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Question 1

What is personification?

Answer 1

Personification is where an abstract concept, such as a particular human behavior or a force, is represented as a person.

Example: The Greeks personified natural forces as gods; for example, the god Poseidon was the personification of nature.

Question 2

What is anthropomorphism?

Answer 2

Anthropomorphism is not to be confused with personification. It is where inanimate objects or abstract concepts are seemingly endowed with human self-awareness; where human thoughts, actions and perceptions are directly attributed to a text.

Question 3

What is parallelism?

Answer 3

Parallelism is the use of similar or identical language, structures, events, or ideas in different parts of a text.

Example: A Tale of Two Cities opens with the famous paradox, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

Question 4

What is a paradox?

Answer 4

A paradox is where a situation is created which cannot possibly exist, because different elements of it cancel each other out.

Example: In 1984, “doublethink” refers to the paradox where history is changed, and then claimed to have never been changed.

Question 5

What is an oxymoron?

Answer 5

An oxymoron is a contradiction in terms.

Example: Romeo describes love using several oxymorons, such as “cold fire,” “feather of lead” and “sick health.”

Question 6

What is onomatopoeia?

Answer 6

Onomatopoeia is where sounds are spelled out as words; or, when words describing sounds actually sound like the sounds they describe.

Example: Remarque uses onomatopoeia to suggest the dying soldier’s agony, his last gasp described as a “gurgling rattle.”

Question 7

What is a metaphor?

Answer 7

A metaphor is a direct relationship where one thing or idea substitutes for another.

Example: Shakespeare often uses light as a metaphor for Juliet; Romeo refers to her as the sun, as “a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear,” and as a solitary dove among crows.