Literary Devices In Anne Bradstreet, Phillis Wheatley, And Jonathan Edwards

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Literary devices are ultimately used in efforts of leading the audience to a better understanding of the author’s main point. The use of literary devices within the works that we have read throughout the semester have portrayed themselves to be strategic, to say the least. Literary devices such as metaphors, similes, alliterations, puns, and personification help to justify what the speaker is informing the audience of. In an attempt to explain the meaning of the work at hand, authors use literary devices to further verify a point, progress an argument, or to build a specific way of structure. Personally, in the analysis of Anne Bradstreet, Phillis Wheatley, and Jonathan Edwards’ notable poems and sermons, the great use of literary devices helped …show more content…

More than just the simile “cool as a cucumber,” these authors establish an essence of connections in their deep-rooted beliefs and topics of discussion. In Jonathon Edwards’ sermon, this commonality is depicted through “The God that holds you over the put of Hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire…” (Edwards 436). This not only draws a connection, but also establishes the feelings Edwards’ has for those who have not committed to God as feelings of hatred, just as there is a feeling of repulsiveness for spiders. Anne Bradstreet’s use of similes is present in “In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Anne Bradstreet,” where she compares the presence of life that has gone too fast to concepts that many know are temporary, making it easier for the reader to establish the feelings. “I knew she was but as a withering flower, / Like as a bubble, or the brittle glass. / Or like a shadow turning as it was” (9-12), illustrates how she feels that her grandchild’s time was so temporary, like things that individuals know will vanish quickly, in a relatable sense. In the example used previously regarding metaphors in Phillis Wheatley’s “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” there is a simile present as well. “Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain…” (7), connects the biblical figure that is “marked” by God for his sins, and dark-skinned African Americans. All connections show how literary devices, in this case similes, can give the reader a greater level of connection and depiction for what the author is trying to

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