Learning Log 5

The unseen are works that one may not be familiar with. One may not recognize the work or have read a little of it. One has to study the work closely and thoroughly to understand most or all of it.

By learning and understanding literary devices, one can understand more of the unfamiliar literary work, such as imagery and figurative language, found in prose and poetry. If one does not try to learn such devices, one will misunderstand some phrases that one may consider literal. If one does not understand the phrase "whining like a kitten", one will think that a baby, for instance, will whine like a kitten. It is written in a way that the baby whines or makes a sound similar to a kitten's whine.

Sound devices are another type of common devices found in the unseen. Onomatopoeia is an interesting device mainly and commonly used in literature works. Onomatopoeia is the formation of words which echo the sounds that they describe, such as quack (sound of a duck), gobble (describes a way of eating) and cackle (a noise or laugh). It allows the reader to be able to imagine the sound easily as one reads the onomatopoeia.

Sentence structures are important elements of literature. If used in the correct way, they can thoroughly describe and emphasize the main idea of the sentence. Oxymora are images or ideas, consisting of two contradicting and opposing ideas, like "open secret", which means that the secret is no longer secret and is already exposed. "Stop motion" is another example - the use of "stopped" images to create motion.