| A | B |
|---|
| character | a person or animal who takes part in the action of a literary work |
| main character | the most important character in the story |
| antagonist | a character or force in conflict with a main character; often the "bad guy" |
| protagonist | the main character in a literary work; often the "good guy" |
| characterization | the act of creating and developing a character; what the author writes to develop a character's personality |
| conflict | a struggle between opposing forces |
| internal conflict | a conflict that takes place WITHIN THE MIND of a character |
| internal conflict example | Individual vs. self |
| external conflict | conflict that occurs when a character struggles against some OUTSIDE FORCE |
| external conflict examples | Individual vs. Individual; Individual vs. Nature; Individual vs. Society; Individual vs. Fate (supernatural); Individual vs. Technology |
| setting | the time and place of the action |
| plot | the sequence of events in a story |
| plot steps | 1)Exposition, 2)Initial Event, 3)Rising Action, 4)Climax, 5)Falling Action, 6)Resolution |
| initial event | problem is introduced |
| rising action | events leading to the climax |
| climax | high point of interest or suspense; when things come to a 'head' |
| falling action | events after the climax leading to the resolution |
| resolution | solution to the problem & ending of the story |
| theme | a central message, concern, or purpose in a literary work |
| mood | the feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage |
| suspense | a feeling of anxious uncertainty about the outcome of events in a literary work |
| surprise ending | a conclusion that is unexpected |
| narrator | a speaker or character who tells a story, may be first person or third person |
| irony | the general name given to literary techniques that involve surprising, interesting, or amusing CONTRADICTIONS |
| moral | a lesson taught by a literary work |
| motivation | a reason that explains or partially explains a character's thoughts, feelings, actions, or speech |
| point of view (POV) | the perspective from which a story is told |
| First Person POV | told by the narrator who is a character in the story |
| Third Person POV | told by someone who is NOT a character in the story |
| flashback | a section of a literary work that interrupts the sequence of events to relate an event that occurred at an earlier time |
| foreshadow | the use of clues that suggest/hint at events that have yet to occur |
| dialect | the form of a language spoken by people in a particular region or group; example: "Y'all" used in the South US & "Youse guys" used in New York/New Jersey to mean "everyone here" |
| dialogue | a conversation between characters; signalled by quotation marks in a written story |
