Grammar: Figures of Speech

An allegory is a piece of writing that uses characters or objects to symbolize a particular

An allegory means a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning. It can be a moral or political meaning. The Watsons Go To Birmingham, 1963, a historical fiction novel, by Christopher Paul Curtis is a story about the Watsons driving to Alabama and experienced a horrific bombing that took place at a Baptist church on 16th street. The Watsons are a good example of an allegory because the events in the story often seem symbolic of the events involving Civil Rights and the United States. The Watsons were just a typical family that arrived in Alabama to drop Byron off there. Then, they encountered a problem, which caused the character to change, much like America in the 1960s.

Many authors who write of religious, philosophical, or moral issues frequently use symbolism and allegory to spark the reader’s interest. This style of writing builds on the emotions of the reader. It creates a visual image making the story real and believable.

To set-off phrases that are contradicting or express

Alliteration is defined as the repetition of initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables. It is a literary device that authors use to bring attention to certain important ideas or concepts in stories. Alliterations allow the reader to bring their senses together to hear and feel what they are reading by bring in sounds of the world around us into literate. This helps the reader visualize the story, therefore helping the reader to remember it. It is used in many stories as a way to hide metaphors and other subliminal messages. For example, alliterations with the 's' being the prominent sound could be visualized as a snake slithering, making a character have a slyness about him. Specifically in Anglo-Saxon literature, alliteration is significant because it is how authors organized their poems or stories, includes repetition which aids memorization, and emphasizes important parts of the text that the author wants the audience to know. Alliteration in important in both “The Wanderer” and “The Wife’s Lament” because it helps evoke certain emotions and feelings by using the different functions of alliterative language.

Alliteration enhances the meaning of sentences by making it flow better, it should be considered an artistic choice that the author made, because we could live without it. It helps connect the sentence together because the familiarity of the "P" sound in this sentence keeps the read captivated by the text. He placed the alliteration at the end of the sentence to keep the reader enthralled through the whole sentence, keeps them interested and alert. Without the alliteration the sentence would barely change, it would still be able to make sense it just would not sound as pleasing to the ears as it does with the rhetorical device. The effect of this specific rhetorical device is to draw attention to those specific lines of text, it helps the reader remember what is going on because of how the words are almost rhyming with each other. It also conveys that there is a specific meaning put behind the words that is not picked up through the dictionary

Symbolism is the practice of representing things by means of symbols or of attributing symbolic meanings or significance to objects, events, or ideas. Symbolism is one of the most common practices of writing, and has been used for centuries. Symbols can often tell a story better than a human can because of there deeper meaning. When epic poems became popular during the Anglo-Saxon period they were filled with harrowing tales of bravery, and courage. Epic poems are long narrative poems that often have characters facing impossible tasks and still finding courage to defeat them. While many marvel at the original Anglo-Saxon dialect of Beowulf, Seamus Heany's modern English translation allows all readers to enjoy this tale.

This use of alliteration shows the importance of family standards which is why the letters are repeated. Lee uses alliteration when key details need to be noticed by the reader.

Many authors use symbolism to help their readers grasp the concepts they are trying to convey. They take concrete items or ideas to represent something abstract.

Allegory is defined as a story in which the characters and events are symbols that stand for ideas about human life or for a political or historical situation. The historical fiction novel, The Watsons Go To Birmingham-1963, by Christopher Paul Curtis is about a family who is exposed to racism after traveling from Michigan to Alabama for the first time. It shows a political and societal mess that molds them into new personalities, both dejected and aware of the racial discrimination in America. The Watsons is an excellent example of an allegory, because the events in the story often seem symbolic to events involving the civil rights movement happening at that same time in the United States. In the beginning of the Watsons, they were fun

Allegory: A story in which events are symbolic to a political and/or historical situation. The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963, a historical fiction novel by Christopher Paul Curtis is about a family of five living a regular life, but then they go to Alabama to try to correct Byron, the eldest and a troublemaker, and the Watsons have to deal with the issue of racial discrimination. It’s told from the innocent and naive middle child, Kenny’s perspective. Watsons is a good example of an allegory because the events in the story often seem symbolic to the events involving civil rights in the U.S. The Watsons begins with the characters being mostly unaware of how much of a problem segregation is, but then they encounter an act of racial discrimination and began to change, similar to America’s exposure to the disastrous effects of racism.

Symbolism is a literary technique that is used to clarify the author's intent. Sometimes it is used to great effect, while other times it only seems to muddle the meaning of a passage. In "Young Goodman Brown," Nathaniel Hawthorne uses objects and people as symbols to allegorically reveal his message to the reader.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines an allegory as the expression by means of symbolic fictional figures and actions of truths or generalizations about human existence. The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, is allegorical through its use of symbolic figures and actions. Take Santiago, for instance. Santiago represents the pursuit of one’s Personal Legend—he represents the generalization that humanity’s collective goal is to fulfill their Personal Legends. King Melchizedek symbolizes the catalyst in that pursuit—without him, Santiago would never have started his journey.

Often times great novels and plays allude to religion, to mythology, or to other literary works for dramatic purposes. Shakespearean plays are perfect examples. Allusions help the reader or spectator better understand, through visualization, a character or an event in a novel. In some cases, the characters, the events, or a series of events are structured according to the people and the action in other stories, whether the stories be religious, mythological, classical, or historical. The character or the event, therefore, becomes a prototype of the character or event alluded to. A prototypical character in a novel is usually referred

Also known as turne tale, aversio, and aversion. Apostrophe defined as addressing someone absent or something non human as if it was a live and present and could reply to what is being said (Perrine, 1977:65).Apostrophe is also a form of personification in which nonhuman or in animate thing is directly addressed as if it were human or animate.