LITERARY TERMS-

MUST KNOW !!

Characterization:The means by which an author establishes character. An author may directly describe the appearance and personality of a character or show it through action or dialogue.

Plot:

The series of 5 events that form the story:Exposition-characters, conflict and setting are established

Rising action-series of events builds up to the conflict

climax-main point, highest point of interest/emotion

falling action-events and complications begin to resolve

resolution-conclusion ends with a happy or tragic ending

Setting

•Time, place, location and period.

Conflict:

The struggle in the story. Traditionally, there are four main conflicts:man vs. self (internal)man vs. person (external)man vs. society (external)man vs. nature (external)(man Vs. supernatural)(man vs. technology)

Imagery:

The use of description that helps the reader imagine how something looks, sounds, feels, smells, or tastes. Most of the time, it refers to appearance.

e.g. “Tita was so sensitive to onions, any time they were being chopped, they say she would just cry and cry; when she was still in my great-grandmother’s belly her sobs were so loud that even Nacha, the cook, who was half-deaf, could hear them easily.”--Like Water for Chocolate

Simile:

Comparing two unlike things using “like” or “as.”

e.g. “I’m as hungry as a pig,” or “Your eyes are like stars that brighten my night.”

Metaphor:

A comparison of two unlike things using any form of the verb “to be”–-i.e. am, are, is, was, were.

Ex: “This chair is a rock,” or “I am an island.”

Personification:

Giving inanimate objects human characteristics.

e.g. “The wind howled through the night.”

Theme:

The central idea of a

work

Satire:

A work that makes fun of something or someone.

e.g. Saturday Night LiveThe SimpsonsSouth Park

Sonnet:

A fourteen-line poem. Different kinds of sonnets have different rhyme schemes. The most notable are Shakespeare’s Sonnets.

Symbolism:

The use of one thing to represent another. Something that stands for something else.

e.g. A dove is a symbol of peace.

Tone:

The author’s attitude toward the subject of the work. Usually positive or negative.

e.g. The tone of a piece of literature could be pessimistic, optimistic, angry, or sarcastic.

Diction

1)Word choice.

2) The author’s choice of words. An author has the option of choosing any word from our language, why does he/she choose to use certain words and not others? In order to create a certain tone.