Literary Devices
1. Flashback: Interruption of the chronological order to show something that occurred before the beginning of the story. It usually gives background information the reader or audience needs to understand the present action.
2. Simile: comparison or two things using the words “like” or “as”.
3. Metaphor: comparison of two things essentially different but with some commonalities; does not use “like” or “as”.
4. Personification: human qualities attributed to an animal, object, or idea.
5. Imagery: words or phrases that appeal to the readers’ senses-smell, sight, taste, touch, hearing. It is used to create pictures in the readers mind.
- Katniss has many flashbacks throughout The Hunger Games. One example of a flashback that Katniss has in the novel is when Peeta’s name is chosen at the reaping. Katniss is bothered by the fact that Peeta’s name was chosen. The author uses Katniss’s flashback to give the reader background information needed to understand Katniss and Peeta’s connection to each other. “Our only real interaction happened years ago. He’s probably forgotten it. But I haven’t and I know I never will…It was during the worst time. My father had been killed in the mine accident three months earlier…” (Collins 26).
2. Simile: comparison or two things using the words “like” or “as”.
- Similes are used many times throughout The Hunger Games. For example: “Prim’s face is as fresh as a raindrop, as lovely as the primrose for which she was named” (Collins 3). The similes in this sentence are comparing Prim to a raindrop and a primrose, which explains that Prim is beautiful.
3. Metaphor: comparison of two things essentially different but with some commonalities; does not use “like” or “as”.
- Metaphors are another use of figurative language used frequently throughout the novel. One of the most popular ones is “Katniss, the girl who was on fire” (Collins 67). This relates Katniss to fire; she was not literally on fire.
4. Personification: human qualities attributed to an animal, object, or idea.
- Personification is used throughout The Hunger Games. For example: “With both of us hunting daily, there are still nights when game has to be swapped for lard or shoelaces or wool, still nights when we go to bed with our stomachs growling” (Collins 9). This personification is used to explain that even though Gale and Katniss hunt there are still nights when they go to bed hungry their stomachs don’t literally growl.
5. Imagery: words or phrases that appeal to the readers’ senses-smell, sight, taste, touch, hearing. It is used to create pictures in the readers mind.
- Imagery is used a lot throughout the novel. An example of imagery is when Katniss finds Peeta very badly wounded and tries to heal him during the Games. “The deep inflamed gash oozing both blood and pus. The swelling of the leg. And worst of all, the smell of festering flesh” (Collins 256). The words in this sentence are carefully chosen to put a picture in the reader’s mind of how bad the wound really was.