Balance & Opposition
Oxymoron
Two contradictory words fused into one phrase — deafening silence, living death. The clash sits inside a single unit, so it can't be resolved by reading on; both terms must be held at once.
"Parting is such sweet sorrow." — Romeo and Juliet
Don't confuse it with Paradox. Paradox is a contradictory *statement* that unfolds; oxymoron is the two-word spark.
In the Reader — 12 excerpts
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
Half sunk a shattered visage lies
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
In repugnant objects we find appealing charms;
Phileas Fogg was one of those mathematically exact people, who, never hurried and always ready, are economical of their steps and their motions.
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
I had not known my father very well. We had got on badly, partly because we shared, in our different fashions, the vice of stubborn pride.
I felt very still and empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo.
124 was spiteful. Full of a baby's venom. The women in the house knew it and so did
124 was spiteful. Full of a baby's venom. The women in the house knew it and so did the children.
Princeton, in the summer, smelled of nothing, and although Ifemelu liked the tranquil greenness of the many trees, the clean streets and stately homes, the delicately overpriced shops, and the quiet, abiding air of earned grace, it was this, the lack of a smell, that most appealed to her.
Travels with
Devices that share a passage with oxymoron most often — company reveals character.
Asyndeton 7 Synecdoche 5 Litotes 5 Parataxis 3 Personification 3 Anaphora 3 Hyperbole 3 Apposition / Appositive 3
The rest of the family
Antithesis Parallelism Isocolon Chiasmus Antimetabole Juxtaposition Paradox