LITERARY TERMS An Introduction

PLOT Plot: the structure and relationship of actions and events in a work of fiction

SETTING, PROTAGONIST, AND ANTAGONIST Setting: the place and time that a story takes place  Example: The setting of Divergent is Chicago in the future. Protagonist: main character, often hero of the story  Example: The protagonist of Divergent is Tris Prior. Antagonist: character against the protagonist, often villain of the story  Example: The antagonist of Divergent is Jeanine.

CONFLICT Conflict: struggle between opposing forces An external conflict happens when the character struggles with outside forces. An internal conflict happens when the character struggles with opposite emotions. There are four types:  Man vs. Man  Example: In The Dark Knight, the conflict is between Batman and The Joker.  Man vs. Nature  Example: In San Andreas, the conflict is between humans and the earthquake.  Man vs. Society  Example: In The Hunger Games, the conflict is between Katniss and the Capital.  Man vs. Self  Example: In Iron Man, the conflict is between Iron Man and Tony Stark.

PLOT POINTS Exposition: introduces the characters, background, and setting  Example: The exposition of The Fault in Our Stars is an introduction to Hazel and what her life is like with cancer. Rising action: events which lead to the climax of the story  Example: The rising action of The Fault in Our Stars is when Hazel meets Gus and the two of them become close friends.

PLOT POINTS, CONT. Climax: the highest point of action in the story  Example: The climax of The Fault in Our Stars is when Hazel and Gus go to Amsterdam, where they become a couple and find out Gus’s cancer is back. Falling action: events in the story that lead to the end of the conflict  Example: The falling action of The Fault in Our Stars is the decline of Gus’s health until he eventually dies. Denouement/Resolution: the end of the conflict  Example: The denouement/resolution of The Fault in Our Stars is Hazel coming to terms with Gus’s death.

CHARACTERIZATION Characterization: the process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character  Direct characterization: an author overtly reveals a character’s personality by directly telling you about him or her  Example: The author tells you that the character is a bully.

INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION Indirect characterization: textual clues show a character’s motivation and intent Clues:  Presenting the character’s words and actions  Revealing the character’s private thoughts and feelings  Showing how the other people respond to the character  Describing how the character looks and dresses

FLAT AND ROUND CHARACTERS Flat Characters: only a few things are known about flat characters  Example: In Shrek, the Gingerbread man is a flat character. Round Characters: many characteristics are known about round characters  Example: In Shrek, Fiona and Shrek are round characters.

STATIC AND DYNAMIC CHARACTERS Static Characters: don’t change during the course of the plot  Example: In Frozen, Olaf is a static character. Dynamic Characters: change during the course of the plot  Example: In Frozen, Elsa and Anna are dynamic characters.

NARRATION Narrator: the "voice" that speaks or tells a story  Example: The narrator of the Twilight books in Bella Swan. Unreliable narrator: a storyteller who fails to see the connections between events in the story, or isn’t completely truthful.  Example: In Forrest Gump, Forrest is an unreliable narrator.

POINT OF VIEW Point of View: the perspective, or outlook, from which a writer tells a story.  First person: the narrator tells the story from his own point of view.  Example: “I was so excited to go to the movies!”  Second person: the book itself addresses the reader, as if the reader is an active character in the book.  Example: “You are walking down the street.”  Third person limited: restricted to one character and observes only what he sees, hears, feels, or does.  Example: “Jack misses his best friend.”  Third person omniscient: narrator can see everything and everywhere, even relating the thoughts of all of the characters.  Example: “The students were dreading the quiz.”

MOOD Mood: the atmosphere of a literary work intended to evoke a certain emotion or feeling from the reader  Example: The mood of a horror movie like Insidious is frightened.

TONE Tone: the attitude a writer takes toward the reader, a subject, or character.  Example: The tone of The Diary of Anne Frank is a optimistic and youthful.

FLASHBACK Flashback: the author or narrator depicts events which have taken place before the present time  Example: In Tangled, Flynn Rider uses flashback to explain how Rapunzel was kidnapped.

SURPRISE ENDING Surprise ending: the reader doesn’t expect the ending, but it is still both logical and believable.  Example: In The Sixth Sense, the ending reveals that Bruce Willis’s character is a ghost.  This is a surprise, but it is logical because only the little boy who sees dead people talks to him throughout the entire film.

IRONY Situational Irony: an event occurs that contradicts the expectations of the reader.  Example: The good guy turns out to be the serial killer. Dramatic Irony: the audience or the reader knows something that a character does not.  Example: You (the audience) know who the kidnapper is, but the cops searching for him do not. (You see this on cop shows a lot.) Verbal Irony: saying one thing but meaning another; sarcasm  Example: Someone says, “Wow! Aren’t we having beautiful weather today?” when there’s a hurricane happening.

SIMILE, METAPHOR, PERSONIFICATION, AND HYPERBOLE Simile: a comparison of two unlike things that uses the word “like” or “as”  Example: Jeremy was as wrathful as a tiger on the hunt. Metaphor: a comparison of two unlike things without using the words “like” or “as”  Example: Maggie was a bump on a log in class today. Personification: attributing human characteristics to something nonhuman  Example: The stars danced across the sky. Hyperbole: an extreme exaggeration  Example: Elisa will just die if no one asks her to prom.

ALLUSION Allusion: a reference in a work of literature to a well-known character, place, or situation from literature, music, mythology, film, religion (especially the Bible), art, or history.  Example: In Easy A, Olive references the novel The Scarlet Letter and its main character, Hester Prynne, throughout the movie.

ALLITERATION Alliteration: the repetition of consonant sounds in words that are close to one another, typically occurs at the beginning of words  Example: “Miss Mary Mack” shows the repetition of the “m” sound  Example: In V for Vendetta, the “v” sound is repeated.

FORESHADOWING Foreshadowing: hints or clues of events that have yet to occur.  Example: In Thor, Odin says that both Thor and Loki were born to be kings. This foreshadows the reveal that Loki is actually a Frost Giant, not the son of Odin.

SYMBOL AND IMAGERY Symbol: a person, place, or thing used to represent something else.  Example: The color red is a symbol for love, passion, anger, etc. Imagery: descriptive language that appeals to the five senses.  Example: The candy tasted sweet, sour, and tangy all at once.

THEME Theme: central idea of a piece of literature, sometimes called the moral of the story, or the lesson There can be more than one theme.  Example: In Frozen, there are multiple possible themes.  True love means making sacrifices.  Never hide who you really are.  You can always count on family.