Literary Devices

Jessica Alleyne
English 4
Mr. Parry
04/08

Literary Devices

Repetition: using a word more than once


The Boondocks: “The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence”
{Rumy repeats absence and evidence to convey that just because something isn’t there doesn’t mean another element is disproved.}


“There are known knowns and there are known unknowns, but there’s also unknown unknowns; things that we don’t know”
{Rumy repeats known and unknown to convey that you never know how something will turn out.}


Similie: a comparison of two objects using like or as.


The Boondocks: “Bout as funny as a lynching”
{Riley uses as to compare something’s humor to a lynching.}


The Simpsons: “Its like something out of that twighlighty show about that zone.”
{Homer uses like to compare something to the Twighlight Zone.}


Rocket Man By Elton John: “And I’m gonna be high as a kite by then”
{The speaker in this song compares himself in a plane to the height of a kite using as.}


Irony: words that say one thing but mean another.


The Simpsons: “I am so smart, I am so smart, s-m-r-t… I mean s-m-A-r-t.”
{Homer says he’s smart but spells smart wrong.}


Oxymoron: words that obviously contradict each other.


The Simpsons: “I don’t want to go, so if he asks me to go, I’ll just say ‘Yes!’.”
{Homer says he doesn’t want to go, but when asked he will say yes.}


“I’m no supervising technician, I’m a technical supervisor.”
{Homer says he’s not a supervising technician, but contradicts that by saying he is a technical supervisor.}


The Simpsons: “Shut up, Brian, or I’ll stab you with a Q-tip!”
{Homer says that he will stab Brian with a Q-tip when, in fact, a Q-tip would do no damage.}

Someone’s Last Song By Elton John: “And I’ve drunk myself sober.”
{The speaker in this song says that he drank until he was sober, yet this is impossible to do unless he drank himself to death.}