Literary Devices Used in Pullman's, Golden Compass

The novel, The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, is an extraordinary piece of work. The Golden Compass is a story by Philip Pullman. In the book, Lyra must battle her way through deceiving Gobblers, child-taking thieves who cut away their captive’s daemons, which is like the person’s soul. Before she leaves on the trip to find her uncle, the Master gives her a task: to find and give her uncle a compass called an alethiometer, but some people will stop at nothing to take it from her. She also has to prevent people from destroying the Dust, a mysterious substance that is said to unite the universe and kids from Gobblers. In The Golden Compass, the mood, the climate or feeling in a literary work, changes frequently so that the readers will be on the edge if their seats throughout the entire book. This awesome work has tons of similes, a figure of speech which involves a direct comparison between two unlike things using “like” or “as”. As well as similes, the book contains various metaphors, a figure of speech which involves an implied comparison between two relatively unlike things.

The Golden Compass contains many mood changes. For example, one of the moods included is intense. When Lyra launches an escape plan and the children flee from the Gobblers, the story states,” The Tartars ran to stand in a line across the entrance to the avenue of lights, their daemons beside them as disciplined and drilled as they were. In another minuet, there would be a second line because more and more of them were coming and more behind them ..............She remembered hurling a handful of clay at a brick burner boy bearing down on her. He’d stopped to claw the stuff out of his eyes, and then townies leaped on him…..”(253). As a result, the mini war...

... middle of paper ...

...,”..... eyes nearly lost in a sea of wrinkles” (187). As a result, that metaphor lets the reader visualize what the man’s face looked like. The author also writes,” A human without a daemon is a person without a face” (185). Thus reading that, a person can simply compare what a person without a face is like a person without a daemon.

The Golden Compass is a remarkable novel that contains numerous literary terms. One of them is mood, the climate or feeling in a literary work. Another literary term found in this book is the use of similes, a figure of speech that involves a direct comparison between two unlike things using “like” or “as”. Finally, the last lit. term found in The Golden Compass is metaphors, a figure of speech that involves an implied comparison between two relatively unlike things. The Golden Compass is an awesome novel and so go out and read it!