Literary Terms

1. Literary Terms We will be using these literary terms throughout the school year. There WILL be literary terms used on your FINAL EXAMS in May!! You need to keep up with your notes. Don’t lose your terms! You might be able to use them – be RESPONSIBLE!!

2. We will use the following terms: Character Antagonist Protagonist Imagery Mood Plot Exposition Rising Action Climax Falling Action Resolution Conflict Flashback Foreshadowing Suspense Point of View Setting Personification Theme Tone MetaphorSimile

3. Character A character is a person or an animal that takes part in the action of a literary work.

4. Antagonist • The Antagonist is a character or force in conflict with a main character, or protagonist. • Example: Voldemort is an evil wizard who wants to kill Harry.

5. Do you know your Antagonists??? • On your paper take a few minutes to write down some Antagonists that you can recall from movies, television shows, and video games • Remember the Antagonist is in conflict with the Protagonist or, main character!

6. Protagonist • The Protagonist is the main character in a literary work • Can you name some famous Protagonists that are found in literature?

7. Flat Character • Has only one or two personality traits and can be summed up in a simple phrase • InFinding Nemo, Bruce the shark is a flat character - he is not around very long, and we don't really understand why he does what he does.  His motivations are very simple - when he gets hungry, he tries to eat. 

8. Round Character • Is complex and has many different traits • Example: Indiana Jones

9. Static Character • Does not change much in the story • Example: Cinderella

10. Dynamic Character • Changes in some important way as a result of the story’s action • Example: Harry Potter

11. Imagery Imagery is words or phrases that appeal to one or more of the five senses. Writers use imagery to describe how their subjects look, sound, feel, taste, and smell.

12. MOOD • Mood, or atmosphere, is the feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage. • Writers use many devices to create mood, including images, dialogue, setting, and plot.

13. Plot • Plot is the sequence of events. The first event causes the second, the second causes the third, and so forth.

14. PLOTLINE Climax Rising Action Falling Action Resolution Exposition Conflict Introduced

15. Exposition The Exposition is the introduction. It is the part of the work that introduces the characters, setting, and basic situation.

16. Rising Action Rising Action is the part of the plot that begins to occur as soon as the conflict is introduced.

17. Climax The Climax is the point of greatest emotional intensity, interest, or suspense in the plot of a narrative.

18. Falling Action Falling Action is the action that typically follows the climax and reveals its results.

19. Resolution The Resolution is the part of the plot that concludes the falling action by revealing or suggesting the outcome of the conflict.

20. Conflict Conflict is the struggle between opposing forces in a story or play.

21. External Conflict • External conflict exists when a character struggles against some outside force: • Man vs. society • Man vs. Fate • Man vs. Man • Man vs. Nature

22. Internal Conflict • Internal conflict exists within the mind of a character who is torn between different courses of action. • Man vs. Himself

23. Flashback • A flashback is a literary device in which an earlier episode, conversation, or event is inserted into the sequence of events. • Often flashbacks are presented as a memory of the narrator or of another character.

24. Flashback continued… The movie Titanic is told almost entirely in a flashback. What are some other films that contain flashback to help tell stories? Holes Willy Wonka Think of some more…

25. Foreshadowing • Foreshadowing is the author’s use of clues to hint at what might happen later in the story. • Writers use foreshadowing to create suspense.

26. Can you think of an element of foreshadowing?

27. Suspense • Suspense is the growing interest and excitement readers experience while awaiting a climax or resolution in a work of literature. • Writers create suspense by raising questions in the minds of their readers.

28. Point of View • Point of View is the vantage point, from which a story is told • First-person is told by a character who uses the first-person pronoun “I”.

29. Point of View • Third-person limited is where the narrator uses “he” and “she” to refer to the characters. • Omniscient Point of View- the narrator, who plays no point in the story, zooms in on the thoughts and feelings of one character

30. Setting • The setting of a literary work is the time and place of the action. • The setting includes all the details of a place and time – the year, the time of day, even the weather.

31. Theme • The theme of a literary work is its central message, concern, or purpose • The theme may be stated directly by the writer although it is more often presented indirectly.

32. Tone • Tone is the attitude toward a subject of a poem, story, or other literary work. • For example, word choice or phrasing may seem to convey respect, anger, lightheartedness, or sarcasm.

33. Metaphor A Metaphor is a type of speech that compares or equates two or more things that have something in common. A metaphor does NOT use like or as. Example: Life is a bowl of cherries.

34. Simile A Simile is another figure of speech that compares seemingly unlike things. Simile’s DO use the words like or as. Example: Her voice was like nails on a chalkboard.

35. Personification Personification is a figure of speech in which an animal, object, force of nature, or idea is given human qualities or characteristics. Example: Tears began to fall from the dark clouds.