15 Must Know Rhetorical Terms for AP® English Literature
The repetition of the same initial consonants of words or of stressed syllables in any sequence of neighboring words
Purpose: Alliteration highlights a particular part of a piece through the repetition of initial consonants. The repetition of certain sounds creates emphasizes not only the words in the passage themselves but on the pattern, creating a musical effect.
Example: American Airlines, Best Buy, Coca-Cola
An indirect or passing reference to an event, person, place, or artistic work
Purpose: Allusion allows the audience to connect the characteristics of one object/concept to another. More often than not, an allusion in a literary work refers to some feature of another, previous literary work.
Example: One everyday example of an allusion is “This place is a Garden of Eden.” Literally, the place probably isn’t evocative of the biblical Garden of Eden in the Book of Genesis, but the intended meaning is that the setting is a paradise.
Comparing two things or instances in time often based on their structure and used to explain a complex idea in simpler terms
Purpose: Analogies are typically used to clarify or explain an author’s idea to the reader by likening a new idea to an older, better known one. They typically appear as similes that allow the reader to more easily understand the author’s meaning. It’s important for the reader to be able to understand or able to infer using context clues the meaning of the comparison.
Example: An everyday example of an analogy that appears as a simile is “nails on a chalkboard.” Readers understand the assaulting sound of nails on a chalkboard and are encouraged to liken it to some new occurrence that is assaulting or annoying.