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Definition. Mixed metaphors are figures of speech that combine inconsistent or contradictory metaphors within the same expression, often leading to humorous or nonsensical results.
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A mixed metaphor is a mixture of two or more dissimilar, figurative elements, like metaphors, similes, and idioms, which in turn, lead to the silly or even confusing effect. This is likely to occur when you are creative and borrow ideas from various quarters or contexts potentially rendering your statement nonsensical or with disjointed ideas.
Jun 21, 2022 · Mixed Metaphors Explained: 8 Examples of Mixed Metaphors. A well-crafted metaphor uses consistent imagery ("hitting the nail on the head”); when you start mixing imagery ("hitting the nail on the nose"), you can create a type of malapropism known as a mixed metaphor.
- Parable
- Paradox
- Parallelism
- Parody
- Personification
- Plot
- Point of View
- Polysyndeton
- Prologue
- Prose
A short story devised to provide a moral or spiritual lesson, often using metaphor, simile, or symbolism to make the moral more accessible to the audience. Jesus’s parable of the Good Samaritan in the Bible explores the meaning of one of the Ten Commandments, to “love thy neighbor as thyself.” In the story, a traveler is beaten, robbed, and left fo...
A provocative statement that contradicts itself yet is typically true in some sense. In George Orwell’s 1984,two of the official slogans of the Party serve as stark examples of paradox: “WAR IS PEACE” and “FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.” Although these statements appear to be patently false, they embody two of the twisted, elemental truths propagated by the P...
The repetition of similar grammatical structures within a sentence or passage, often for emphasis or to draw connections between objects. Great orators often employparallelism to make their ideas memorable. Consider the underlined phrases in this line from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which uses parallel structure to highlight...
In literature, an imitation of another literary work that mocks, critiques, or makes light of the original. “For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls,” by Christopher Durang, is a one-act parody of The Glass Menagerie, caricaturing the overbearing Southern mother and exaggerating the idiosyncrasies of the other three characters.
A type of metaphor in which human attributes are assigned to inanimate objects or abstract ideas. Zora Neale Hurston uses personification throughout Their Eyes Were Watching Godto powerful effect, such as here, near the end of the novel, once Janie is home again and after Pheoby has left her: “The day of the gun, and the bloody body, and the courth...
The sequence of major events of a narrative or dramatic work, usually consisting of five basic elements: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. The plotof most romantic comedies can be succinctly described as: two people meet, they fall in love, they experience some challenge and break up, they cross paths again, they re...
The perspective from which the events of a story are reported to the reader or audience. Point of view can limit or expand the reader’s access to information about the action of the story, as well as the internal lives of the characters. In novels, there are three basic types of point of view: first-person, third-person, and less commonly, second-p...
The repetition of conjunctions (and, but, for, etc.) to connect a series of words, clauses, or sentences. Polysyndeton may emphasize the relationships between the items in the series as well as add rhythm to a list when reciting. One of the most familiar examples of polysyndeton is the motto of the United States Postal Service. “Neither snow nor ra...
An introductory section of a piece of literature, especially of plays, that precedes the inciting action of the story. The prologue is often designed to explain background or reveal context to the audienceso they better understand the story that follows. In the prologue of Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie, Tom Wingfield, the protagonist, ad...
Any form of writing that does not observe the limiting features of verse, particularly line breaks. Prose is the most dominant form of both fiction (novels, short stories, plays) and nonfiction (essays, articles, speeches, emails). Keen readers of Shakespeare will notice that “low-born” characters nearly always speak in prose, while their high-born...
Jul 18, 2023 · This book explores how grief and memory are intertwined - and what could happen if you start to lose your memories. Theo and Reef are two boys in the same town, but that’s about where the similarities end. They attend different schools, have different interests, and live in very different homes.
The best-selling Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (formerly the Concise dictionary) provides clear, concise, and often witty definitions of the most troublesome literary terms from abjection to zeugma.
