Literary Terms
General Lit Terms
A Streetcar
Motifs
A Streetcar
Figurative Language
100
the narrative voice of the poem.
What is the speaker?
100
the emotional quality of a passage or the perceived attitude of a speaker towards a thing or idea in the text.
What is tone?
100
the main idea or most important point in a sentence. Its position may be varied for effect.
What is climax?
100

This image of the doctor ironically conforms to Blanche’s notions of the chivalric Southern gentleman who will offer her salvation.

What is kindness of strangers?

100
a basic comparison of two generally unlike things that produced insight.
What is metaphor?
200

explains the motivation behind Minnie Wright’s crime, but also symbolizes John Wright’s abusive treatment of his wife.

Trifles

What is dead bird?

200
the author's choice of words based on their exact or connotative meaning for effect.
What is diction?
200

denial of reality at the play’s end shows that she has more in common with the other characters in the ply 

Who is Stella Kowalski?

200

A vendor of Mexican funeral decorations who frightens Blanche by issuing the plaintive call———

What is flowers for the dead?

200

an elaborate metaphor that compares an ordinary event or situation with the more complex idea in the text that is often recognized throughout the entire poem. 

What is an epic or Extended metaphor?

300

the repetition of vowel sounds: “which din dims the light.”

What is assonance?

300
what a word suggests beyond its denotative (precise or dictionary) meaning, including social or emotional connections.
What is connotation?
300

Practicality is his forte, and he has no patience for Blanche’s distortions of the truth. He lacks ideals and imagination. By the play’s end, he is a disturbing degenerate:

Who is Stanley Kowalski?

300

She believes that magic, rather than reality, represents life as it ought to be.

What is light?

300

a figure of speech in which some significant object or idea is repeated over to represent the whole experience.

What is motif?

400
the speaker addresses something or someone that cannot answer, something nonliving or inanimate.
What is apostrophe?
400
a clever little story; a short account of an interesting situation relevant to the text and used as example.
What is an anecdote?
400

which marked the end of Blanche’s sexual innocence, has haunted her ever since

What is Allan’s death? 

400

her efforts to cleanse herself of her odious history

What is bathing?

400

The author‘s use of sensory details to allow the reader a stronger mental image. 

What is a imagery?

500

is developed as a metaphor for her innocence or her guilt.

Trifles 

What is knot or quilt is?

500
a moment of insight, spiritual or personal; a character's sudden revelation about life or his or her own circumstances.
What is epiphany?
500

Blanche hopes he will provide the financial support for her and Stella to escape from Stanley. As Blanche’s mental stability deteriorates, her fantasy that she will escape with him holds her together. 

Who is Shep Huntleigh? 

500

The song’s lyrics describe the way love turns the world into a “phony” fantasy. The speaker in the song says that if both lovers believe in their imagined reality, then it’s no longer “make-believe.”

What is A Paper Moon?

500

a reference to history, religion, or a past topic. 

What is an allusion?

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