Didacticism Meiosis Idioms Metonymy

Didacticism Idioms Charles Dickens frequently sought to educate Some of the most readers on the conditions the poor faced to raise commonly used idioms include: sympathy for those less fortunate. Such is the case in Oliver Twist: A penny for your thoughts. “So they established the rule that all poor people Add insult to injury. should have the alternative (for they would compel nobody, not they) of being starved by a gradual Back to the drawing board. process in the house, or by a quick one out of it. With this view, they contracted with the waterworks Beat around the bush. to lay on an unlimited supply of water, and with a corn-factor to supply periodically small quantities of Don’t judge a book by its cover. oatmeal, and issued three meals of thin gruel a Don’t cry over spilt milk. day, with an onion twice a week and half a roll on Sundays.” Curiosity killed the cat. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Feeling under the weather. It was a piece of cake. Make a long story short. See eye-to-eye. Taste of one’s own medicine. The last straw. Your guess is as good as mine. Metonymy Other stories include Aesop’s fables, which each contain a moral as to how one should behave. When people refer to celebrity life and culture as “Hollywood” or royalty as “the crown”, they are using metonymy (which is sometimes considered a specific form of synecdoche, or “the whole”). Meiosis Other examples include: Silicon Valley (the technology industry) Calling the period of violence in Northern Ireland The press (any media outlet) “The Troubles” or referring to the Civil War as “Our recent unpleasantness” are both examples of The Golden Arches (McDonald’s) meiosis. So is calling the Atlantic Ocean “the pond.” Romeo and Juliet’s Mercutio employs the most famous meiosis of all time when he announces, as he dies from a mortal wound, “I am hurt. Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch.” Top Three Epigraphs from Literature Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten. — G.K. Chesterson (Coraline, Neil Gaimon) Lawyers, I suppose, were children once. – Charles Lamb (To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee) NOTICE Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR Per G.G., Chief of Ordnance. (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain) Trope Trope is a figure of speech in which the speaker or writer intends for the reader to see another meaning, other than the literal. It could be a word, a phrase, or an image used to create artistic effect. Trope is classified into several different types, including, but not limited to: allegory, irony, hyperbole, metaphor, metonymy, personification, pun, simile and synecdoche. For example, William Shakespeare opens Romeo and Juliet with the line: “Two households, both alike in dignity” suggesting the Capulets and Montagues are respectable families; however, the reader comes to understand the families are anything but noble. A trope is a writer’s device that often plays into stereotypes and presumed expectations, refusing to embody any originality of thought. An archetype is a fundamental human motif that exists in universal myth.” – Lupita Nyong’o Anaphora Hypophora Anaphora is most common in speeches and Hypophora is frequently evidenced through the literature, such as Robert Frost’s poem “Acquainted character Daisy in The Great Gatsby: with the Night”: “Why candles?” objected Daisy, frowning. She I have been one acquainted with the night. snapped them out with her fingers. “In two weeks I have walked out in rain—and back in rain. it’ll be the longest day in the year.” She looked at us I have outwalked the furthest city light. all radiantly. “Do you always watch for the longest I have looked down the saddest city lane. day of the year and then miss it? I always watch for I have passed by the watchman on his beat the longest day in the year and then miss it.” And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain. Epiphora Imagery Stephen King is considered a master of imagery, as John F. Kennedy’s speech, “The Strategy for evidenced from this excerpt from Salem’s Lot: Peace” demonstrates epiphora: “The house itself looked toward town. It was huge “The United States, as the world knows, will never and rambling and sagging, its windows haphazardly start a war. We do not want war. We do not now boarded shut, giving it that sinister look of all old expect a war.” houses that have been empty for a long time. The paint had been weathered away, giving the house a uniform gray look. Windstorms had ripped many of the shingles off, and a heavy snowfall had punched in the west corner of the main roof, giving it a thumped, hunched look. A tattered no trespassing sign was nailed to the right-hand newel post.” Malapropism Satire Malapropisms are sometimes called acyrologia, or When an author uses exaggeration, irony or humor Dogberryisms, based on a character is to criticize a person or society, satire is present. It Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing. They often points out the foolishness of a group or idea. are often funny: In Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” he “You shouldn’t take anything for granite (granted).” proposes that all children should be eaten to deal with London’s overcrowding situation. “He hits from both sides of the plate. He’s amphibious (ambidextrous).” In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the author satirizes religious hypocrisy: Supposively/supposably (supposedly), Dan works “There weren’t anybody at the church, except nights as a waiter to make ends meet. maybe a hog or two, for there weren’t any lock on For all intensive (intents and) purposes. the door, and hogs likes a puncheon floor in summer-time because it’s cool. If you notice, most I could of/would of/should of (could have/would folks don’t go to church only when they’ve got to; have/should have) studied for the vocabulary test. but a hog is different.” but practiced the piccolo instead. Paradox A paradox is used to challenge the mind and make the reader think in a new way: You can save money by spending it. The second sentence is false. The first sentence is true. I know one thing is true: that I know nothing at all. “War is peace” – George Orwell “I must be cruel to be kind” – William Shakespeare in Hamlet Zeugma Asyndeton A figure of speech applied to multiple parts of the The concept of omitting conjunctions for effect. For sentence: example: She opened her door, and her heart, to the orphan. Read, write, learn. She killed time, and the mailman. Reduce, reuse, recycle. His boat, and his dreams, sank. He milked the situation, and the cow. She stole the show and my wallet. On the farm, I grew potatoes, and bored. Allegory Cliché Although many allegories are religious in nature A term or phrase that has been used so often, it no (i.e. The Old Man and the Sea, The Chronicles of longer holds meaning: Narnia), that is not always the case. Two other examples include: In the nick of time. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, animalism At the speed of light. represents communism, and the Manor Farm is Lost track of time. symbolic of Russia. The plot parallels the Russian Revolution of 1917. I was frightened to death. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, the speaker I fell head over heels for my college boyfriend. suggests two worlds, one of education and awareness (outside the cave/the light) and one of This is the quiet before the storm. obliviousness and submission (inside the cave/the dark) .

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