Literary Devices: Allusion, Analogy, Juxtaposition and Flashback

Remember from Grade 8

In Grade 8 you analyzed irony, satire and allusion. Grade 9 deepens allusion and adds three devices you'll meet constantly in high school literature: analogy, juxtaposition and flashback. As always, the question isn't just "Can you spot it?" but "What does it do, and does it suit the audience?"

Hook: the best and the worst

One of the most famous openings in English fiction is from Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859):

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

Why does that work? Because it puts two opposites side by side. A time can't be both best and worst... unless it's a time of huge change, when some people win and others lose. That's juxtaposition, and it makes readers stop and think.

The Last Lap (a short story excerpt written for this website)

(1) The ice resurfacer made its last slow lap of the season, and Mr. Ferreira watched it from the players' bench, the way he had watched for more than sixty years.

(2) He had been nine the first time he came here. It was February 1965, the boards were still wooden, and his father had laced his skates far too tight because he didn't know any better. "Like this," an older girl had said, kneeling to loosen them. Years later, that same girl would become the town's mayor.

(3) Tonight the rink was hushed: one bulb buzzing, the ice glossy as a held breath. Outside, the parking lot was jammed for the opening of the new sports complex, all glass and screens and music; inside, one old man and one old machine finished their work in silence.

(4) Closing a rink, he thought, is like closing a book you've read so many times the spine has gone soft: you know every page, and you still hate to reach the end.

(5) "Well," he told the machine as it rolled to a stop, "it's not exactly the Summit Series, is it?"

1. Allusion

An allusion is a quick reference to something the writer expects you to know. It packs a lot of meaning into a few words, if you recognize it.

• Mythology: Achilles' heel (a single weak spot; the Greek hero could be wounded only at his heel). Pandora's box (something that, once opened, releases many troubles).
• Literature: star-crossed lovers (from the prologue of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet).
• History and sport: sentence (5) alludes to the 1972 Summit Series, the famous hockey series between Canada and the Soviet Union, won by Canada on Paul Henderson's goal in the final game.

Effect in sentence (5): Mr. Ferreira jokingly compares his tiny moment to one of Canada's most dramatic sports moments. The allusion adds humour, shows his love of hockey, and makes the quiet ending feel both small and important.

Audience matters: many Canadian readers, especially hockey fans, recognize the Summit Series. A reader from another country might miss it, so a writer for an international audience might add a hint.

2. Analogy

An analogy explains something by showing it works like something familiar. It's longer and more logical than a simile: it maps a whole relationship.

• Simile (brief description): the ice glossy as a held breath.
• Analogy (explains a relationship): Closing a rink is like closing a book you've read so many times the spine has gone soft: you know every page, and you still hate to reach the end. It explains why Mr. Ferreira feels sad: familiarity doesn't make an ending easier.

Analogies are everywhere in informational texts: A cell membrane works like a school's front office: it controls who comes in and who goes out. They are also used in arguments, so watch for weak analogies that compare things that aren't really alike.

3. Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition puts two contrasting things next to each other. In sentence (3): Outside ... glass and screens and music; inside*, one old man and one old machine ... in silence.* The semicolon is the hinge. The contrast highlights what's new and loud versus what's old and fading, and invites us to ask what's lost when a community moves on.

4. Flashback

A flashback interrupts the present to show an earlier event. Signals:

• a tense shift into the past perfect (He had been nine)
• a time marker (February 1965)
• sometimes italics, a line break or a scene break

Purposes: give backstory, explain a character's feelings or motives, create mystery (we learn the past bit by bit) or contrast past and present. In "The Last Lap," the flashback explains why this last lap matters: the rink holds Mr. Ferreira's whole life, from his first skate.

Don't confuse it with foreshadowing, which hints at the future. A flashback shows the past.