Literary Term Notes

9.10.2010

Setting

Where and when the story takes place: Time of day, place, season, time period, etc.

Characters

The people or animals who take part in the action of a story novel or drama.

Foil

A character who provides a striking contrast to another character. By using a foil, a writer can call attention to certain traits possessed by a main character or simply enhance a character by contrast.

Theme

The message about life that the writer wishes to convey to the reader

Examples: Love, friendship, change, human relationships, etc.

Dialogue

The written conversation between two or more characters in either fiction or nonfiction.

Conflict

A struggle between opposing forces

Genre

Categories in literature (fiction, nonfiction, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, poetry, etc.)

Hyperbole

An extreme exaggeration (I’m so hungry I could eat a horse).

Irony

A special kind of contrast between appearance and reality.

Usually one in which reality is the opposite from what it seems or what one may expect.

Example: A police station getting robbed.

Simile

A figure of speech that makes a direct comparison between two unlikely objects using like or as.

Example: My love is like a rose.

Metaphor

A figure of speech that makes a direct comparison between two unlike objects.

Example: My love is a rose.

Flashback

Part of a story that interrupts the sequence of events to relate to an earlier conversation, scene, or event.

Foreshadowing

The technique of hinting about something that has not yet happened

Personification

The giving of human qualities to an object, animal, or idea.

Sensory Images

Words and phrases that appeal to the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.

Sequence

The order of events in a literary work.

The most common sequence is the order in which events occur in time.

Mood

The overall feeling created by the author’s choice of words such as style, language, symbols, and imagery.

Example: light and happy or dark and brooding.

Symbol

A person, place, or object that stands for something beyond itself.

Imagery

Imagery consists of words and phrases that appeal to the reader’s five senses.

Writers use sensory details to help readers imagine how things look, feel, smell, sound, and taste.

Style

Any of the ways an author uses language, such as word choice.

Consider if the author uses slang, everyday language, punctuation, and the use of imagery and symbols.

Plot structure

Plot is the chain or related events that happen in a story.

A plot is built around a conflict, or struggle between opposing forces.

Most plots include these stages of development:

Plot structure cont. The exposition, which

gives background information about characters, conflict, and setting.

The rising action, in which suspense builds because complications arise that make the conflict more difficult for the main characters to resolve.

The climax, or turning point of the action, when the reader’s interest peaks.

The falling action, or resolution, in which the conflict ends and loose ends are tied up.

Elements of Character

Characterization- consists of all the techniques writers use to create characters (what they look like, act like, their conflict, how they resolve it, etc.).

Character development- characters that grow or change during a story are said to undergo character development.

Elements of Character cont.

Dynamic Character- A character that changes significantly throughout a story is called a dynamic character.

Static Character- A character that changes very little or not at all during the story is said to be a static character.

Elements of Character cont. Protagonist- The central character or hero

in a narrative or a drama, usually the one whom the audience tends to side with or identify.

Antagonist- A force working against the protagonist, or main character. An antagonist can be another character, society, a force of nature, or even a force within the main character. Think of the antagonist as the villain of the story.

Conflicts in Plot Person vs. Person- Conflict between two

or more people. Person vs. Self- An internal conflict, a

problem she or he must deal with. Person vs. Nature- Conflict between a

person and his or her environment, (animals, weather, etc.).

Person vs. Society- Conflict between man and culture, society, others, etc.

Points of View Review… 1st person- The narrator is a character in

the story and uses pronouns such as I, me, us, we, etc.

3rd person- The narrator is NOT a character in the story and uses pronouns such as he, she, they, etc.

Omniscient- All knowing. The narrator knows what is going on in the minds of all the other characters.

Lets see what you know!

If someone went hungry in a grocery store… what would that be an example of?

IRONY

“It was a dark and stormy winter night...” is an example of?

MOODImagerySetting

When the author gives human qualities to the Three Little Pigs, such as shopping, talking, and building, he is using what?

PERSONIFICATION

What are some types of conflict?

MAN VS. NATURE MAN VS. SELF MAN VS. MAN MAN VS. SOCIETY

When the narrator knows everything in the story, including what is going on in the minds of other characters, he or she is an example of which point of view?

OMNISCIENT

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