Literary Devices

Elements of Plot

100

The main events of a story. Made up of various scenes that work together to create a narrative.

Plot

200

The highest point of action during a story when the central conflict is confronted for the final time.

Climax

300

The part of the story where major characters and important details of the setting are explained.

Exposition

400

The step in the Hero's Journey that sees the hero leaving their normal world or circumstances to enter a new environment.

Crossing the Threshold

500

The step of the Hero's Journey that challenges the character to go on the journey.

Call to Adventure

Characters

100

The principal character of a story who has a goal to accomplish

Protagonist

200

Characters who play a large role in the story.

Major Characters

300

The character that tries to prevent the main character achieving their goal

Antagonist

400

A character that appears for only one scene, is mainly used a narrative device.

Incidental Characters

500

The name for a good character, trying to do a good thing, in opposition to the main character.

Hero Antagonist

Figurative Language

100

The use of concrete objects to represent abstract ideas.

Symbolism

200

Vividly descriptive language that involves one or more of the five senses.

Imagery

300

Referencing an event, person, or other piece of literature in order to better describe an element of your story.

Allusion

400

The use of reoccurring themes in symbols to illustrate the message of a text.

Motif

500

What text is being referenced in the common allusion "Et tu, Brute?"

Julius Caesar

Textual Examples

100

What role, besides narrator, did J.D. Vance fill in Hillbilly Elegy?

Protagonist

200

What literary device is Charlotte Perkins Gilman using in the following passage?

The color is repellant, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight.

Imagery

300

What literary device is Robert Frost using in the following lines:

Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Allusion

400

What device is Shakespeare using in the following lines?

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;

Symbolism (Accept Metaphor)

500

Each of the following is an example of what same device?

Light and Dark in Lord of the Rings

Ducks in Cather in the Rye

Clocks in The Great Gatsby

Motif

Miscellaneous

100

The writer who created the idea of the Monomyth and mapped out the Hero's Journey in a circle.

Joseph Campbell

200

We read an article about this high school in first semester that was the basis for our "York High School Way" essay.

Naperville North

300

This country was mentioned in both our study of education and of justice as a positive example.

Finland

400

What was the subject of our first graded assignment?

Rhetorical Devices

500

What industry did Mr. Migalla work in before becoming a teacher?

Television/Film