Elements of the Narrative
This literary element encompasses the physical location and time period, often functioning to mirror a character’s internal state.
What is Setting?
An author uses this device to create a direct comparison between two unlike things without using "like" or "as."
What is a Metaphor?
This refers to the author’s attitude toward the subject matter, often conveyed through specific word choice (diction).
What is Tone?
This is the cultural or emotional association a word carries, distinct from its literal dictionary definition.
What is Connotation?
This occurs when a character’s words carry a double meaning—one understood by the audience, but not by the other characters.
What is Dramatic Irony?
In a story, this specific type of conflict occurs when a character struggles against their own opposing desires or moral dilemmas.
What is Internal Conflict?
"The wind whispered through the pines" is an example of this device, used to give human qualities to inanimate objects.
What is Personification?
Unlike tone, this term describes the emotional atmosphere or "feeling" the reader experiences while engaging with the text.
What is Mood?
A brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing, or idea of historical, cultural, literary, or political significance.
What is an Allusion?
An author uses this specific device to contrast a word's literal meaning with its intended message, often for humorous or biting effect.
What is Verbal Irony?
This term describes the perspective from which a story is told; a "limited" version of this allows the reader to see only one character's thoughts.
What is Point of View (Third-Person Limited)?
When an author says a character has a "mountain of laundry," they are using this device to emphasize a point through exaggeration.
What is Hyperbole?
Authors use "vivid sensory details" to create this, appealing to sight, sound, smell, taste, or touch.
What is Imagery?
To "analyze" an author's purpose, you must provide this—specific lines or phrases pulled directly from the work.
What is Textual Evidence?
Analyzing this shift in a story helps a reader understand how a character’s "internal conflict" eventually leads to their growth or downfall.
What is Character Development?
Beyond just a sequence of events, this plot stage involves the "falling action" where the consequences of the climax begin to resolve.
What is Denouement (or Resolution)?
This device relies on "sound-words" like clatter or hiss to immerse the reader in the auditory setting of a scene.
What is Onomatopoeia?
When a concrete object, person, or place represents an abstract idea (like a dove representing peace), it is functioning as this.
What is a Symbol?
If a writer chooses the word "shack" instead of "cabin," they are utilizing the negative version of this to imply poverty.
What is Negative Connotation?
This refers to the specific "word choice" an author employs to establish a text's formal, informal, or clinical tone.
What is Diction?
To analyze how an author uses this element, you must look at how spoken exchanges reveal subtext and shift the power dynamic between figures.
What is Dialogue?
To move from identification to analysis, a reader must explain how this specific "comparison using like or as" develops a character's traits.
What is a Simile?
This occurs when there is a contrast between expectation and reality, often used to critique a character's lack of awareness.
What is Irony?
This "big picture" concept is the underlying message or universal truth the author explores through the interaction of all other elements.
What is Theme?
This process involves using "textual evidence" to draw a conclusion that is not explicitly stated by the author.
What is an Inference?