Literary Terms
Literary works that are based on imagination, not necessarily facts
What is Fiction?
A struggle (the problem in the story)
What is Conflict?
The person or character telling the story
Who is the Narrator?
The feeling a piece of literature creates in a reader.
What is Mood?
What happens in the story
What is Plot?
A return to an earlier time
What is a Flashback?
The use of words whose sounds imitate the sounds of what they describe, such as hiss, murmur, growl, honk, buzz, woof, etc.
What is onomatopoeia?
Literary works that are fact-based
What is Non-fiction?
A struggle you have within yourself
What is an Internal Struggle (Person vs Self)?
One of the characters in the story is telling the story. (I, me, etc.)
What is First-Person Point of View?
A reference to something else in literature
What is an Allusion?
This introduces characters and settings while supplying background information
What is Exposition?
Hints or clues to future events in the story
What is Foreshadowing?
Extreme exaggeration used for emphasis or effect; an extravagant statement that is not meant to be taken literally.
What is hyperbole?
The time and place of the story
What is a Setting?
A problem between a character and school, the Law, or some tradition.
What is a Person vs Society?
~Outside narrator
~Not a character in the story
~Knows the thoughts and feelings of two or more characters (all, everything)
What is Third-Person Omniscient?
Complications/crisis/problems begin to take place (conflicts arise and tension builds)
What is Rising Action?
A person, place or and object that stands for something else
What is a Symbol?
The main or central character of a work of literature.
What is protagonist?
~shorter than a novel
~fictional (based on imagination)
~one or more characters
~one or more conflict
What is a Short Story?
A Florida resident's house flooded because of Hurricane Ian
What is a Person vs Nature?
Describing nonhuman animals, objects, or ideas as though they possess human qualities or emotions. For example: "The moon smiled down on her," "I felt the cold hand of death on my shoulder," "There is a battle being fought in my garden between the flower and the weeds."
What is personification?
When that opposite of what you expect to happen occurs
What is Situational Irony?
High point in the story where the tension breaks (usually the highest point of interest)
What is the Climax?
Words or phrases that create a mental picture
Appeals to the five senses
What is imagery?
Character(s) in opposition to the main character
What is the Antagonist?
The overall meaning (central message) of the story
What is the Theme?
A new school rule is created where cell phones are not allowed in the building. A group of students walk out, protesting the new rule.
What is an example of Person vs Society?
The conversation between characters in a work of literature.
What is dialogue?
The author shows the reader or audience member what the character is like through (1) what the character says (2) what the character thinks (3) how the character effects other characters (4) what the character does and (5) how the character looks. (STEAL method)
What is indirect characterization?
The events in the story which follow the climax (a decision needs to be made)
What is the Falling Action?
When one student tells the other student, "I love learning literary elements and I cannot wait to take the test on Tuesday!"
What is Verbal Irony?
When two or more words in a group of words begin with the same sound. For example: Fred's frozen french fries.
What is alliteration?
In the movie, Jaws, the audience knows a shark is lurking in the water but the swimmers do not know the shark is there
What is Dramatic Irony?
The writer or a narrator tells the reader what the character is like: "Ben was a quiet, serious boy."
What is direct characterization?
The outcome of the story/the conclusion...not all stories have this
What is the Resolution?