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Identifying uses of figurative language Videos 7 videos

AP English Literature and Composition 1.1 Passage Drill 1
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AP® English Literature and Composition Passage Drill 1, Problem 1. Which literary device is used in lines 31 to 37?

AP English Literature and Composition 1.6 Passage Drill 3
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AP English Literature and Composition 1.6 Passage Drill 3. To what is war being compared in line 2?

AP English Literature and Composition 1.2 Passage Drill 5
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AP English Literature and Composition 1.2 Passage Drill 5. What is being personified?

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AP English Literature and Composition 1.5 Passage Drill 7 209 Views


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Description:

AP English Literature and Composition 1.5 Passage Drill 7. In lines 34 through 37, what technique does the author use to describe the family's desperate situation?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

You can't handle the Shmoop!

00:08

This passage wants you to hit pause and read over it one more time. Hey, don't look at

00:13

us. It's the passage that's needy.

00:44

In lines 33 through 37, what technique does the author use to describe the family's desperate situation?

00:51

And here are the potential answers...

00:55

We've got another "technique" question on our hands here...

00:58

...which means we're going to need to know the meaning of terms like "paradox," "personification,"

01:02

"hyperbole," "metaphor" and "understatement."

01:07

If we don't, we're going to be in more trouble than a traitor caught delivering government secrets to the enemy.

01:17

Let's check out the portion of the passage in question...

01:20

..."impressed with the necessity of making some provision for his family, was seriously

01:24

revolving in his mind a little commercial speculation of insuring his life next quarter-day,

01:29

and then falling from the top of the Monument by accident."

01:34

A paradox is a statement that contradicts itself, but is still kinda true—that doesn't

01:42

apply here.

01:44

It's also not a personification of the Monument as a killer. It would be Mr. Nickleby doing

01:50

the killing, as he'd be throwing himself off the Monument.

01:55

You're not going to arrest Brutus' knife for the murder of Caesar, are you?

02:00

It's not a hyperbolic statement about the necessity of life insurance...

02:04

...life insurance is mentioned but it isn't the focus here.

02:07

It's the Nickleby's dire financial situation that's the star of the show.

02:11

And it's not a metaphor, because there's nothing here that stands for something else.

02:15

So it's got to be E, an understatement about committing suicide.

02:19

By comparing the casual consideration of committing suicide for insurance money to any other commercial speculation...

02:26

...the author is making an understatement about the gravity of such ponderings.

02:30

However, it's nothing compared to the gravity involved in throwing yourself off a monument.

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