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Grade 9 · English Language Arts · Unit 5 of 10

Literary Devices

Allusion, analogy, juxtaposition, flashback

What your child practises

Spotting allusion (a reference to something well known), analogy, juxtaposition (contrasts side by side) and flashback in short original excerpts, and explaining why a writer chooses them.

Ontario Curriculum expectation: C3.1 · allusion, analogy, juxtaposition and flashback

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Why might a writer use a flashback?

    • To confuse the reader on purpose
    • To repeat the same event
    • To skip the ending
    • To give background that explains a character's present choices
    Show answer

    To give background that explains a character's present choices

    Hint: Showing the past can explain why a character acts as they do now.

  2. Question 2

    Why might a writer use juxtaposition?

    • To highlight a contrast so the reader notices a difference
    • To change the narrator
    • To shorten the story
    • To make two ideas sound identical
    Show answer

    To highlight a contrast so the reader notices a difference

    Hint: Putting opposites together makes each stand out more.

  3. Question 3

    A chapter opens on a stormy night, then jumps to “three years earlier,” when the characters were laughing at a picnic. What is this device?

    • juxtaposition
    • analogy
    • flashback
    • allusion
    Show answer

    flashback

    Hint: The jump back in time is a flashback.

  4. Question 4

    “Like a compass without a needle, the room had lost its direction” is an example of…

    The Old Radio

    The old radio crackled once and went silent. Kenji turned the dial, and for a moment he was back in his grandfather's workshop, sawdust on his sleeves, listening to a hockey game on a rainy night.

    Now the workshop was cold and bare. On the empty bench, a single shiny screw sat beside a pile of dust. Like a compass without a needle, the room had lost its direction.

    • allusion
    • analogy
    • flashback
    • juxtaposition
    Show answer

    analogy

    Hint: It compares the room to a familiar object that has lost its purpose.

  5. Question 5

    Why might an author use an analogy in an explanation?

    • To explain an unfamiliar idea through a familiar one
    • To hide the main idea
    • To avoid explaining anything
    • To make the text rhyme
    Show answer

    To explain an unfamiliar idea through a familiar one

    Hint: A familiar comparison helps the reader understand something new.

  6. Question 6

    Why does the writer include the flashback?

    The Key

    Noor held the brass key in the palm of her hand and felt the cold go up her arm.

    She was suddenly eight again, standing on her grandmother's porch in the rain. Back then, the key had belonged to a gate that never seemed to open. Her grandmother had said, “Some things are only locked until you are ready.”

    Now Noor stood in front of the same gate, older and quieter. The garden beyond it was overgrown. Beside the broken fountain, a single new tulip stood bright red.

    • It makes the story funnier
    • It shows why the key and the gate matter to Noor
    • It changes the story's setting for good
    • It introduces a new narrator
    Show answer

    It shows why the key and the gate matter to Noor

    Hint: The memory gives the key emotional meaning.

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