Metaphor & Figuration
Synecdoche
A part standing for the whole (hired hands for workers) or the whole for a part (the law for one officer). The chosen part quietly makes an argument: calling sailors 'hands' reduces them to their labor.
"All hands on deck."
Don't confuse it with Metonymy. A subtype of metonymy: synecdoche requires the part/whole relation specifically, not just any association.
In the Reader — 19 excerpts
The transformations in the stuff of life.
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste Brought death into the World, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Half sunk a shattered visage lies
A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments and gray, steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods, and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was …
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it
A very little boy stood upon a heap of gravel for the honor of Rum Alley. He was throwing stones at howling urchins from Devil's Row who were circling madly about the heap and pelting at him.
The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting. As the landscape changed from brown to green, the army awakened, and began to tremble with eagerness at the noise of rumors.
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed
To regard the frost and the boughs
out for her. The doors would be taken off their hinges; Rumpelmayer's men were
Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide.
And the women came out of the houses to stand beside their men—to feel whether this time the men would break.
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth.
124 was spiteful. Full of a baby's venom. The women in the house knew it and so did
Sixty Million and more
I am seated in an office, surrounded by heads and bodies.
Travels with
Devices that share a passage with synecdoche most often — company reveals character.
Asyndeton 10 Anaphora 10 Passive Voice 9 Parataxis 8 Personification 7 Antithesis 6 Metaphor 6 Chiasmus 5
The rest of the family
Metaphor Simile Catachresis Metonymy Personification Prosopopoeia Pathetic Fallacy Transferred Epithet / Hypallage Metalepsis Symbol Allusion Mythopoesis