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What are five literary elements in A Northern Light?
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Literary elements in A Northern Light include the non-fictional element, the sequence of storytelling, parallelism, flashbacks, allusions, and theme. The book A Northern Light has many literary elements. One is the non-fiction about Grace Brown. The other is how it is written in different time frames. In each chapter you have to read what happens before Mattie gets to the Glenmore Hotel and what she does while working there. There are also letters that weave in throughout each chapter as well as a lot of metaphors that describe things that happen at the hotel and her life before working there.A unique aspect of A Northern Light is the nonfiction element. This is a fictional novel about the made up character Mattie Gokey, but the novel features the real life murder of Grace Brown. Jennifer Donnelly mingles this historical event into her novel.
Another interesting literary element is the timeline or sequence of storytelling. The novel is from the point of view of Mattie, but the narrative moves between two timelines: Mattie's employment at the Glenmore Hotel where Grace is killed, and Mattie's life leading up to her working at the Hotel to save money for school. The chapters alternate between the present and the past.
The storytelling sequence creates an element of parallelism. We are reading two stories at the same time, and therefore can draw parallels between Mattie in the past and Mattie at the Glenmore.
You could also call the chapters about Mattie's past as flashbacks.
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You could also call the chapters about Mattie's past as flashbacks.
One literary device found throughout the book is allusion. Mattie wants to be a writer, so there are many allusions to other writers and literary works, such as Lousia May Alcott, Jane Austen, and Shakespeare.
Letters are an important motif. Not only are letters related to writing (Mattie's passion), but also both Grace and Mattie write letters that are key to the story. Before Grace is killed, she gives Mattie letters to be burned. Mattie has the internal conflict of deciding what to do with the letters once she learns of Grace's death. At the end of the novel, Grace writes three letters: one to her father, one to Royal, and one to Weaver's mother.
Theme is a literary element. Themes in A Northern Light include coming of age, duty and responsibility, and appearance versus reality.
One can find five literary elements (or figurative language) in the opening chapter of Jennifer Donnelly's novel A Northern Light.
Personification- Personification is the giving of human characteristics and abilities to nonhuman and nonliving things. The opening line of the novel is an example of personification.
When summer comes to the North Woods, time slows down.
Here, both summer and time are personified. Summer has the ability to slow down time. Time, given it is constant, is able to slow as well. Summer is given the ability to slow something (which it cannot) and time is able to slow (which it cannot do either).
Another example of personification is found a little farther down the first page.
Locusts whir in the birches, coaxing you out of the sun.
Locusts are given the ability to coax (something humans can do).
Metaphor- A metaphor is a comparison between two typically unlike things. The following is an example of a metaphor from chapter one:
The sky, gray and lowering for much of the year, becomes an ocean of blue.
Here, the sky is compared to an ocean.
Hyperbole- A hyperbole is an obvious exaggeration.
Old Mrs. Ellis will stay on the porch until the end of time.
Readers know that it is physically impossible for Mrs. Ellis to rap her cane on the porch until the end of time. This is an obvious exaggeration.
Imagery- Imagery is the ability for a person to create a mental picture of what the author is describing (based upon an appeal to the reader's senses).
In the opening paragraph, imagery is used. "Pinning wet sheets to the line" appeals to the reader's sense of touch and sight. The reader can picture wet sheets being hung. The reader may also be able to "feel" dampness on their fingers if they are familiar with hanging sheets out to dry.
Irony- Irony is defined as the difference between what is expected to happen and the actual outcome. IN some cases, verbal irony can be significant. Verbal irony is the difference between what is said and what is meant.
When the speaker states, "I believe these things. Because I am good at telling myself lies," she is being ironic. One cannot believe in something when they know that it is false.