Level 1 Literary Devices
Specific word choice to alter text's tone and audience response.
What is diction?
The author’s attitude toward their subject.
What is tone?
This term describes the layout of claims that support a thesis.
What is line of reasoning?
A character who doesn't have a well-developed backstory, personality, or motivations; who is two-dimensional and unsatisfying.
What is a flat character?
This symbolic motif often represents unattainable desires or the illusion of a better future, as in The Great Gatsby.
What is the green light?
The interpretive level of a word based on its associated images and emotions rather than its literal meaning.
What is connotation?
The emotions that a text evokes from the reader.
What is mood?
The first sentence of a paragraph that supports the thesis.
What is a topic sentence?
A character who doesn’t change over the course of a story.
What is a static character?
This motif often appears as weather—especially storms—to reflect emotional or narrative turmoil.
What is the motif of nature mirroring emotion?
The speaker of a literary work.
What is narrator?
The repetition or variations of an image or idea in a work which is used to develop theme or characters
What is a motif?
Your explanation of how evidence supports your claims.
What is commentary?
A character that by contrast underscores or enhances the distinctive characteristics of another.
This recurring idea involves a character struggling to define themselves or find purpose in a chaotic world.
What is the theme of identity or existentialism?
The underlying ideas that the author illustrates through characterization, motifs, language, plot, etc.
What is theme?
An implied or indirect reference to a person, event, or thing or to a part of another text.
What is allusion?
Selected portions of the text used to back your claims.
What is textual evidence?
A lifelike or complex character typically with fully fleshed-out and multi-faceted personalities, backgrounds, desires, and motivations.
What is a round character?
This recurring idea focuses on inherited guilt or sin, especially within family lines.
What is the theme of generational guilt or the burden of legacy?
An object, a person, a situation, or an action that has a literal meaning in a story but also suggests or represents other meanings.
What is a symbol?
To compare similarities between two unrelated things as a way to make a point through the comparison
What is analogy?
A defensible interpretation of a text’s meaning.
What is a thesis statement?
A character that undergoes significant internal changes (emotional, psychological, moral) over the course of the story and experience growth keeping them interesting and relatable.
What is a dynamic character?
This theme challenges the boundary between reality and illusion, often used to show psychological or moral ambiguity.
What is the theme of perception vs. reality?