Important Literary Terms
- Plot: Sequence of events that make up a piece of literature
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- Character: A person or animal in a story that an author develops.
- Characterization: The process of an author revealing a character's personality.
- Direct Characterization: When an author directly states a character's personalty
- Indirect Characterization: When an author drops hints or clues about a character's personality through their appearance, action, thoughts/feelings, and other character's reactions
- Round Character: A character that is fully developed by the author (three-dimensional; 3D)
- Flat Character: A character that has not been fully developed by the author (two-dimensional; 2D)
- Static Character: A character that does not change
- Dynamic Character: A character whose personality changes permanently as a result of the story's events
- Protagonist: The main character
- Antagonist: A character that aggravates and goes against the main character
- Setting: Time and Place of the story
- Inference: A conclusion reached based on evidence and reasoning
- Theme: A truth about life; declarative statement. Example: You don't appreciate what you have until you don't have it anymore.
- Moral: A lesson learned; imperative statement (tell someone what to do). Example: Don't take what you have for granite.
- Main Idea: A one sentence summary stating what happened in the text. (Somebody Wanted But So) Example: Charlie wanted a puppy, but his parents would not let him get one, so he got a job as a dog walker instead.
- Summary: A paragraph (five-seven sentences) that highlights the major events
- Topic: One word that summarizes what the story is about
- Author's Point-of-View: The way the author allows you to "see" and "hear" what is going on.
First Person: Someone in the story tells it
Third Person: Someone who isn't in the action of the story tells it
Third Person Omniscient: The reader knows all the thoughts of all the characters
Third Person Limited: The reader know everything going on from the outside, but they only know the thoughts of one character - Conflict: A problem that is internal or external
Internal: Man vs. Himself External: Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Machine/Technology - Mood: The atmosphere an author creates
- Tone: How an author/character feels about a topic (positive, negative, or neutral)
- Subplot: Plot, or series of events, that are going on at the same time as the main plot
- Parallel Episodes: similar events of the same category happening over and over again in a story
- Irony: When the opposite of what you expect occurs. Example: A dentist has many cavities.
- Verbal Irony: When a character says the opposite of what he or she means; sarcasm
- Dramatic Irony: When the reader knows information that the characters in a story do not know
- Epiphany: A realization or "ah-hah/lightbulb" moment
- Suspense: A feeling of uncertainty created for the reader
- Foreshadowing: Clues of what will happen next/later in the story
- Symbol: An object that represents something bigger. Example: A lot of books on his book shelf represented his knowledge.
- Extended Metaphor: A metaphor is introduced and then developed throughout an entire piece of text (seen most often in poems)
- Simile: A comparison using like or as. Example: Allison was as tall as a giraffe.
- Metaphor: A comparison without using like or as. Example: Allison is a giraffe.
- Personification: Giving inanimate objects living qualities. Example: The desk got up and walked away.
- Hyperbole: Exaggeration. Example: It took me seventeen hours to do my homework last night!
- Imagery: Language that includes the five senses (see, hear, smell, touch, taste)
- Onomatopoeia: Words that represent sound. Example: Bam! Sizzle! Pow!
- Alliteration: Repeated consonant sounds. Example: I love the fantastic, fighting Phillies!
- Parallelism: Each part of the sentence is worded the same way so that a pattern can be detected. Example: I want to have a new house, a new pool, and a new car.
- Hyphenated Modifier: words joined by hyphens that work together to act as adjective unit and describe a noun. Example: Today is a stay-in-bed kind of day.