The Function and Meaning of Literary Devices

The Function and Meaning of Literary Devices
Authors need to incorporate literary devices and elements in their writings. The literary devices and elements add to the story by emphasizing specific ideas and creating solid emotions, feelings, and images. The book The Wandering Earth by Cixin Liu contains a chapter titled Curse 5.0. This text has used several literary devices that have helped the readers understand and appreciate the story. It concerns a woman who has experienced heartbreak. The woman turned her anguish into retaliation by using her programming expertise to create the “Curse” virus, which reveals her ex-lover’s traits, other details about him, and derogatory remarks. This virus has caused problems for several users (Cixin 211). This story has literary devices and elements that are thought-provoking, humorous, and satirical. All these elements contributed to the work’s excellency.
The first and the most important literary device that the author used is the exposition. It is a literary device that provides the context or the introduction that helps the reader understand the entirety of the text. The author explains that a woman created the "Curse" virus on December 8, 2009. An outraged woman started it. She made a virus with the name of the person who had broken her heart due to her frustration with her past relationship and programming abilities (Cixin 211). The exposition helps the readers understand the origin of the virus and the curses. It makes it possible for readers to understand and follow the progression of the story’s events. The author’s decision to leave out some details from the exposition section is another wise decision. Because the plot was already spoiled in the beginning, an author may overwrite and reveal every detail, which makes the story uninteresting for the readers. Therefore, an exposition can help stimulate readers’ interest and engagement in the story, and the author has written a compelling exposition.
The second and most evident literary device in the literary piece is self-insertion. It is a literary device wherein the author includes himself as a character in the story. Cixin Liu, the author of Course 5.0, has included himself as a character. He also included Pan Dajiao, one of his friends, who is also a science fiction writer. Liu introduces himself in the story as a businessman who needs to travel to Taiyuan. Liu describes his experiences, including slipping and falling because of the wet floor and confiscating his newly bought lighter. Though he has experienced minor inconveniences, the way of his narration makes it still humorous. Liu meets Dajiao along his way and describes Dajiao as an elegant man. The two writers had a little conversation about future writings and the idea of working collaboratively. Their characters have added to the story’s humor, and their characters exist throughout. They once experienced an unfortunate incident, yet it was still humorous when this occurred: “The moment at which Curse 2.0 appeared online found Cixin and Pan next to a trash can in the vicinity of the Taiyuan train station. They were fighting over a pack of ramen that had been fished from the garbage only moments before” (Cixin 216). These two famous and renowned authors were described in the story as homeless people fighting for food. Nevertheless, there are still many parts of the story where their characters have brought laughter and fun to the readers. Hence, the self-insertion made by Cixin has been very effective since it is an element that captures the reader’s attention and interest.
The third literary device in the literary piece is humor, which is also one of the most overt. The humor runs throughout the story, which lightens and amuses the reader. Even if the topic is not particularly serious, including heartache, retaliation...