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Literature is a very unusual art form when you compare it to the others like painting, sculpture, and architecture. While those art forms depend on your sense of sight literature like music is an auditory art form, dependent on your sense of hearing. There are two main components of this art form like any other and they are the media of expression and artist form.

The media of expression in literature is simply words. They may be written or spoken but they are arranged in such a way that your imagination can not help but be affected. Think back to when you were younger some one would tell you a story and a whole new world would come to life in your mind.

Artist form is who the media, being words, are arranged to suggest or reveal human values. There are many tools an artist or writer in this case can use including metaphors, similes, symbols, word imagery, and diction. These "tools" will of course be explained to you.

"My room is an aquarium." No, not really but I do have several fish tanks in it. What I used is called a metaphor which is an implied suggestion between two unrelated things. The key words are implied and different.

"There are so many fish tanks and paraphernalia it looks like an aquarium." This sentence would be a simile. Like a metaphor it is a comparison between two different ideas but this time explicit works like as, as if, like, and then are used between the two ideas to clearly state that a comparison is being made.

A symbol is like a metaphor and a simile but only one object that is being compared is clearly stated. For it to be a symbol the comparison must be vague and sometimes ambiguous. There is normally more then one meaning also.

"Each night I sleep with the fish / The tart smell of salt / The sound of a waterfall / The feel of hunters on the prowl / I sleep in an aquarium." That was an example of imagery. For imagery to work the words need to be carefully chosen to describe objects and events in such a way that will appeal to our senses. A writer should use concrete physical descriptions of objects to clarify how things explicitly look, smell, and taste.

"Each night that I go to bed / To gladly sleep with the fish around my head / Tart, wild, and free / The smell is of so salty / There is even a rhythmic hum / To the lights, wires, and plumbs / Each nocturnal hunter starts to prowl / The others take their bow / I sleep in an aquarium." That is an example of word diction. Words are so well chosen for this that there is no better way of saying it.

Literature is no different that any other art form in the fact that in order to completely enjoy it you must actively participate with it. However with literature you need to remember what has happened, pay attention to what is happening, and trying to imagine what will happen.

While participating in any form of art you may lose yourself in the enjoyment of it. When we lose ourselves in the pure enjoyment of an art form we are not capable of being critics of it. To be a good critic you must practice the act of paying complete attention to an art form and participating fully.

Learn more about this author, Amanda Haynes.
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