Literary Terms
The introduction of a story that provides background information, introduces characters, and establishes the setting.
What is exposition?
The type of irony defined as an event occurring that directly contradicts what was expected by both the characters and the audience.
What is Situational Irony?
The protagonist of Kate Chopin's story who struggles between social marriage expectations and her desire for self-ownership.
Who is Louise Mallard?
The author of this short story centered on an ethical dilemma in a sparkling utopian city
Who is Ursula K. Le Guin?
The parents who act as protagonists in Ray Bradbury's science-fiction story.
Who are George and Lydia Hadley?
A narrator perspective outside the story that reports only observable actions and words, without revealing any character thoughts.
What is a Third-Person Narrator?
The type of irony that occurs when the audience or reader knows a critical piece of information that the characters do not know.
What is Dramatic Irony?
Revealed in sentence one, this physical condition serves as critical foreshadowing for Louise's sudden death at the story's end.
What is a heart condition?
The specific point of view used by the narrator who directly asks the reader questions like "Do you believe?".
Who is First Person Narrator?
The specific high-tech room inside the Happylife Home that replaces parental authority and projects the children's thoughts.
What is the nursery?
A tangible object, person, setting, or action that represents an abstract concept beyond its literal meaning.
What is Symbolism?
Saying the exact opposite of what one means, often using sarcasm, such as calling a ruined room a "pristine palace".
What is Verbal Irony?
The object in her bedroom that Louise looks through, which symbolizes her bright future, personal autonomy, and newfound freedom.
What is the open window?
The prosperity, health, and beauty of Omelas depend entirely upon the perpetual neglect and imprisonment of this individual.
Who is the one child in the dark basement room?
Two personal items found on the nursery floor that foreshadow the parents' tragic fate.
What are George's chewed leather wallet and Lydia's bloody scarf?
The peak of emotional intensity, major turning point, or decisive crisis of a narrative arc.
What is the Climax?
In "The Story of an Hour," the doctors believing Louise died of "joy" when the reader knows she died of fatal disappointment demonstrates this type of irony.
What is Dramatic Irony?
The primary setting location where most of the story's central action and internal realizations take place.
What is the Mallard home / Louise's upstairs bedroom?
The annual celebration and community event taking place in the sparkling, idyllic city of Omelas as the story open
What is the Festival of Summer?
The psychologist who advises shutting down the home and sending the children, Peter and Wendy, into therapy.
Who is David McClean?
The force, character, environment, or technology that opposes the main character, such as the Happylife Home in "The Veldt".
What is the Antagonist?
Purchasing the Happylife Home to bring a family together and make life effortless, only for it to destroy the family and cause the parents' deaths, is an example of this type of irony.
What is situational irony?
The exact cause of death declared by the doctors upon Louise seeing her husband, Brently, walk through the door alive.
What is "heart disease—of the joy that kills"?
The citizens who form the resolution of the story by rejecting collective happiness built on systemic cruelty and departing into the dark night
Who are the Ones who walk away from Omelas?
The underlying theme or central insight conveyed by the story regarding excessive automation and parent-child relationships
What is "Over-reliance on technology weakens human relationships and parental authority" (or "Spoiled indulgence leads to resentment and rebellion")?