AP English Language and Composition Resource
Adapted from V. Stevenson, Patrick Henry High School, and Abrams? Glossary of Literary Terms Terms ? AP English Language and Composition These terms should be of use to you in answering the multiple-choice questions, analyzing prose passages, and composing your essays. allegory ? The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning. In some allegories, for example, an author may intend the characters to personify an abstraction like hope or freedom. The allegorical meaning usually deals with moral truth or a generalization about human existence.