had human or lifelike qualities.
A falling leaf danced on the breeze.
The ocean’s whisper grew louder as the tide came in.

14. Figures of Speech
Symbols are people, places, or events that have meaning in themselves but that also stand for something beyond themselves.
A dove with an olive branch is a symbol for peace.
A skull and crossbones is a symbol for poison.

15. Figures of Speech
We use figures of speech in everyday language without even realizing it.
Sorry I’m late. I was tied up in traffic.
Her hands were as cold as ice.
Figures of speech that we use everyday are clichés; they are not particularly interesting anymore.

16. Figures of Speech
Writers try to create fresh figures of speech to help us see things in a new way.
The traffic snaked along for miles, squeezing us tight in its coils.
The handshake was as cold and clammy as a cave wall.
The new and original comparisons a writer makes are part of that writer’s style.
[End of Section]

17. Irony
When reality contradicts what we expect, it’s called irony. There are three kinds of irony.
Verbal Irony
We say one thing and mean something else.
“That’s just great,” your friend says in a disgusted tone.
Situational Irony
The situation turns out to be just the opposite of what we’d expect.
The firehouse burns to the ground.
Dramatic Irony
We know something that a character doesn’t know.
We know what’s at the end of the dark hallway, but the character doesn’t.

18. Irony
How a writer uses irony and the type of irony he or she tends to use—both are aspects of a writer’s style.
“Everywhere we went, I always took care of my little brother, Jake—just like Mama told me to.”
verbal irony
On the first day of practice, Coach told us the position he had played in college: mascot.
situational irony

19. Irony
How a writer uses irony and the type of irony he or she tends to use—both are aspects of a writer’s style.
It would be the last time Grandpa would fly the plane, though he didn’t know that.
Not one of the children thought to look up; therefore, none of them saw the new flag over the school that day.
dramatic irony
dramatic irony

20. Irony Which of these statements contains more irony?
That morning at breakfast, Tom refused his mother’s offer to cook him a bacon omelet and thought about his new pet, Curly, instead.
That morning at breakfast, Tom ate a second helping of bacon while planning Curly’s escape.
[End of Section]

21. Imagery
Imagery is language that creates word pictures and appeals to the senses.
the lazy creak of the tire swing
bright green water parted by the knobby head of a crocodile
the smooth silky texture of pie on your thumb

22. Imagery
Imagery that describes the same subject can vary significantly in style and tone.
The sun that bleak December day
Rose cheerless over hills of gray.
We’d one December morning more
to face the grim—and grimy—chore of tire chain application.

23. Imagery
The way a writer presents imagery has a strong impact on his or her style.
Notice how slowly and gradually author Edgar Allan Poe creates the image of lantern light falling upon an old man’s glass eye.
When I had waited a long time, very patiently, without hearing him lie down, I resolved to open a little—a very, very little crevice in the lantern. So I opened it—you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily—until, at length, a single dim ray, like the thread of the spider, shot from out the crevice and full upon the vulture eye.

24. Imagery
The way a writer presents imagery has a strong impact on his or her style.
Now compare Poe’s use of imagery to this version of the scene.
I waited for what seemed hours. Then, when I could stand it no longer, I opened the lantern’s cover just slightly, and a small amount of light—a very soft glow—entered the room. I saw his eye.
With good reason—Poe’s version is much more memorable. People who read Poe will recognize it.
[End of Section]

25. Dialect
Dialect is a way of speaking that’s characteristic of a particular place or group of people.
Listen to these two examples of dialect.

26. Dialect
Some writers use dialect to convey information about a story’s setting or its characters.
Other writers avoid using dialect and rely on other techniques instead.
The woman who met my father and me for lunch was the sort my mother would call a “gentlewoman.” She spoke with a Southern drawl and seemed unnervingly pleased to see us.
A writer’s choice to use dialect can be a very noticeable part of his or her style—since dialect is conveyed using unconventional spelling and punctuation.
[End of Section]

27. from My Mother Pieced Quilts
Practice
Let’s Try It
from My Mother Pieced Quilts
they were just meant as covers
in winters
as weapons
against pounding january winds
but it was just that every morning I awoke to these
october ripened canvases
passed my hand across their cloth faces
and began to wonder how you pieced
all these together
these strips of gentle communion cotton and flannel nightgowns
wedding organdies
dime store velvets
1. What metaphor is used in the first stanza?
2. Which line in the second stanza contains personification?

28. from My Mother Pieced Quilts
Practice
Let’s Try It
from My Mother Pieced Quilts
they were just meant as covers
in winters
as weapons
against pounding january winds
but it was just that every morning I awoke to these
october ripened canvases
passed my hand across their cloth faces
and began to wonder how you pieced
all these together
these strips of gentle communion cotton and flannel nightgowns
wedding organdies
dime store velvets
1. What metaphor is used in the first stanza?
The poet uses metaphor to compare her mother’s quilts to weapons against strong winds.

29. from My Mother Pieced Quilts
Practice
Let’s Try It
from My Mother Pieced Quilts
they were just meant as covers
in winters
as weapons
against pounding january winds
but it was just that every morning I woke to these
october ripened canvases
passed my hand across their cloth faces
and began to wonder how you pieced
all these together
These strips of gentle communion cotton and flannel nightgowns
wedding organdies
dime store velvets
2. Which line in the second stanza contains personification?
passed my hand across their cloth faces

30. Practice
Let’s Try It
how you shaped patterns square and oblong and round
positioned
balanced
then cemented them
with your thread
a steel needle
a thimble
3. To what sense does the imagery in this stanza appeal?

31. Practice
Let’s Try It
how you shaped patterns square and oblong and round
positioned
balanced
then cemented them
with your thread
a steel needle
a thimble
3. To what sense does the imagery in this stanza appeal?
The sense of sight

32. Practice Let’s Try It how the thread darted in and out
galloping along the frayed edges, tucking them in
as you did us at night
oh how you stretched and turned and rearranged
your michigan spring faded curtain pieces
my father’s santa fe work shirt
the summer denims, the tweeds of fall
4. What simile appears in this stanza?

33. Practice Let’s Try It how the thread darted in and out
galloping along the frayed edges, tucking them in
as you did us at night
oh how you stretched and turned and rearranged
your michigan spring faded curtain pieces
my father’s santa fe work shirt
the summer denims, the tweeds of fall
4. What simile is completed on this page?
The thread tucked the edges of the cloth in as the mother tucked in her children at night.

34. Practice Let’s Try It in the evening you sat at your canvas
—our cracked linoleum floor the drawing board
me lounging on your arm
and you staking out the plan:
whether to put the lilac purple of easter against the red plaid of winter-going-
into-spring
whether to mix a yellow with blue and white and paint the
corpus christi noon when my father held your hand
whether to shape a five-point star from the
somber black silk you wore to grandmother’s funeral
5. What do the different kinds of fabric symbolize?

35. Practice Let’s Try It in the evening you sat at your canvas
—our cracked linoleum floor the drawing board
me lounging on your arm
and you staking out the plan:
whether to put the lilac purple of easter against the red plaid of winter-going-
into-spring
whether to mix a yellow with blue and white and paint the
corpus christi noon when my father held your hand
whether to shape a five-point star from the
somber black silk you wore to grandmother’s funeral
5. What do the different kinds of fabric symbolize?
The fabrics symbolize the events of the family’s life.

36. from Brer Rabbit and Brer Lion
Practice
Let’s Try It
from Brer Rabbit and Brer Lion
retold by Julius Lester
Brer Rabbit was in the woods one afternoon when a great wind came up. It blew on the ground and it blew in the tops of the trees. It blew so hard that Brer Rabbit was afraid a tree might fall on him, and he started running.
He was trucking through the woods when he ran smack into Brer Lion
“What’s your hurry, Brer Rabbit?
“Run, Brer Lion! There’s a hurricane coming!”
6. Which words and phrases on this page are examples of dialect?

37. from Brer Rabbit and Brer Lion
Practice
Let’s Try It
from Brer Rabbit and Brer Lion
retold by Julius Lester
Brer Rabbit was in the woods one afternoon when a great wind came up. It blew on the ground and it blew in the tops of the trees. It blew so hard that Brer Rabbit was afraid a tree might fall on him, and he started running.
He was trucking through the woods when he ran smack into Brer Lion
“What’s your hurry, Brer Rabbit?
“Run, Brer Lion! There’s a hurricane coming!”
6. Which words and phrases on this page are examples of dialect?
The boldfaced words are examples of dialect.

38. Practice
Let’s Try It
Brer Lion got scared. “I’m too heavy to run, Brer Rabbit. What am I going to do?”
“Lay down, Brer Lion, lay down! Get close to the ground!”
Brer Lion shook his head. “The wind might pick me up and blow me away.”
“Hug a tree, Brer Lion! Hug a tree!”
“But what if the wind blows all day and into the night?”
“Let me tie you to the tree, Brer Lion. Let me tie you to the tree.”
Brer Lion liked that idea. Brer Rabbit tied him to the tree and sat down next to it. After a while, Brer Lion got tired of hugging the tree.
7. How does the writer show Brer Rabbit’s excitement?

39. Practice
Let’s Try It
Brer Lion got scared. “I’m too heavy to run, Brer Rabbit. What am I going to do?”
“Lay down, Brer Lion, lay down! Get close to the ground!”
Brer Lion shook his head. “The wind might pick me up and blow me away.”
“Hug a tree, Brer Lion! Hug a tree!”
“But what if the wind blows all day and into the night?”
“Let me tie you to the tree, Brer Lion. Let me tie you to the tree.”
Brer Lion liked that idea. Brer Rabbit tied him to the tree and sat down next to it. After a while, Brer Lion got tired of hugging the tree.
7. How does the writer show Brer Rabbit’s excitement?
By having him repeat everything he says

40. Practice
Let’s Try It
After a while, Brer Lion got tired of hugging the tree.
“Brer Rabbit? I don’t hear no hurricane.”
Brer Rabbit listened. “Neither do I.”
“Brer Rabbit? I don’t hear no wind.”
“Brer Rabbit? Ain’t a leaf moving in the trees.”
Brer Rabbit looked up. “Sho’ ain’t.”
“So untie me.”
“I’m afraid to, Brer Lion.”
Brer Lion began to roar. He roared so loud and so long, the foundations of the Earth started shaking. Least that’s what it seemed like . . .
8. Which words and phrases (besides “Brer”) on this page are part of the story’s dialect?

41. Practice
Let’s Try It
After a while, Brer Lion got tired of hugging the tree.
“Brer Rabbit? I don’t hear no hurricane.”
Brer Rabbit listened. “Neither do I.”
“Brer Rabbit? I don’t hear no wind.”
“Brer Rabbit? Ain’t a leaf moving in the trees.”
Brer Rabbit looked up. “Sho’ ain’t.”
“So untie me.”
“I’m afraid to, Brer Lion.”
Brer Lion began to roar. He roared so loud and so long, the foundations of the Earth started shaking. Least that’s what it seemed like . .
8. Which words and phrases (besides “Brer”) on this page are part of the story’s dialect?
The boldfaced words are examples of dialect.

42. Practice
Let’s Try It
Brer Lion began to roar. He roared so loud and so long, the foundations of the Earth started shaking. Least that’s what it seemed like, and the other animals came from all over to see what was going on.
When they got close, Brer Rabbit jumped up and began strutting around the tied-up Brer Lion. When the animals saw what Brer Rabbit had done to Brer Lion, you’d better believe it was the forty-eleventh of Octorerarry before they messed with him again.
9. What is ironic about the story?
10. What kind of irony is it?

43. Practice
Let’s Try It
Brer Lion began to roar. He roared so loud and so long, the foundations of the Earth started shaking. Least that’s what it seemed like, and the other animals came from all over to see what was going on.
When they got close, Brer Rabbit jumped up and began strutting around the tied-up Brer Lion. When the animals saw what Brer Rabbit had done to Brer Lion, you’d better believe it was the forty-eleventh of Octorerarry before they messed with him again.
9. What is ironic about the story?
It is ironic that the rabbit, a small, weak animal, captures the lion, a large, strong animal.

44. Practice
Let’s Try It
Brer Lion began to roar. He roared so loud and so long, the foundations of the Earth started shaking. Least that’s what it seemed like, and the other animals came from all over to see what was going on.
When they got close, Brer Rabbit jumped up and began strutting around the tied-up Brer Lion. When the animals saw what Brer Rabbit had done to Brer Lion, you’d better believe it was the forty-eleventh of Octorerarry before they messed with him again.
10. What kind of irony is it?
situational irony

45. Practice
On Your Own
Prepare a “literary devices” wall display for your classroom. Get seven poster boards, and give them the following labels:
Symbols
Images
Irony
Dialect
Similes
Metaphors
Personification
Under each term, write its definition. Then, under each definition, write in examples that you think are interesting. You can find your examples in newspapers and magazines, as well as in stories, poems, and novels. Be sure to cite the author and title of any direct quote that you use in your display.

46. Elements of Style: Literary Devices
The End