Literary Devices
Comparing two things like the words like or as.
Simile
The highest point of action, suspense, or excitment in a story.
Climax
The word "Renaissance" is a French word that means this.
Rebirth
This European country built the first large empire in the Americas.
This artist painted the most famous smile in the world.
Leonardo da Vinci
An object, person, or situation that stands for an idea beyond its literal meaning.
Symbol
The events building up to the climax.
The Rising Action
This devastating plague indirectly helped spark social changes and labour shifts that led towards the Renaissance.
The Black Plague
This word describes the first peoples who lived in the Americas before European arrival.
Indigenous Peoples
"To be, or not to be!" That is the question this poet and playwright wants you to answer.
William Shakespeare
Boom! Pow! Whack! Are examples of this.
Onomatopoeia
The events immidately after the climax.
Falling Action
This word means a revived interest in Greek and Roman thought.
Humanism
These three motivations for exploration are often called the "Three G's."
Gold, God, Glory
Look up at the stars, and you might see some of this Italian astronomers discoveries.
Galileo
Giving human traits to non-human things.
Personification
The end where everything is wrapped up.
Resolution
He painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and sculpted David.
Michelangelo
A territory settled and controlled by another country.
A Colony
This is the name of the German inventor who invented the printing press.
Johannes Gutenberg
The "cute, cuddly, cat" is an example of this.
Alliteration
The section of a story where the characters, setting, and basic situation are introduced.
Exposition
This was the class system of Europe just prior to the Renaissance.
Feudalism
Which European disease is often cited as the cause of the greatest population decline among Indigenous peoples?
Smallpox
This was the first person to suggest that it is actually the earth that orbits the sun.
Nicolaus Copernicus