"The Power of Pets"

In an expository essay, 8th grader Isha Sharma explains the literary elements Dave Barry used to write about his pet peeves. As the title shows, the student focuses less on his complaints and more on the effect pets have on the parent-child relationship.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 8 Unit 4's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: Made You Laugh, Brothers, Pet Peeves, Underfunded Schools Forced to Cut, The Open Window, A Day's Work, They Have Yarns, Mooses, Is Traffic Jam Delectable?, The Power of Pets, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Fear Busters
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. appease
    make peace with
    Every child has gone through a phase in life when they have a sudden fixation with getting a pet, and parents often have to go through a lot of trouble in order to appease the child, at least until the obsession is replaced with another.
  2. hyperbole
    extravagant exaggeration
    To point out the often ridiculous experiences parents go through for their children, Barry uses hyperbole to emphasize how complicated getting a pet fish can be.
  3. simile
    a figure of speech expressing a resemblance between things
    The additional use of simile and the exaggerated amount of time adds to the humor
  4. metaphor
    a figure of speech that suggests a non-literal similarity
    This also ties back to a metaphor/analogy Barry made that "an aquarium is a powder keg that can explode in deadly violence...
  5. exaggerated
    represented as greater than is true or reasonable
    Both of these situations are highly exaggerated.
  6. convey
    make known; pass on, of information
    Through the use of hyperbole, Barry is able to convey how parents often feel about their struggle even in simple situations, to which a child might react to them as being overdramatic.
  7. irony
    witty language used to convey insults or scorn
    Also, Barry uses verbal irony/sarcasm to vent and display his frustration, which proves furthermore the lengths he is going to help his daughter.
  8. sarcastic
    expressing or expressive of ridicule that wounds
    This adds to the sarcastic tone of the writer, which shows that even through his frustrations, he is struggling to find the right choice for his daughter, no matter how much of a nuisance it is to make it.
  9. significant
    important in effect or meaning
    The author uses this verbal irony to point out that even though the needs of a fish are not as significant as the needs of a human, caring for them still requires a lot of effort.
  10. obstacle
    something that stands in the way and must be surmounted
    Even in the most trivial instances, the parent will go through many obstacles to help his child, often in the hope that the child will learn something along the way.
Created on Tue Sep 15 23:32:39 EDT 2015 (updated Wed Sep 16 02:22:24 EDT 2015)

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