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Lexical stylistic devices
Among lexical stylistic means we find the following figures of 
speech used in the text: 
an epithet
, 
a metaphor
, 
a simile
and 
irony.
a)
 An epithet
(эпитет) is usually an attributive word or phrase 
expressing some quality of a person, thing or phenomenon. An epithet 
always expresses the author’s individual attitude towards what he 
describes, his personal appraisal of it, and is a powerful means in his 
hands of conveying his emotions to the reader and in this way secur-
ing the desired effect. 
E.g. “a rigid and time-honored 
code, a code so 
severe...”, “the cynical confidence”,
“the 
evil
assumption”, “Atticus’s 
lonely
walk”, “Judge Tailor’s voice... was 
tiny
”.
b)
A 
simile 
(сравнение) is an expressed imaginative comparison 
based on the likeness of two objects or ideas belonging to different 
classes (in contrast to a comparison which compares things belonging 
to the same class and is not a figure of speech). The comparison is 
formally expressed by the words “as”, “like”, “as if”, “such as”,’”seem”, 
e.g. “This
 
case is as simple as black and white”: “I saw the jury return, 
moving like underwater swimmers”; “...and it was like watching At-
ticus walk into the street, raise a rifle to his shoulder and pull the 
trigger...”
c)
A 
metaphor
(метафора) is an implied imaginative comparison 
expressed in one word or in a number of words or sentences (the so-
called 
prolonged
or
 sustained metaphor
— развернутая метафора). 
A metaphor expresses our perception of the likeness between two 
objects or ideas,
 e.g.
“...Atticus wasn’t a thunderer” (to thunder is to 
make a loud noise, therefore a thunderer is one who thunders or utters 
something in a loud voice resembling the sounds made by thunder); 
“...it requires no 
sifting 
of complicated facts”; “...whoever breaks it is 
hounded
from our society...”; “No code mattered to her before she 
broke it, but it 
came crashing
down on her afterwards...”;”... a phrase 
that the Yankees... are fond of
 hurling
at us”; “...and it was like watch-
ing Atticus walk into the street, 
raise a rifle to his shoulder and pull 
the trigger
...” (the simile extends into a prolonged metaphor).
From these examples you can see that a metaphor can be expressed 
by different parts of speech. Note that practically every simile can be 
compressed into a metaphor and every metaphor can be extended 
into a simile.
d)
Irony
(ирония) is a figure of speech by means of which a word 
or words (it may be a situation) express the direct opposite of what 
their meanings denote, thus we often say “how clever!” when a person 

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says or does something foolish. Irony shows the attitude of the author 
towards certain facts or events. There is only one example of irony in 
the text: “And so a quiet respectable, humble Negro who had the
 un-
mitigated temerity
to feel sorry for a white woman...”