Allegory - is a literary device used to express large, complex ideas in an approachable manner. Allegory allows writers to create some distance between themselves and the issues they are discussing, especially when those issues are strong critiques of political or societal realities, Allusion - is a popular literary device used to develop characters, frame storylines, and help create associations to well-known works. Allusions can reference anything from Victorian fairy tales and popular culture to the Bible and the Bard. Take the popular expression “Bah humbug”—an allusion that references Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol., Anachronism - Imagine reading a story about a caveman who microwaves his dinner, or watching a film adaptation of a Jane Austen novel in which the characters text each other instead of writing letters. These circumstances are examples of anachronisms, or an error in chronology—the kind that makes audiences raise their eyebrows or do a double-take., Foreshadowing - slyly indicating a future event, is one technique a writer can use to create and build suspense., Imagery  - the use of figurative language to evoke a sensory experience in the reader. When a poet uses descriptive language well, they play to the reader’s senses, providing them with sights, tastes, smells, sounds, internal and external feelings, and even deep emotion., Metaphor - a figure of speech that directly compares one thing to another for rhetorical effect., Simile - create a comparison using like and as. For example, from Forrest Gump: “Life is like a box of chocolates.”, Analogy - showing how two things are alike—but with the ultimate goal of making a point. The point is not merely to show, but also to explain., Motif - is a repeated element that has symbolic significance to a story. Sometimes a motif is a recurring image. Sometimes it’s a repeated word or phrase or topic. A motif can be a recurrent situation or action. It can be a sound or a smell or a temperature or a color. The defining aspect is that a motif repeats, and through this repetition, a motif helps to illuminate the central ideas, themes, and deeper meaning of the story in which it appears., Symbol - uses symbols as stand-ins to represent something beyond the literal meaning. All symbolism is united by the concept of a word or object representing something beyond its literal meaning., Personification - assigning human attributes to a non-human entity or inanimate object in an effort to express a point or idea in a more colorful, imaginative way., Vignettes - Vignettes step away from the action momentarily to zoom in for a closer examination of a particular character, concept, or place. Writers use vignettes to shed light on something that wouldn’t be visible in the story’s main plot.,

Literary Devices

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