Plot Diagram
This element is defined as the "turning point" in the story where tension is at its highest point.
What is the Climax?
This plot element is described as the "engine of the story"; in Romeo and Juliet, it is the feud between families
What is the Conflict?
This device is used in "The First Day" to reveal the mother’s character through her actions and speech rather than just stating she is "proud but illiterate."
What is Characterization?
In "The Gift of the Magi," Jim and Della both sell their most prized possessions to buy gifts for one another that they can no longer use, illustrating this device.
What is Situational Irony?
The speaker in "Good Bones" compares her job as a parent to this specific profession
What is a Realtor?
This part of the plot includes all the information the reader needs to know—like characters and setting—before the story begins
What is the Exposition?
This stage represents the very end of the story, such as the Prince's final speech.
What is the Resolution?
Roald Dahl’s choice to describe a murder in a calm, practical, and almost amusing way establishes this literary device.
What is Tone?
Because "The First Day" is told through the eyes of the young daughter using "I," it utilizes this literary device
What is Point of View (POV)?
The speaker repeatedly mentions that she keeps the harsh realities of life from these specific people
Who are her children?
This stage occurs after the climax, where the tension of the story begins to come down.
What is Falling Action?
Juliet takes a sleeping potion to avoid marrying Paris.
What is Falling Action?
The "spooky and confusing" atmosphere created in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" through descriptions of "secret and malign" stars represents this.
What is Mood?
In "Lamb to the Slaughter," when the detective says the murder weapon is "under our very noses" while eating the leg of lamb, it is an example of this.
What is Dramatic Irony?
Using the image of "good bones," the speaker suggests the world has this, despite being a "shithole."
What is the potential for beauty?
In this stage of the plot, tension and complications build toward a turning point.
What is Rising Action?
In the plot of Romeo and Juliet, the famous "Balcony Scene" represents this stage where tension builds.
What is the Rising Action?
Descriptions of trees looking like "giant garden plants" and stars like "eyes" in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" are examples of this sensory device.
What is Imagery?
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is set on a railroad bridge in Northern Alabama during the Civil War, which establishes this.
What is Setting?
The speaker describes her past "ill-advised ways" as this, suggesting they were enjoyable despite being reckless.
What is "delicious"?
This stage of the plot diagram shows how the conflict is ultimately settled and provides a sense of closure to the story
What is the Resolution?
Romeo's banishment is considered this plot stage—the turning point—rather than the resolution.
What is the Climax?
The idea in "The Gift of the Magi" that the greatest love involves the willingness to sacrifice for another is the story's _______.
What is Theme?
In "There Will Come Soft Rains," a poem about nature not caring if mankind perished is used to show this device before we learn humanity actually destroyed itself.
What is Foreshadowing?
This is the central tension of the poem: the desire to shield children from reality versus the need to do this.
What is inspire them to improve/make it beautiful?