| Like in all novels, literary devices play an important role in Robert Lawrence Stine’s novels. The purpose of the various literary devices is to give the reader a sense of being in the story. In other words, by using the literary devices there is more of a realism type nature in all of his novels. With that, obviously, the purpose of R.L. Stine’s novels is to scare young teenagers. Thus, the literary devices in his novels do a great job when it comes to that.
The first major literary device being utilized in R.L. Stine’s works is foreshadowing. Now, lets compare Robert Lawrence Stine’s works to other scary works. In other scary works foreshadowing is consistently being used. The usage of the foreshadowing adds a type of suspense keeping the reader inn tuned. An example of foreshadowing in one of R.L. Stine’s novels would be, “Mr. Showalter and Ms. Wikman seemed to relax a little.” ( Stine 37) This particular R.L. Stine work is a scary piece dealing with monstrous creatures in the ocean. Thus, seeing that this individual is relaxed in the ocean foreshadows their death, because one is not really suppose to be relaxed in the ocean. Another important literary device that is portrayed throughout R.L. Stine’s works is irony. Many times throughout R.L. Stine’s books people are expected to have a certain type of standpoint. In other words if one of the characters comes across as a doctor, they would be expected to cure patients. However, the irony comes in when too much scare is featured in R.L. Stine’s works. Making it impossible for Doctors, per say, to actually do what they can do to help. In other words, something so horrible is happening that they cannot continue with their job. “The shark was swimming away!” (Stine 55) This particular quote was said by Shark Experts, who were happy that the shark was swimming away. Essentially, should not the experts be more interested in the sharks swimming toward them rather than swimming away? That is an example of irony. However, the number one literary device showcased in Stine’s stories would be magical realism. Without Magical realism Stine’s works would not “Goosbumps” instead it would be more of a “Narrative” type work. Basically, the objective of the magical realism is to “touch up” the story. In other words, make it more effective so that the reader can be a little thrilled. Taking the magical realism out of the “Goosebumps can be compared to taking the orange out of orange juice. That is just how important magical realism in his stories is. |