Lit Terms

Term: Allegory; (N) a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one

Example: AVATAR! There are obvious layers of allegory in the movie Avatar. The Pandora woods are a lot like the Amazon rain forest (the movie stops in its tracks for a heavy ecological speech or two), and the attempt to get the Na'vi to 'cooperate' carries overtones of the U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Function: An author would reach the reader on a personal level by using imagery to catch their attention, then with the use of allegory, relate the story to a larger idea. Allegory could be used to persuade and/or inform, through the use of entertainment.

Term:Alliteration; (N) the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.

Example: Jacob jumped jubilantly, justifying Jesse's job.

Function: Alliteration occurs when the initial sounds of a word, beginning either with a consonant or a vowel, are repeated in close succession. The function of alliteration, like rhyme, might be to accentuate the beauty of language in a given context, or to unite words or concepts through a kind of repetition. Alliteration, like rhyme, can follow specific patterns. Sometimes the consonants aren't always the initial ones, but they are generally the stressed syllables. Alliteration is less common than rhyme, but because it is less common, it can call our attention to a word or line in a poem that might not have the same emphasis otherwise.