Analyzing and Interpreting Literature CLEP Prep Practice Exam

Symbolism is the literary device that stands for a person, place, thing, or idea.

Allegory is a story with deeper symbolic meaning, but does not necessarily stand for a specific person, place, thing, or idea. Alliteration is the repetition of sounds at the beginning of words, and does not necessarily represent a concrete object. Metonymy is a figure of speech where one word or phrase is substituted for another closely related word or phrase, but it is not restricted to representing only objects. Symbolism is the most specific and appropriate answer for this question.