| A | B |
|---|
| action | what happens in the story |
| alliteration | repetition of initial consonants: "the soft surge of the sea" |
| allusion | an indirect reference to something outside the current literary work |
| antagonist | the villain in the story who goes against the protagonist; "the bad guy" |
| character | any person in the story (in some cases - animals) |
| coincidence | the concurrence of events that happen by chance |
| conflict | the difficulty or challenge that lies within the story |
| dialogue | the exchange or conversation between characters or how they get to "talk" to each other |
| figurative language | uses words in a non-literal way, giving them a meaning beyond their ordinary one |
| foreshadowing | the planting of clues or hints about what will happen later in the story |
| hyperbole | an exaggeration |
| imagery | an appeal to any of the senses (tast, touch, sight, sound,and smell)--the most frequently used device |
| inevitability | the sense that the outcome is necessary and unavoidable |
| irony | an event or result just the opposite of what is expected to happen |
| metaphor | a comparison stating the resemblance between two things; "Her presence was a ray of light in a dark world." |
| mood | what the reader feels when reading the story |
| moral | lesson the author is trying to impart unpon readers throughout the story |
| narrator | speaker; the person who shares the story with the readers |
| onomatopoeia | the use of words that sound like their meaning (crack, boom, swish) |
| personification | gives human qualities to animals, non-human beings, or inanimate objects |
| plot | the series or sequences of events in the story |
| exposition | an explanation of the situation and the condition of the characters |
| rising action | tension in the story builds through a series of complications |
| climax | the peak or turning point of the story |
| falling action | denouement; part after the climax |
| resolution | a sense that the end of the story is complete |
| point of view | the angle or side from which the story is told |
| First Person | stories told with I as the narrator |
| Third Person | stories told with the narrator saying He, She, They |
| protagonist | the hero/heroine or "good guy", main character of the story |
| puns | plays on words that add interest or humor |
| setting | the story's time and place |
| simile | compares two different things, using like or as |
| style | the way the words are put together to create the story |
| suspense | the state of excitement/anticipation, a sense of uncertainty, an emotional pull which keeps the reader reading |
| symbol | a person, object , situation, or action which can represent tow levels, the literal and the symbolic |
| theme | the story's moral or lesson |
| tone | how the author expresses his or her feeling about the piece of writing through the story |
