| A | B |
|---|
| setting | time and place of the narrative |
| protagonist | main character |
| theme | main idea, usually a general statement about life or people |
| climax | point of highest interest/greatest emotional involvement in story |
| allegory | a story in which the characters and events are symbols that stand for truths about human life |
| plot | sequence of events that make up the story |
| antagonist | opposes the main character |
| point of view | perspective from which the narrative is told |
| conflict | problems characters encounter which lead to development of plot |
| personification | projects the qualities of living things onto non-living things |
| metaphor | a direct comparison of two unlike things |
| simile | direct comparison of two things using “like” or “as” |
| hyperbole | extreme exaggeration |
| foreshadowing | use of clues to prepare reader for events that will happen later |
| dramatic irony | the audience knows of events that the character is unaware of |
| irony | outcome is different than what is expected |
| imagery | language that appeals to senses (sight, taste, smell, touch, hearing) |
| syntax | the way in which words are put together to form phrases, clauses, or sentences |
| understatement | statement which means less than what is intended |
| symbol | something with meaning of own, but stands for something else |
| diction | a writer’s choice of words |
| consonance | repetition of consonant sounds within and at the end of words |
| alliteration | repetition of initial consonant sounds |
| rhyme | repetition of the final sounds in two or more words (as in “a stray gray tray” or “napping…tapping…rapping”) |
| allusion | indirect reference to a historical or literary person, place thing or event with which the reader is assumed to be familiar |
| assonance | repetition of vowel sounds within non-rhyming words (as in “a greed as deep as the sea”) |
