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Literary Term Examples from The Book Thief

Terms in this set (58)

simile
"To her right, a book protruded like a bone."
personification
"The sound of crying children kicked and punched"
Onomatopoeia
"Grimly she realized that clocks don't make a sound that even remotely resembles ticking, tocking."
metaphor
"Another human pendulum. Another clock, stopped."
simile
"The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring."
metaphor
"The streets were ruptured veins."
personification
"The brass knocker eyed her from the door."
metonymy
"...she was caught inside a mess of uniforms and high-pitched words."
oxymoron
"Her head was pulled down, and the sick beauty of nerves proved more ghastly with each strides."
metaphor
"A necklace of sweat had formed around her throat."
epithet
"...the Fuhrer himself could hear the sound of the orange crush in his mouth."
simile
"Otto came around the corner, dopey as a lamb."
foreshadowing
"Erik Vandenburg would later be found in several pieces on a grassy hill."
metonymy
"...his time in the Great War had astonished him from the moment he entered the army."
personification
"a voice stooped out and ambled toward the sergeant."
foreshadowing
"...he was not deserving of the fate that met him a little under two years later."
personification
"The minutes were cruel. Hours were punishing."
personification
"...chitchat of faraway guns."
hyperbole
"Hans Hubermann risked his life by throwing a most excellent snowball at her."
metonymy
"Fingermarks clutched the book."
metonymy
~"He was more a black suit than a man."
allusion
"On Munich street, she said, "Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I wish they wouldn't bring them through."
epithet
"The book thief's face appeared above him again."
metaphor
"The cherries of blood had grown into plums."
metonymy
"A bathrobe answered the door."
metonymy
"Laughter and smoke rose out of the conversation before they moved on to the next job."
allusion
"That means I can run past you again just like Jesse Owens at the Olympics. . . ."
simile
"The smoke bombs stood like matchsticks in the ground filling the city's lungs."
foreshadowing
"The book thief had struck for the first time—the beginning of an illustrious career."
allusion
"In return, he received a used copy of Mein Kampf."
hyperbole
"In the words of Rudy's youngest sisters, there were two monsters sitting in the kitchen."
verbal irony
"Not that it was a living hell. It wasn't But it sure as hell wasn't heaven, either."
hyperbole
"It amazes me what humans can do, even when streams are flowing down their faces and they stagger on..."
oxymoron
"At the end of an afternoon that had contained much excitement, much beautiful evil, one blood-soaked ankle, and a slap from a trusted hand, Liesel Meminger attained her second success story."
simile
"The sky was dripping. Like a tap that a child has tried its hardest to turn off but hasn't quite managed."
allegory
"There once was a strange, small man. He decided three important details about his life:
1. He would part his hair from the opposite side to everyone else.
2. He would make himself a small, strange mustache.
3. ..."
allegory
a story or poem in which characters, settings, and events stand for other people or events or for abstract ideas or qualities.
allusion
reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or another branch of culture.
epithet
an adjective or adjective phrase applied to a person or thing that is frequently used to emphasize a characteristic quality.
foreshadowing
the use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot.
verbal irony
occurs when someone says one thing but really means something else.
situational irony
when there is a discrepancy between what is expected to happen, or what would be appropriate to happen, and what really does happen.
dramatic irony
A character in the play or story thinks one thing is true, but the audience or reader knows better.
metaphor
a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without the use of such specific words of comparison as like, as, than, or resembles.
metonymy
a figure of speech in which a person, place, or thing, is referred to by something closely associated with it.
onomatopoeia
the use of words whose sounds echo their sense. "Pop." "Zap."
oxymoron
a figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase.
personification
a figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human
feelings, thoughts, or attitudes
simile
a figure of speech that makes an explicitly comparison between two unlike things, using words such as like, as, than, or resembles.
synecdoche
a part represents the whole or vice versa
synecdoche
"The bun nodded."
metonymy
"He stood waist-deep in the icy, Decemberish water."
simile
"To me, war is like the new boss who expects the impossible."
allusion
"The Russian soldiers- taking only small amounts of ammunition, relying on the fallen for the rest of it. The soaked bodies of a French coast- beached on the shingle and sand."
personification
"She seemed to collect the words in her hand, pat them together, and hurl them across the table."
Synecdoche
synecdoche typically refers to an already concrete image used for purely poetic and rhetorical purposes.
Metonymy
Essentially, metonymy occurs when a speaker refers to an object, person, or institution by something that is, and typically has been, closely associated with it. The overall goal of its use is to provide a genuine image in the reader or listener's mind for generally abstract concepts.
Symbol
can stand in for a plethora of images and concepts that are typically abstract and have the possibility to evolve in their meanings.
THIS SET IS OFTEN IN FOLDERS WITH...