Rhetorical Devices Used In Literature

A literary technique is a device employed in literature to add depth to a writer’s work. These techniques can be obvious, such as the technique of rhyme in a poem, or subtle, such as juxtaposition, which can go unnoticed by the reader. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien uses many such techniques to provide more depth to his book. Four literary techniques used by Tim O’Brien are symbolism, pathetic fallacy, irony, and juxtaposition.

Inside, he sees many positive signs such as pets, a fire burning in the hearth, and pleasant furniture. To end the scene, Mr. Weaver feels compelled by these qualities in the boardinghouse to walk up to the door and knock, which is when the Landlady swiftly answers. I s1believe the inclusion of this segment in the short story was paramount.

Throughout the year I have not only come to have a further understanding of literature and writing, but I have also gained the skill of analyzing works of literature and my own Essays while considering devices. Later in the year we focused on a short story by Mark Twain called The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County; after reading it, we were challenged to analyze the text through our understanding of literary and rhetorical devices.

Countless works of literature have sentimentalized the house as a space of sanctuary; however, in time the house came to incorporate the mysterious also, as haunted houses allowed the supernatural to dwell alongside the living. Fictional narratives have long since utilized the house as a venue for character and situation to develop, dispersing opportunities for authors to bring symbolism and metaphor to their works. Julio Cortázar drew upon the house setting in his short stories “Bestiary” and “House Taken Over”, not just as a venue for his tales to play out, but as places that echoed the themes, character, and structure for the unusual could enter and abide. Cortázar’s treatment of the bizarre as a part of the natural family life of the house,

aims his focal point at imagery to provide vivid and rich details. Literary devices play a crucial

The narrators alternate, showcasing the fluctuating levels of coherence, understanding and emotional strength. The dialect differs from character to character and the language each character uses, varies on level of intensity and subjectivity. Each character’s speech varies from being confessional to teetering on the line of awareness and consciousness. The characters each have their own view on life and on the way Addie Bundren lived her life: through these alternate character’s eyes, we can piece together the bits and pieces of Addie’s life, death and the haulage of her decaying body to Jefferson. The narrative seems to be fragmented however, it also exhibits a type of unity. The story takes place over the course of a few days yet the differing “sub-plots are logically and skillfully interwoven” (Ross 309). Faulkner forces the reader to see the narrative from multiple perspectives.

The stream of consciousness is a continuous flow of sequenced ideas formed by the mind. This method, referred to as the stream of consciousness, can be extremely useful to those who love to create stories or any form of writing for that matter. Many people who’ve encountered writers block will use the stream of consciousness as a way of getting out of the slump they’ve been in. I have also used this method before when attempting to write a story. Occasionally, when looking over my stories, I would realize many connections that originally went unnoticed. This relates to the process used in “A Way of Writing” because they both are an endless surge of ideas that will sometimes link

Some people will claim this is not horror because it isn’t very graphic or horrifying. However, horror stories do not need gruesome scenes to be horror. The Landlady has suspense. For example, in the story, it says, “He pressed the bell. Far away in a back room he heard it ringing, and then at once—it must have been at once because he hadn’t even had time to take his finger from the bell-button—the door swung open and a woman was standing there” (Dahl 166). This is when Billy Weaver is mysteriously drawn to the bed and breakfast sign and waits suspensefully at the door. Before even taking his finger off the doorbell, the Landlady swings the door open. This relates to suspense in the Landlady because it was weird and creepy how drawn he was to the sign and very suspenseful to see what was behind the door. The sign also gave a kind of odd feel to the paragraph making it suspenseful to see was inside and beyond the door. The Landlady also has dark and creepy settings. For example, later in the story it says, “’And have you met my little Basil as well?’ She nodded toward the dachshund curled up so comfortably in front of the fire. Billy looked at it. And suddenly, he realized that this animal had all the time been just as silent and motionless as the parrot. He put out a hand and touched it gently on top of its back. The

In the author's life he had witnessed his father's death at a young age, Wes wasn’t completely sure as to what was happening until he had gotten older. Without his father Wes had his grandparents and his mother to take care of him, but before Wes had moved in with his grandparents his mother had been sleeping on the couch and she claimed she did that because there had been many robberies in their neighborhood lately and she wanted to protect her children. Wes really knew why she had been sleeping on the couch and it was because it “allowed her avoid the haunted bedroom”.

Stream-of-Consciousness: Writing in which a character's perceptions, thoughts, and memories are presented in an apparently random form, without regard for logical sequence, chronology, or syntax

So, the stream of consciousness is a narrative technique which has been developed by so many writers, essayist, and novelists, but the most well known is that Virginia Woolf is considered as the forerunner of this style of writing and that what was affirmed by Maria T(2005) when she said: Influenced by the works of French writer Marcel Proust and Irish writer James Joyce, among others, Woolf strove to create a literary form that would convey inner life. To this end, she elaborated a technique known as Stream of

Thoughts, emotions, and motives make up whom a person is. These are the same things that make up the characters in some of the most famous literary works. Stream of consciousness shows the thoughts, feelings, and ideas of a character through the character’s point of view. Stream of consciousness is a writing tool used most notably in the early twentieth century, during the rise of modernism. Another description for stream of consciousness is interior monologue. This interior monologue gives the reader a look into the thoughts that drives the character to their actions. William James explains the term in The Principles of Psychology, stating, “Consciousness, then, does not appear to itself chopped up in bits. Such

Simile. Metaphor. Onomatopoeia. We are taught these terms in elementary school and soon forget them, but they are some of the most important tools authors can use to make their characters more captivating and their narrative more convincing. Each writer’s style is as unique as a fingerprint; the particular pattern of loops and whorls, so to speak, depends in part on their use of these literary modes. The literary fingerprint of William Faulkner, while typically adhering to standard rules of writing, is recognized by its use of stream of consciousness techniques, a term coined by psychologist William James in 1890 (Pomerleau). This form of writing attempts to break free of previous literary conventions in an effort to portray thoughts and

The short story, The Open Window, by Saki (H.H. Munro) is a story that displays different points of views and how deception is developed through them. This niece from the story tells makes it seem as if her aunt's husband and the aunts brothers had disappeared on a hunting trip many years ago. She says that the bodies were never found and that her aunt left the window open all the time, in hopes that they would return home with the dog they took. In reality, the boys had just gone out that day and were supposed to be returning soon. As the aunt waited for them and kept looking through the window, Mr. Nuttel saw it as crazy. When they returned, he freaked out and left because he viewed the situation as paranormal, like they were ghosts. The aunt questioned why Mr. Nuttel left so fast and was told by the niece that it was because he was afraid of dogs. In, The

One of which is the fact Elizabeth discovers a picture of a young boy aged around 10, who used to live in their new house. The father then places the picture on the mantelpiece, and from that point on Elizabeth begins to believe that the house is haunted. It says; "I hear somebody fall and the noise of the beams holding the house up jolting hard, creaking in the wind. I can just about see the outline of our bedroom door ajar in the dark. [...]. I can feel the weight of somebody sitting in my bed, somebody watching.” She is terrified, so she rushes to the conclusion that it is the boy from the picture that is haunting the house, afterwards she attempts to make the mother burn the picture by placing it in the