Terms! Add to your Note Cards under the “Literary Terms” Section Day #2 Monday January 3.
Moral Dilemma A situation requiring a choice between equally undesirable alternatives when dealing with principles (morals) or the concept of right and wrong Terms
Ex. #1: Ex. #1: Deciding between doing the right thing (difficult), and the easy thing Ex. #2: Ex. #2: Equality faces a moral dilemma when he has to choose between the Collective (all he knows) and his desire to learn/his invention (what he’s taught is wrong).
Ex. #3: Ex. #3: Harrison Bergeron must choose between living a life captive to all his handicaps, or breaking free but knowing that it means he will die Ex. #2: Ex. #2: In “The Wife’s Story” the wife must choose between the love for her children and the love for her husband
Epiphany A character’s sudden flash of insight into a conflict or situation Terms Page R23
An “Ah-HA!” moment Everything clicks into place and makes sense Sudden solution to a problem Sudden realization of another character’s motivations
Ex. #1: Ex. #1: When Equality discovers the word “I” everything he has been feeling falls into place. Ex. #2: Ex. #2: Right before Mary Maloney kills her husband, she sees his back turned towards her and suddenly realizes that he is not the ideal husband and his betrayal has taken away the ideal life she thought she had. Ex. #3: Ex. #3: All the oddities the wife wonders about in “The Wife’s Story” suddenly make sense when she witnesses her husband turn human right in front of her.
Tone The writer’s attitude toward his or her audience and subject. Terms Page R30
Can be described by a single adjective, although there may be shifts in tone throughout the piece: –Formal –Serious –Bitter --Informal –Playful –Ironic Tone of Anthem: Tone of Lamb to the Slaughter: Tone of A Wife’s Story:
Allegory A story or tale with two or more levels of meaning: Literal LevelSymbolic Level. a Literal Level and a Symbolic Level. The events, setting, and characters in an allegory are symbols for ideas and qualities Terms Page R21
Ex. #3: Ex. #3: Avatar = the taking of North America’s West; any colonization Ex. #1: Ex. #1: Animal Farm = Russian Revolution Ex. #2: Ex. #2: Prodigal Son = the sinner and God’s love