Category 1: Literary Elements & Style (ELA.10.R.1.1)1
Clue: In a Gothic story, a dark, crumbling mansion is not just a physical location—it reflects the emotional decay of the family living inside. This literary element is being used to add a deeper layer of meaning.
Response: What is setting?
Clue: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. The novel follows teenager Holden Caulfield as he wanders New York City, fiercely resisting the phoniness of adulthood while struggling to preserve the innocence of childhood.
A. Coming of Age B. Good vs. Evil
C. Man vs. Nature (or Survival)
D. Love and Sacrifice
E. Power and Corruption
What is Coming of Age?
When the multi-million dollar tech company abruptly restructured, the experimental solar drone was suddenly abandoned. Stripped of its funding and forgotten by the executives who had initially championed its design, the prototype became an orphan within the corporate development lab. Without a dedicated team to nurture its progress or a budget to keep it operational, the innovative machine gathered dust in an empty basement storage room.
What is the contextual meaning of orphan as used in this passage?
a.An unsupported or abandoned project.
b.A completed invention ready for commercial production.
c. A newly funded project receiving executive support.
d. A temporary experiment awaiting technical improvements.
An unsupported or abandoned project.
Clue: Time is a thief
Response: What is a metaphor?
Clue: While tone is the author's attitude toward a subject, this term refers to the overall emotional atmosphere or feeling created in the reader by the text.
Response: What is mood?
Clue: When an author uses an object, character, or event to represent a broader abstract idea beyond its literal meaning—such as a green light representing hope—they are using this literary device.
Response: What is symbolism (or a symbol)?
Clue: The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. The epic narrative creates a clear-cut battle between the dark lord Sauron—who represents absolute malice and corruption—and the diverse, regular citizens of Middle-earth who unite to protect peace, freedom, and life.
A. Coming of Age B. Good vs. Evil
C. Man vs. Nature (or Survival)
D. Love and Sacrifice
E. Power and Corruption
What is good v evil?
Cautiously, I asked him what had changed; was his grandfather having trouble? Were there money problems? Had Cam been replaced by an evil twin from a parallel universe? Cam jokingly told me to simmer down, but when I looked closely, I hesitated. In his eyes was an inscrutability, a hardness I had never noticed before.
What is the meaning of inscrutability as used in this passage?
Impossible to understand
Clue: "And I will love thee still, my dear, / Till a’ the seas gang dry.
What is a hyperbole
Clue: "The old house groaned in the night as the icy wind clawed at the windowpanes." The personification in this sentence primarily establishes this type of tense, uncomfortable mood.
Response: What is an eerie (or foreboding / creepy / sinister) mood?
Clue: An author structures a narrative non-linearly, inserting a sudden shift to past events right before the protagonist makes a critical choice. This pacing technique creates tension by manipulating this plot element.
Response: What is a flashback?
Animal Farm by George Orwell. This political allegory shows how a group of farm animals overthrow their human oppressor to establish a society of equals, only for the pigs to gradually seize control, abuse their authority, and become exactly like the tyrants they replaced.
A. Coming of Age B. Good vs. Evil
C. Man vs. Nature (or Survival)
D. Love and Sacrifice
E. Power and Corruption
What is Power and corruption?
Clue: Cam had been graced with an extraordinary talent, one that manifested itself in an almost intuitive feel for working with wood. Cam just knew what a piece of wood needed to do, and the ideas flowed into his hands like streams into a river.
What is the contextual meaning of intuitive as used in this passage?
Having an instinctive understanding.
"I wandered lonely as a cloud / That floats on high o'er vales and hills,"
What is a simile
Clue: "Her home was an anchor in the storm of her chaotic life." This direct figurative comparison creates a mood of safety and stability. What figurative element is being used?
Response: What is a metaphor?
Clue: Word choice (diction) and sentence structure (syntax) combine to reveal the speaker's attitude toward the subject, establishing this key element of style.
Response: What is tone?
Clue: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Set during the French Revolution, the character Sydney Carton loves a woman who is married to someone else. Out of pure devotion to her happiness, Carton willingly steps up to the guillotine to die in her husband's place, embodying the ultimate act of selfless love.
A. Coming of Age B. Good vs. Evil
C. Man vs. Nature (or Survival)
D. Love and Sacrifice
E. Power and Corruption
What is Love and Sacrifice?
Clue: Before each morning, rosy-fingered Aurora, the cheerful goddess of the dawn, awakens in her palace in the East. She mounts her chariot, drawn by two horses, and takes flight, drawing her blush across the sky to announce the coming of the sun.
What is the meaning of Blush as used in this context?
In this context, "blush" means a rosy, pink, or reddish glow across the sky that occurs during sunrise
"From forth the fatal loins of these two foes; / A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life."
What is alliteration?
Clue: A writer describes a battlefield by emphasizing "the stench of acrid smoke," "clashing steel," and "crimson mud." This technique uses figurative and sensory details to create a violent, chaotic mood.
What form of figurative element was used?
Response: What is imagery (or sensory imagery)?
Clue: An understatement of a fact or event in a story. Example: Romeo and Juliet: In Act 3, Scene 1, Mercutio is stabbed in a sword fight by Tybalt. The wound is fatal, but when his friend Benvolio asks if he is hurt, Mercutio downplays his imminent death
Response: What is meiosis?
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. The novella tells the story of Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who engages in an epic, exhausting three-day battle with a giant marlin out in the Gulf Stream. The narrative serves as a tribute to the indomitable human spirit, proving that while nature may destroy a person physically, it cannot defeat their dignity or resolve.
A. Coming of Age B. Good vs. Evil
C. Man vs. Nature (or Survival)
D. Love and Sacrifice
E. Power and Corruption
What is man v nature?
One morning on her journey, Aurora spied a handsome mortal, Tithonus, prince of Troy. Deeply enamored, she took Tithonus into her home. The two were wed, and soon had two children.
What is the meaning of enamored as used in this context?
romantic attraction
"It was a little kind of a trouble."
What is meiosis?
Clue: Referring to a character's tragic downfall as "flying too close to the sun" uses this type of indirect reference to Greek mythology to establish a fatalistic or cautionary mood.
What figurative element did the author use?
Response: What is a allusion?