Literary Devices
In literature, the warning or indication of a future event
What is foreshadowing?
A character or force in conflict with the main character; an adversary.
What is the antagonist?
The conclusion of the story’s plot. It’s where any unanswered questions are answered, or “loose ends are tied
What is resolution?
Tells the reader what the essay is about. It is usually the last sentence of the introduction paragraph.
What is thesis?
What is mood?
When there are two contradicting meanings of the same situation, event, image, sentence, phrase, or story.
What is irony?
A device that moves an audience from the present moment in a chronological narrative to a scene in the past.
What is flashback?
A character struggles with an outside force which may be another character, or society as a whole, or a natural force.
What is external conflict?
Rhetorical device that appeals to a person's emotions.
What is pathos?
Rhetorical device that uses athletes/celebrities to endorse a product.
What is ethos?
Language used by poets, novelists and other writers to create images in the mind of the reader.
What is imagery?
The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices.
What is theme?
Writers MUST include these in their essays to prove the claim in the thesis.
What is (specific) evidence?
A group of lines in a poem that acts like a paragraph.
What is a stanza?
Language that uses words or expressions with a meaning that is different from the literal interpretation.
What is figurative language?
When the audience knows something the characters don’t — so the characters might get an unexpected outcome, but for the audience it’s not unexpected at all.
What is dramatic irony?
The sequence of events in a story.
What is a plot?
The attitude the writer takes towards his/her subject; the author's voice.
What is the tone?
Descriptive language that attempts to invoke one or more of the five senses.
What is sensory language?
An idea, symbol, pattern, or character-type, in a story. It’s any story element that appears again and again in stories from cultures around the world and symbolizes something universal in the human experience.
What is archetype?
The main character in a literary story.
What is a protagonist?
When the author takes a moment to recognize the other side of an issue in order to strengthen their credibility on the issue.
What is the counter-argument?