Unit 4: Part 2 Literary Terms

Plot: the sequence of events that make up the story.

A story's plot focuses on a central conflict, or struggle that the main character faces.

During the exposition, the characters, setting, and conflict are introduced.

The conflict intensifies during the rising action, reaching its point of highest tension during the climax.

The conflict intensifies during the rising action, reaching its point of highest tension during the climax.

The intensity of the conflict lessens during the falling action, and ends during the resolution.

The intensity of the conflict lessens during the falling action, and ends during the resolution.

Characters: the personalities who participate in the story.

A writer uses techniques of characterization to develop and reveal characters.

Setting: the time and place of a story.

Theme: the central idea, message, or insight a story explores.

Point of view: the perspective from which a story is told.

Voice is conveyed through all the elements of the writing, including the author's syntax, tone, characters, plots, and themes.

Description: word portraits of people, places, or things.

Descriptive writing uses images and may include figurative language.

Syntax: the length and types of sentences a writer uses.

Diction/Word Choice: the writer's use of particular types of words. Diction may be formal, casual, elevated, idiomatic, or any combination thereof.

Symbolism: the imbuing of a story element with meaning that is larger than itself.

Tone: He suggests emotions but does not explain them or directly state what characters feel.

During the early 1900s, some writers began using a literary device called stream of consciousness to try to capture the natural flow of thought.

Stream-of-consciousness narratives often include the use of flashback, an interruption in which earlier events are described.

An archetype is a plot structure, character type, symbol, or idea that recurs in the literature or mythology of many different cultures across the world.

The hero's quest is one archetypal plot structure.

• hyperbole: exaggeration or outrageous overstatement

• understatement: the opposite of hyperbole; downplaying a dramatic event, or saying less than what is meant

• idioms: expressions in which the literal meanings of the words do not add up to the actual meaning ("raining cats and dogs" = downpour)

• dialect: ways of speaking that are particular to a region or group

Apostrophe is a literary device in which a speaker directly addresses a thing, concept, or person who is dead or absent.

Sandburg's portrayal of the city of Chicago relies on a figure of speech called personification, in which a nonhuman subject is given human qualities.

When you evaluate the effects of repetition, you examine the feelings or ideas the repetition emphasizes.

He often wrote in blank verse, or unrhymed iambic pentameter, which mimics the sound of natural speech...

Many of Frost's poems, including five in this grouping, can be categorized as pastorals, or poems that deal with rural settings.

Write a sequel to this story that describes what happens when Phoenix Jackson gets home.

Apply this criteria to a critical review of "A Rose for Emily."

Write a monologue in which you use stream of consciousness to portray the character's thoughts.

Complete each analogy with a word from the vocabulary list.