Word Choice & Language
This question is TWO words: one of a class of words that exists in any of numerous languages and that typically modifies nouns or pronouns, a word that modifies a verb or an adjective, usually describing how, when, or where something happens.
Example: Daisy in "The Great Gatsby" is described as “full of money.”
Example: In The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator says he moved “cautiously”.
What are an adjective and an adverb?
This question is TWO words: The repetition of the same beginning consonant sound in words that are close together, the repetition of similar vowel sounds in nearby words.
Example: In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare writes “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes.”
Example: In “The Raven,” it repeats vowel sounds throughout phrases such as “silken sad uncertain.”
What are alliteration and assonance?
This question is TWO words: A comparison between two different things that helps explain an idea by showing how they are similar, a reference to a famous person, event, place, or work of literature that the reader is expected to recognize.
Example: In The Outsiders, Ponyboy compares himself and his brothers to a family of three people trying to survive on their own.
Example: In The Hunger Games, Katniss is forced to participate in an event where young people fight to the death.
What are an analogy and an allusion?
This question is TWO words: A main character who lacks traditional heroic qualities such as courage, morality, or idealism, a character or force that opposes the protagonist and creates conflict in the story.
Example: In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is cynical, judgmental, and often struggles to make good decisions
Example: In The Hunger Games, President Snow controls the Capitol and works against Katniss and the rebellion.
What are antagonist and an anti-hero?
A short comment made by a character that is meant to be heard by the audience but not by the other characters.
Example: In Hamlet, characters occasionally speak their private thoughts to the audience while the other characters onstage do not hear them.
What is an aside?
An expression, idea, or phrase that has been used so often that it becomes predictable or unoriginal.
Example: In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet’s relationship motto “love at first sight”.
What is Clichè?
A five line poem. In a common classroom form, it follows a pattern of one word, two words, three words, four words, and one word.
Example: A poem by Adelaide Crapsey, the poet uses a five-line structure to describe a moment or image with just a few carefully chosen words.
What is a cinquain?
The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several lines, sentences, or clauses.
Example: In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens begins with a series of repeated phrases: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
What is anaphora?
A character, image, situation, or pattern that appears repeatedly across different works of literature and cultures.
Example: In The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins is a hero who leaves his ordinary life, faces challenges, and returns changed by his experiences.
What is an archetype?
A collection of literary works widely recognized as important, influential, or representative of a particular author, period, or culture.
Example: Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet are part of this because they’ve been studied and performed for centuries and have had a major influence on literature.
What is the canon?
An informal word or expression commonly used in everyday conversation, often associated with a particular region or group of people.
Example: In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck uses informal expressions and conversational language such as “ain’t” and other regional speech patterns.
What is colloquialism?
A poetic foot made up of three syllables, with the first two unstressed and the last one stressed: da-da-DUM.
Example: In Edgar Allan Poe's “The Raven,” some lines use anapestic rhythms, giving parts of the poem a fast, almost musical beat.
What is an anapest?
When a speaker directly addresses someone who is absent, dead, imaginary, or something nonhuman.
Example: In “O Captain! My Captain!,” Walt Whitman directly addresses the dead Abraham Lincoln as the “Captain.”
What is apostrophe?
The process by which a writer reveals the personality, motives, background, and traits of a character in a story or drama
Example: In "The Hunger Games”, Katniss volunteers to take her sister’s place in the Games.
What is characterization?
The emotional release or purification experienced by an audience through feelings such as pity and fear while experiencing a tragedy.
Example: In Romeo and Juliet, The deaths of Romeo and Juliet create intense sadness for the audience.
What is catharsis?
To remove offensive or vulgar material from a literary work, sometimes weakening the original meaning or effect.
Example: In Kidz Bop version of Lizzo’s song “Truth Hurts”, some of the original lyrics are changed to make them more appropriate for children. For example “I’m 100% that kid”.
What is Bowdlerize?
Unrhymed poetry written in iambic pentameter..
Example: Much of Shakespeare's Hamlet is written in blank verse. Hamlet's “To be, or not to be” soliloquy uses unrhymed iambic pentameter.
What is blank verse?
A rhetorical device in which words or ideas are repeated in reverse order, creating an ABBA pattern.
Example: In John F. Kennedy's inaugural address, he says, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
What is chiasmus?
Giving human characteristics, emotions, or behaviors to animals, objects, or other nonhuman things.
Example: In Animal Farm, the animals speak, think, and organize a government like humans.
What is anthropomorphism?
Something that appears in a story or artwork even though it does not belong in the time period being shown.
Example: In Shakespeare's Macbeth, the characters are supposed to live in medieval Scotland, but they sometimes use ideas or objects that reflect Shakespeare's own time period.
What is an anachronism?
A word, statement, or situation that has two or more possible meanings or interpretations.
Example: In The Giver, the endings unclear whether Jonas actually reaches a safe place or is imagining it.
What is ambiguity?
A combination of harsh, unpleasant, or discordant sounds used to create a particular effect in literature.
Example: In Macbeth, the witches chanting and strange, harsh speech create an unsettling atmosphere.
What is cacophony?
A sudden shift from serious or elevated language to something ordinary, silly, or trivial, often creating a humorous effect.
Example: In The Rape of the Lock, Pope describes the cutting of a woman's lock of hair with the language normally used for an epic battle.
A novel that follows a character's development and growth from youth toward adulthood.
Example: In Great Expectations, Pip grows from a young boy into an adult while learning about wealth, relationships, and what really matters in life.
What is Bildungsroman?
Categories used to describe characters based on their complexity and whether they change throughout a story. Flat characters have few traits, round characters are complex, static characters stay mostly the same, and dynamic characters change.
Example: In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet is a round and dynamic character because she has a complex personality and changes her opinions about other people as she learns more about them.
What are character types?