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AP English Literature and Composition 1.1 Passage Drill 1 1039 Views


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AP® English Literature and Composition Passage Drill 1, Problem 1. Which literary device is used in lines 31 to 37?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

Here's your shmoop du jour... Settle into your favorite chair, hit pause,

00:07

and read the following passage...

00:25

Which literary device is used in lines 31 to 37?

00:29

And here are the potential answers...

00:33

Okay, so this question wants to know if we can define and identify each of the literary

00:37

devices it's throwing at us.

00:39

Or... at least the one being used here... First let's zero in on the lines in question...

00:44

Lines 31 through 37.

00:46

So it's all the "happy this, happy that" silliness. Now... what device is being used here?

00:52

Let's take 'em one by one.

00:54

A -- Ellipsis. An ellipsis isn't just a noncommittal way to finish a sentence in an email.

01:00

In a narrative, it usually replaces a word or event that’s implied by the surrounding

01:05

text, and can be just a single dot rather than three.

01:09

We don't see any place in these lines where dots are being used to replace an event...

01:13

so let's nix A. B -- Parallelism. Ooh -- could be.

01:18

The speaker is talking about how the nation is happy, and then how the people are happy, and then

01:23

how the struldbrugs are happy... whatever they are.

01:27

Forgive us for jumping subjects for a moment here, but... remember parallel lines in algebra?

01:33

Each is its own line,

01:34

but each is oriented similarly to every other line that is parallel to it.

01:38

Same thing when talking about parallelism in literature. So B is a definite contender.

01:44

What about C -- Metaphor? A metaphor is a kind of comparison...

01:48

...and while you could compare each of the things the speaker is calling happy...

01:53

...he isn't doing any comparing himself. So it can't be C.

01:56

D -- Metonymy is out, too, because nothing in this part of the passage is being referred

02:01

to by something closely associated with it.

02:04

And E -- Alliteration -- can get scratched as well.

02:06

Alliteration is the repeating of sounds at the beginning of words... and we don't have

02:12

that here. Shucks... sure is a shame, Shmoopers. Get it?

02:20

So B -- parallelism -- that's our guy.

02:23

Sorry... we'll try to go a few more problems without bringing up algebra again.

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