Literary Text, Figurative Language & Literary Techniques
Key Takeaways
- HSPT reading passages include literary excerpts, so questions can target character motivation, mood, setting, conflict, and point of view alongside factual recall.
- Figurative language questions ask what a comparison accomplishes; a metaphor's answer is the quality being transferred, never the literal object.
- Mood is the feeling the passage creates in the reader while tone is the author's attitude toward the subject - HSPT choices routinely offer one where the question asked for the other.
- Point of view is identified by pronouns: first person uses I and we, third-person limited follows one character's thoughts, and third-person omniscient reports several characters' minds.
Literary Text, Figurative Language & Literary Techniques
The HSPT Reading subtest draws passages from science, history, and the social sciences - and also from literature. Literary excerpts follow different rules from informational text: nothing is stated outright, meaning arrives through imagery and implication, and the questions shift from what happened to what it suggests.
A student who applies informational-reading habits to a literary passage tends to hunt for facts that are not there. This section supplies the alternative toolkit.
Figurative Language: The Core Types
| Device | Definition | Example | What a Question Will Ask |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simile | Comparison using like or as | Her resolve was like iron. | Which quality is being transferred? |
| Metaphor | Direct comparison with no like or as | The classroom was a beehive. | What does the comparison suggest? |
| Personification | Human qualities given to a nonhuman thing | The wind argued with the shutters. | What effect does this create? |
| Hyperbole | Deliberate exaggeration | He had told that story a thousand times. | Is the statement literal? |
| Idiom | A phrase whose meaning is not literal | She threw in the towel. | What does the phrase actually mean? |
| Symbol | An object standing for a larger idea | A cracked window representing a fractured family | What does the object represent? |
| Imagery | Sensory detail that builds a scene | Salt air, gulls, peeling paint | What mood does this create? |
| Irony | A gap between what is said and what is meant | "Perfect," said as the tire deflated | What is the speaker's real attitude? |
The transfer rule for similes and metaphors: the answer is never the object; it is the quality the object carries. "Her resolve was like iron" is not about metal - it is about being unbending. Any choice that stays literal is wrong by construction.
Worked Example
By the third week of the drought, the garden had become a museum of what once grew there.
The metaphor equates the garden with a museum. What does a museum carry? Preservation of dead things, stillness, past tense. The answer to "what does this comparison suggest" is that the garden now displays only the remains of former growth - not that the garden contains exhibits.
Mood versus Tone
These are the two most confusable literary terms on the exam, and HSPT choices routinely offer one when the question asked for the other.
| Term | Belongs To | Question Wording | Sample Answers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tone | The author or narrator | The narrator's attitude toward the town is... | nostalgic, bitter, admiring, detached |
| Mood | The reader's experience | The mood created by the description is... | ominous, peaceful, tense, melancholy |
A narrator can describe a frightening scene in a calm, detached tone while the imagery creates a tense mood. Read the question stem twice: attitude means tone, atmosphere or feeling created means mood.
Both are built from the same raw material - diction. Circle two or three loaded words while you read (crumbling, radiant, grudgingly) and the answer to either question follows from them.
Point of View
Identify point of view from pronouns before you answer anything about the narrator.
| Point of View | Pronouns | What the Narrator Knows |
|---|---|---|
| First person | I, me, we | Only their own thoughts; may be unreliable |
| Second person | you | Rare in test passages |
| Third person limited | he, she, they | One character's inner thoughts only |
| Third person omniscient | he, she, they | Multiple characters' thoughts |
| Third person objective | he, she, they | Actions and dialogue only, no thoughts |
The distinction matters for inference items. In third-person limited, what another character is thinking is not stated and can only be inferred from behavior - so a choice asserting a second character's private motive is usually an unsupported leap.
Character, Motivation and Conflict
Literary questions cluster around three ideas.
- Characterization. Authors reveal character through action, speech, thought, appearance, and others' reactions - rarely through direct labels. If a passage shows a man recounting his change three times, the answer is careful or anxious, and the passage never used either word.
- Motivation. Ask what the character wants and what stands in the way. Most literary inference items reduce to that pair.
- Conflict. Name the type: character against character, character against self, character against nature, or character against society. Naming it often answers the question outright.
Worked Example
Marisol read the acceptance letter twice, then folded it into her pocket without a word. Across the kitchen, her mother went on chopping onions, and the radio filled the room with somebody else's news.
- Characterization by action: folding the letter away silently suggests restraint or uncertainty, not indifference.
- Conflict: character against self, or against a family situation she cannot speak into.
- Mood: quiet, isolating - built from without a word, somebody else's news.
- Unsupported leap: that the mother disapproves. The passage never enters the mother's mind, and she may not know the letter exists.
Sound and Structure Devices
Poetry excerpts and lyrical prose can bring in a second layer of devices.
- Alliteration: repeated initial consonant sounds (the slow slide of the seasons), which creates rhythm and emphasis.
- Onomatopoeia: words imitating sounds (hiss, clatter, murmur), which pulls the reader into the scene.
- Repetition: a repeated word or phrase, which signals what the author considers most important.
- Foreshadowing: an early detail hinting at a later event, which builds anticipation.
- Flashback: a shift to an earlier time, which supplies motivation for present behavior.
Questions on these devices almost always ask for effect, so answer with a purpose - creates rhythm, emphasizes, builds suspense - rather than by naming the device again.
What Changes in Your Approach
| Informational Passage | Literary Passage |
|---|---|
| Track the argument and its evidence | Track the character and what they want |
| Facts are stated; locate them | Meaning is implied; infer it from detail |
| Tone is usually neutral or evaluative | Tone and mood are the subject of questions |
| Vocabulary is technical | Vocabulary is figurative and connotative |
| Distractors are out-of-scope facts | Distractors are literal readings of figures of speech |
The constant across both is the HSPT's strictest rule: the passage is the only evidence. A beautifully plausible interpretation with no line to point at is still wrong.
A passage reads: 'After the verdict, the courtroom was a held breath.' What does the metaphor most nearly suggest?
A question asks: 'The atmosphere created by the description of the abandoned mill is best described as...' Which literary element is being tested?
A narrator reports only one character's private thoughts and describes everyone else from the outside. What point of view is this?
In a third-person limited passage, a character 'set the plate down harder than she meant to.' Which conclusion is best supported?