| A | B |
|---|
| Foreshadowing | A device the writer uses to hint at a future course of action. |
| Narrator | The person or character who tells the story. |
| Symbolism | Term for a person, a place, a thing, or an event that represents both itself and a larger idea or feeling |
| Resolution | The events that close the story. |
| Theme | Main idea or universal message of a literary work. |
| Situational Irony | A contrast between what is expected and what actually happens. |
| Rising Action | A series of events that builds from the conflict. It begins with the inciting force and ends with the climax. |
| Diction | The autors choice of a particular word as opposed to others. |
| Imagery | Language that appeals to the senses. Descriptions of people or objects stated in terms of our senses. |
| Falling Action | The outcome of the plot, occurring after the climax. |
| Gothic Literature | Literary genre focusing on dark, mysterious, terrifying events |
| Universal Symbols | Embodying universally recognizable meanings; a n eagle represents the united states, a heart represents love. |
| Alliteration | The repetition of initial (first) consonant letters or sounds in word groups; examples include wild and wooly, sweet sixteen, through thick and thin |
| 3rd person limited point of view | The narrator is an outsider who sees into the mind of one of the characters |
| External Conflict | The struggle in a work of literature. This struggle may be between one person and another person or between a person and an animal, an idea or a thing. |
| Exposition | The introductory material which gives the setting, creates the tone, presents the characters, and presents other facts necessary to understanding the story. |
| 3rd person omniscient point of view | The narrator is an all-knowing outsider who can enter the minds of more than one of the characters |
| Internal Conflict | The struggle in a work of literature. This struggle is between a person and himself or herself |
| 1st person point of view | The narrator is a character in the story who can reveal only personal thoughts and feelings and what he or she sees and is told by other characters. He can’t tell us thoughts of other characters. “I” |
| Invested symbol | Something given special meaning by the way an author uses it in a literary work, for example, the Scarlet Ibis. |
| Setting | The environment in which a story unfolds. It includes the time and period of history, the place, the atmosphere, the clothing, the living conditions, and the social climate. |
| Allusion | A meaningful, indirect reference to a well-known character, place, quotation, or situation for the sake of comparison; most commonly biblical, historical, musical, and mythological |
| Simile | Comparing one thing to an unlike thing by using like, as, or than |
| Onomatopoeia | Figure of speech in which a word mimics a sound |
| Verbal Irony | Saying the opposite of what is meant, sarcasm |
| Dramatic Irony | Failure of a character to see or understand what is obvious to the audience |
| Tone | The writer's attitude toward his readers and his subject; his mood or moral view. A writer can be formal, informal, playful, ironic, and especially, optimistic or pessimistic. |
| Climax | High point in a story, also the point where everything changes |
| Metaphor | Comparing one thing to an unlike thing without using like or as |
| Allegory | The representation of ideas or moral principals by means of symbolic characters, event or objects. A story with more than one overall meaning. |
| Protagonist | The main character in a work; the action revolves around this person and an opposing force |
| Antagonist | A person or thing that opposes the main character of a story |
| Round Character | A character that is fully developed through dialogue, description, and other characters responses |
| Flat character | An underdeveloped character that supports the main character |
| Static Character | This type of character does not experience a change |
| Dynamic Character | This type of character experiences a change throughout the course of a story |
| Conflict | A struggle or clash that drives the events of a story |
