In addition to using words that are vivid and appeal to the reader's senses, an author will use many literary devices in order to bring the characters to life and engage the reader in the story. If you pay attention, you will notice that you use these devices in your everyday conversations.

You were introduced to literary devices in Theme 2, L10 — A3, when you learned about personification and onomatopoeia. 

       

Other common devices that authors use include similes and metaphors. Let’s begin with similes:


By using a simile to compare Alberta to an ice cube, the reader gets a sense as to just how cold it can be.



Metaphors do the same job, but more directly, by actually identifying something as something else:


The reader subconsciously thinks of a blue sky, which makes it clearer just how blue the girl's eyes are.

Similes and metaphors, as well as personification and onomatopoeia, are just some of the literary devices that an author will use to try to recreate an experience for the reader. Click here to see the examples of these and other literary devices.

---