Reviewing Literary Devices & Relating Them to ABC

Hyperbole A hyperbole is a powerful exaggeration made for literary effect. Hyperboles are often used for emphasis, humor, or to reveal a strong feeling or emotion.

Examples Someone might say “this steak is so rare it’s still mooing,” for any of these reasons. Most likely, the speaker is trying to convey her distaste with the rareness of the steak. In American Born Chinese, Chin-kee is a hyperbolic character: everything that he does is exaggerated and taken to the extreme.

Allegory An allegory is a story that serves a purpose and/or has a lesson attached. Often, the characters in the allegory will be symbolic animals (i.e. the slow tortoise and the fast hare). Myths and parables are specific types of allegory.

Examples Someone might use an allegory to teach someone (especially a child) a lesson: for example, children who call attention to false injuries may be reminded of “the boy who cried wolf” – a young boy who shouted for help over and over when he did not need it, and then (when he actually needed help), no one came. In American Born Chinese, the Monkey King’s story is an allegory. The Monkey King serves as a symbol that is meant to teach the readers a lesson.

Allusion An allusion is a reference within a work of literature to a well known person, place, work of art or literature, or character. Allusions are used both to ground the text in something familiar to the reader and to extend the text to ideas within other familiar texts.

Examples The Taylor Swift song “Love Story”is an allusion to the famous Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet and immediately calls to mind both the excitement of love and the tragedy of that which gets in the way. Swift is able to create this connection without saying anything other than Romeo’s name. In American Born Chinese, Yang makes many allusions to historical and mythical figures from Chinese history including the monkey king (an actual famous Chinese myth), Confucius, and Tze-Yo-Tzuh.

Symbolism A symbol is a person, place, or thing that represents something else. Symbols are usually ordinary objects or people that are meant to stand for larger, less tangible, ideas.

Examples Authors will often call upon animals or objects that hold great significance in your mind to use as symbols (for example, in To Kill a Mockingbird, the mockingbird is a symbol for beauty, peace, and innocence: people who kill them are therefore profoundly evil). In American Born Chinese, one symbolic scene reveals the Monkey King urinating on Tze-Yo-Tzuh’s hand. In this scene, the Monkey King’s resistance to Tze-Yo-Tzuh’s plans for his life is likened to literally urinating on his hand. The novel seems to tell us that refusing God’s will is like peeing on his hand.

Characterization Narrators directly characterize someone when they TELL us a character trait outright. Narrators indirectly characterize someone when you need to infer a quality about a character from something they’ve said or done, or something that someone has said or done to or about or because of them. Characters can be static (flat, unchanging, either “good” or “bad” or “boring”) or dynamic (changing, complex, hard to define in one word). Most novels have a protagonist (the “good guy” that is the main character) and an antagonist (the “bad guy” who tries to obstruct the success of the protagonist).

Examples Direct—Saying “Superman is the good guy in this story” is an example of direct characterization. Indirect—Having Superman save babies and old ladies leads readers to infer that he is the good guy Static—Lily Dynamic—Jonas Protagonist—Harry Potter, Jonas Antagonist—Voldemort, The Community

Juxtaposition A juxtaposition occurs when two very different (or opposite) objects/ people/ places/ images are placed next to each other either in a piece or literature or an image. Authors juxtapose these objects or characters to emphasize the differences between them and often enhance the irony of a moment.

Examples For example, an author might put describe a poor man’s ragged appearance juxtaposed against the grandeur of the town to emphasize how poor he is (or how rich the other is). In American Born Chinese, the monkeys and the Monkey King are often juxtaposed against the glamorous world of the gods. Furthermore, Chin-kee and Danny are juxtaposed against each other – a stereotypically “normal” white high school teenager and a stereotypically Chinese young man.

Double Entendre A double entendre is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Sometimes results in dirty jokes

Examples “That’s what she said…” In American Born Chinese—”your peaches are looking especially plump today my dear”