Glossary of Common Literary Terms
ENGLISH DEPARTMENTGlossary of Common Literary Terms PDFAP LITERATURE & COMPOSITION Literary Terms & Devices PDF
Literary Devices and Terms PDF
Glossary of Literary Terms PDF
Most Common Literary Terms PDF
Allegory: an allegory is a narrative in which the characters often stand for abstract concepts. An allegory generally teaches a lesson by means of an interesting story or fable.
Examples of Allegory:
- The Tortoise and the Hare from Aesop's Fables: From this story, we learn that the strong and steady win the race.
- The story of Icarus: Icarus fashions wings for himself out of wax, but when he flies too close to the sun his wings melt.
Alliteration: the repetition at close intervals of consonant sounds for a poetic affect. For example: wailing in the winter wind.
Alliteration Tongue Twisters
- Here are some fun tongue-twister examples. Try saying them quickly!
- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
- A good cook could cook as much cookies as a good cook who could cook cookies.
- Black bug bit a big black bear. But where is the big black bear that the big black bug bit?
- Sheep should sleep in a shed.
- I saw a saw that could out saw any other saw I ever saw.
- A big bug bit the little beetle but the little beetle bit the big bug back.
- Show Shawn Sharon's shabby shoes.
- How much wood would a woodchuck chuck; If a woodchuck would chuck wood? A woodchuck would chuck all the wood he could chuck; If a woodchuck would chuck wood.
- Silly Sally swiftly shooed seven silly sheep. The seven silly sheep Silly Sally shooed shilly-shallied south. These sheep shouldn't sleep in a shack.
Allusion: a reference to something in literature, history, mythology, religious texts, etc., considered common knowledge. An allusion is when a person or author makes an indirect reference in speech, text, or song to an famous event or figure.
Allusion examples:
- You don’t have to be William Shakespeare to understand allusion.
- Mr. Taylor took command of his c likelassroom like he was Caesar in Rome!
- Well, I’m no Hercules, but I can open that pickle jar.
Ambiguity: Double or even multiple meaning.
Analogy: a direct comparison of two seemingly unlike things based on a shared attribute, aspect or trait, a point by point comparison between two dissimilar things for the purpose of clarifying the less familiar of the two things.
Analogy Examples:
As light as a feather.
As dead as a doornail.
As busy as a bee.
As quiet as a mouse.
As happy as a clam.
Sly like a fox.
Antagonist: a character (bad guy/girl) or force that opposes the protagonist (good guy/girl). (It is most often a human character, in children's literature or picture books it may be an animal, sometimes an unseen malevolent force, or an internal flaw/weakness of the character.)
Apostrophe: the device, usually in poetry, of calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place, thing, or personified abstraction either to begin a poem or to make a dramatic break in thought somewhere within the poem.
Famous Protagonist and AntagonistAntithesis: a person, idea or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else, a figure of speech in which opposing and contrasting ideas, people or things are paralleled and or compared.
- Sherlock Holmes vs. Professor Moriarity.
- Harry Potter vs. Lord Voldemort, the Harry Potter series.
- Captain Ahab vs. Moby Dick The White Whale.
- Peter Pan vs. Captain Hook
Antithesis Examples:
- “hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins”.
- "To err is human; to forgive divine." ...
- "Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice." ...
- "Many are called, but few are chosen."
Apostrophe: the device, usually in poetry, of calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place, thing, or personified abstraction either to begin a poem or to make a dramatic break in thought somewhere within the poem.
Assonance: in poetry, the repetition of the sound of a vowel or diphthong in non-rhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be discernible, the repetition at close intervals of vowel sounds for a non-rhyming echo. For example:
Assonance examples:
- The early bird catches the worm.
- Mad as a hatter.
- Honesty is the best policy.
- Let the cat out of the bag.
- A stitch in time saves nine.
- The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Ballad: A ballad is a type of narrative poem (story) that tells a story of heroic deeds and was traditionally set to music. Ballads are generally about ordinary people who have amazing adventures, with a single tragic incident as the central focus. They contain dialogue and repetition, and imply more than they actually tell.
Cacophony: Harsh, clashing, or dissonant sounds, often produced by combinations of words that require a clipped, explosive delivery, or words that contain a number of plosive consonants such as b, d, g, k, p, and t; the opposite of EUPHONY.
Catalog: a long list of anything; an inventory used to emphasize quantity or inclusiveness.
Character: In fiction, a character (person, animal, creation) is the main literary device that moves story (narrative) forward. The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, in which case the distinction of a "fictional" versus "real" character may be made. A character may be main or minor, depending on his or her role in the work of literature. While some characters are two-dimensional, with one or two dominant traits, a fully developed character has a unique complex of traits. A) dynamic characters often change as the plot unfolds. B) static characters remain the same.
Characterization: refers to the techniques employed by writers to develop characters. 1) The writer may use physical description. 2) Dialogue spoken by the character and by other characters reveals character traits. 3) A character’s action may be a means of characterization. 4) The reactions of another character may also be revealing. 5) A character’s thoughts arid feelings are also a means of characterization.
PLOT STRUCTURE:
Exposition: important background information at the beginning of the story, such as setting, characters and dramatic conflicts. In a short story, folk tale, fairy tale, or fable the exposition appears in the opening paragraphs; in a novel the exposition is usually part of the first chapter. Narrative exposition is the insertion of important background information within a story or narrative. This key information helps the audience learn about the settings', characters' backstories, prior plot events, historical context, etc.
Character: In fiction, a character (person, animal, creation) is the main literary device that moves story (narrative) forward. The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, in which case the distinction of a "fictional" versus "real" character may be made. A character may be main or minor, depending on his or her role in the work of literature. While some characters are two-dimensional, with one or two dominant traits, a fully developed character has a unique complex of traits. A) dynamic characters often change as the plot unfolds. B) static characters remain the same.
Characterization: refers to the techniques employed by writers to develop characters. 1) The writer may use physical description. 2) Dialogue spoken by the character and by other characters reveals character traits. 3) A character’s action may be a means of characterization. 4) The reactions of another character may also be revealing. 5) A character’s thoughts arid feelings are also a means of characterization.
PLOT STRUCTURE:
Exposition: important background information at the beginning of the story, such as setting, characters and dramatic conflicts. In a short story, folk tale, fairy tale, or fable the exposition appears in the opening paragraphs; in a novel the exposition is usually part of the first chapter. Narrative exposition is the insertion of important background information within a story or narrative. This key information helps the audience learn about the settings', characters' backstories, prior plot events, historical context, etc.
Exposition Example:
- The EXPOSITION of Cinderella: Cinderella is orphaned and must go live with her evil stepmother and step sisters. Cinderella is made a domestic slave, she is treated cruelly and must do all the chores in the house.
- The CLIMAX of “Rapunzel” There were once a man and a woman who had long in vain wished for a child. At length the woman hoped that God was about to grant her desire. These people had a little window at the back of their house from which a splendid garden could be seen, which was full of the most beautiful flowers and herbs. It was, however, surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared to go into it because it belonged to an enchantress, who had great power and was dreaded by all the world. One day the woman was standing by this window and looking down into the garden, when she saw a bed which was planted with the most beautiful rampion - rapunzel, and it looked so fresh and green that she longed for it, and had the greatest desire to eat some. This desire increased every day, and as she knew that she could not get any of it, she quite pined away, and began to look pale and miserable. Then her husband was alarmed, and asked, what ails you, dear wife. Ah, she replied, if I can't eat some of the rampion, which is in the garden behind our house, I shall die.
Rising Action: That part of the plot that leads through a series of events of increasing interest and power to the climax or turning point. The rising action begins with an inciting moment, an action or event that sets a conflict of opposing forces into motion.
Rising Action Example:
- The Rising Action of “Cinderella” Cinderella's fairy godmother makes it possible for her to attend the ball, but she must leave at midnight. She dances with the prince and it's a magical moment.
Climax: the most intense, exciting, or important point of a narrative story; a culmination or apex. The point at which the conflict of the story begins to reach a turning point and begins to be resolved.
Climax examples:Falling Action: is defined as the parts of a story after the climax and before the very end, events that lead to a resolution (conclusion), proceeding the climax.
- The CLIMAX of “Cinderella” occurs when Cinderella attends the Royal Ball and meets the Prince, they dance and the Prince falls on love with Cinderella.
- The CLIMAX of "The Three Little Pigs". The wolf is outwitted by the third pig Alouicious, the wolf cannot blow the last pigs brick house down, he climbs on the roof and down the chimney into a boiling pot of loba soup.
- The CLIMAX of "Goldilocks" The bears wake up Goldilocks, and she gets scared and runs away, she is later arrested for B and E, the crime of breaking and entering.
Falling Action Example:Resolution: the final unwinding, or resolving of the conflicts and complications in the plot.
- The FALLING ACTION of “Cinderella” occurs when the Prince puts the glass slipper on Cinderella's foot and it fits.
Resolution Example:Obligatory Scene:
- The RESOLUTION of “Cinderella”: Cinderella and the Prince are married in a Resplendent Royal wedding ceremony.
Conceit: an elaborate figure of speech comparing two very dissimilar things.
Conflict: Traditionally, conflict is the major literary element of all narratives (stories) or dramatic literary structures, conflict creates challenges, problems, and or conflicts that must be solved or remedied. The dramatic conflict in a story adds uncertainty, tension, and or failure to the main character's ultimate mission, goal, struggle that needs to be achieved. The struggle between two opposing characters (protagonist vs, antagonist), two opposing forces, two opposing ideas that is the basis of the plot. 1) internal conflict character struggling with him/her self, 2) external conflicts – character struggling with forces outside of him/her self. For example. Nature, god, society, another person, technology, etc.
Connotation: the associations, images, or impressions carried by a word, as opposed to the word’s literal meaning.
Consonance: the close repetition of identical consonant sounds before and after differing vowel sounds.
Convention: In general, an accepted way of writing, speaking or doing things.
Denotation: the precise, literal meaning of a word, without emotional associations or overtones.
Denouement: the final unraveling or outcome of the plot in drama or fiction during which the complications and conflicts of the plot are resolved.
Diction: word choice
Enjambment: the carrying of sense and grammatical structure in a poem beyond the end of one line, COUPLET, or STANZA and into the next.
Epigram: any witty, pointed saying. Originally an epigram meant an inscription, or epitaph usually in verse, on a tomb. Later it came to mean a short poem that compressed meaning and expression in the manner of an inscription.
Epigraph: a motto or quotation that appears at the beginning of a book, play, chapter, or poem. Occasionally, an epigraph shows the source for the title of a work. Because the epigraph usually relates to the theme of a piece of literature, it can give the reader insight into the work.
Epitaph: the inscription on a tombstone or monument in memory of the person or people buried there. Epitaph also refers to a brief literary piece that sums up the life of a dead person.
Euphony: A succession of sweetly melodious sounds; the opposite of CACOPHONY. The term is applied to smoothly flowing POETRY or PROSE.
Fable (apologue): a short tale to teach and illustrate a moral lesson, often with talking animals (personification) or inanimate objects as characters. Aesop's fables are the most famous apologues: The fable of the tortoise and the hare; The moral of the story is if you are persistent, show diligence and are focused vs, acting quickly and carelessly you will succeed.
Figurative Language: colorful vivid language employing figures of speech (a word or phrase used in a non-literal sense for rhetorical or vivid effect); language that cannot be taken literally or only literally. Figurative language takes ordinary everyday writing (prose) and pumps it up. It gently alludes, infers to something without directly or explicitly stating it. Figurative language is a way to engage your readers, lifting and inspiring them with a more a more creative and poetic tone.
Common Types Figures of Speech: Some common figures of speech are alliteration, anaphora, antimetabole, antithesis, apostrophe, assonance, hyperbole, irony, metonymy, onomatopoeia, paradox, personification, pun, simile, synecdoche, and understatement.
Flashback: a scene, or an incident that happened before the beginning of a story, or at an earlier point in the narrative.
Foil: a character who provides a striking contrast to another character.
Foreshadowing: a writer’s use of hints or clues to indicate events that will occur later in the narrative.
Hyperbole: in rhetoric (effective or persuasive speaking or writing), an obvious and deliberate exaggeration or overstatement, intended for effect and not to be taken literally, an exaggeration for emphasis or humorous effect.
Imagery: words and phrases that create vivid experiences or a picture for the reader.
Irony: a contrastasting phrase or odd statement that is usually interesting, paradoxical, and or surprising between what one would normally expect and what the real thing or situation is. Examples of Situational Irony An anti-facebook group sets up a facebook page to recruit new members. using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect, a contrast between appearance and actuality.
Literal: A word for word interpretation for what is written or said.
Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a comparison or analogy is made between two seemingly unlike things, a word or phrase that is compared or applied to an idea, object or action to which it is not usually or literally related/applicable.
Mood: the feeling, or atmosphere, that a writer creates for the reader. Connotative words, sensory images, and figurative language contribute to the mood of a selection, as do the sound and rhythm of the language.
Motif: A unifying element in an artistic work, especially any recurrent image, symbol, theme, character type, subject or narrative detail.
Narrator: the person from whose point of view events are conveyed.
First person: the narrator is a character in the story, uses the pronoun “I.” The first person narrator does not have to be the main character in the story.
Third person: is indicated by the pronouns he, she and they. The third person narrator is not a participant in the action and thus maintains a certain distance from the characters. A) In third person omniscient point of view, the narrator is all-knowing about the thoughts and feelings of the characters. B) The third person limited point of view deals with a writer presenting events as experienced by only one character. This type of narrator does not have full knowledge of situations, past or future events. C) In third person objective the story conveys only the external details of the characters—never their thoughts or inner motivations.
Onomatopoeia: The formation or use of words. Such as: buzz, or cuckoo, whose meaning is suggested by the sound of the word itself. (boom, click, plop)
Oxymoron: a figure of speech in which two contradictory words or phrases are combined in a single expression, giving the effect of a condensed paradox: “wise fool,” “cruel kindness.”
Paradox: a seemingly absurd or contradictory idea, statement or proposition that when investigated or explicitly explained may prove to be well founded or true, a statement or situation containing obvious contradictions, but is nevertheless true.
Parallelism: the use of similar grammatical form gives items equal weight, as in Lincoln’s line “of the people, by the people, for the people.” Attention to parallelism generally makes both spoken and written expression more concise, clear and powerful.
Parody: an imitation of a serious work of literature for the purpose of criticism or humorous effect or for flattering tribute.
Personification: a person considered to be a perfect example or embodiment of some quality or other abstraction, a figure of speech in which human qualities, traits or characteristics are given to an animal, object, or concept.
Plot: the plan of action or sequence of events of the story.
Point of view: the vantage point, or stance from which a story is told, the eye and mind through which the action is perceived. (See also narrator.)
Protagonist: the central character in a story; the one upon whom the actions center. The protagonist faces a problem and must undergo some conflict to solve it.
Pun: a joke exploiting the two or more words which sound alike but have different meanings, A form of wit, not necessarily funny, involving a play on a word with two or more meanings.
Rhyme scheme: the pattern of end rhyme in a poem.
Satire: a literary technique in which foolish ideas or customs are ridiculed for the purpose of improving society.
Setting: the time and place in which the action of a story occurs.
Simile: simile a figure of speech in which two different things are compared by using the words "like" or "as," a non-literal phrase in which two unseemingly ideas are compared to make a description more emphatic, poetic or vivid. The comparison is made explicit by the use of a word or phrase such as: like, as, than, similar to, resembles, or seems as in.
Soliloquy: A dramatic convention in which a character in a play, alone on stage, speaks his or her thoughts aloud. The audience is provided with information about the characters’ motives, plans, and state of mind.
Stream of Consciousness: the technique of presenting the flow of thoughts, responses, and sensations of one or more characters is called stream of consciousness.
Style: the way in which a piece of literature is written. Style refers not to what is said, but how it is said.
Suspense: the tension or excitement felt by the reader as he or she becomes involved in the story.
Syllogism: a logical argument based on deductive reasoning.
Symbol: a person, object, idea or action that stands for something else. It is usually something literal that stands for something figurative. For example: Roads can stand for choices.
Synecdoche: a figure of speech in which a part of something stands for the whole thing.
Syntax: sentence structure (see handout).
Theme: the central idea in a literary work. The theme is usually an idea about life or about people. Writers sometimes state the story’s theme outright, but more often they simply tell the story and let the reader discover the theme. Therefore, theme is an idea revealed by the events of the story; plot is simply what happens in the story; it is not the theme.
Tone: the writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward a subject.
Understatement: a type of verbal IRONY in which something is purposely represented as being far less important than it actually is; also called meiosis.
Conflict: Traditionally, conflict is the major literary element of all narratives (stories) or dramatic literary structures, conflict creates challenges, problems, and or conflicts that must be solved or remedied. The dramatic conflict in a story adds uncertainty, tension, and or failure to the main character's ultimate mission, goal, struggle that needs to be achieved. The struggle between two opposing characters (protagonist vs, antagonist), two opposing forces, two opposing ideas that is the basis of the plot. 1) internal conflict character struggling with him/her self, 2) external conflicts – character struggling with forces outside of him/her self. For example. Nature, god, society, another person, technology, etc.
Conflict examples:
"Man against man" conflict involves stories where characters are against each other.
"Man against nature" conflict is an external struggle positioning the character against an animal or a force of nature, such as a storm or tornado or snow
"Man against self" conflict, the struggle is internal. A character must overcome her/his own nature or make a choice between two or more paths—good vs, evil; logic vs, emotion.
Connotation: the associations, images, or impressions carried by a word, as opposed to the word’s literal meaning.
Consonance: the close repetition of identical consonant sounds before and after differing vowel sounds.
Convention: In general, an accepted way of writing, speaking or doing things.
Denotation: the precise, literal meaning of a word, without emotional associations or overtones.
Denouement: the final unraveling or outcome of the plot in drama or fiction during which the complications and conflicts of the plot are resolved.
Diction: word choice
Enjambment: the carrying of sense and grammatical structure in a poem beyond the end of one line, COUPLET, or STANZA and into the next.
Epigram: any witty, pointed saying. Originally an epigram meant an inscription, or epitaph usually in verse, on a tomb. Later it came to mean a short poem that compressed meaning and expression in the manner of an inscription.
Epigraph: a motto or quotation that appears at the beginning of a book, play, chapter, or poem. Occasionally, an epigraph shows the source for the title of a work. Because the epigraph usually relates to the theme of a piece of literature, it can give the reader insight into the work.
Epitaph: the inscription on a tombstone or monument in memory of the person or people buried there. Epitaph also refers to a brief literary piece that sums up the life of a dead person.
Euphony: A succession of sweetly melodious sounds; the opposite of CACOPHONY. The term is applied to smoothly flowing POETRY or PROSE.
Fable (apologue): a short tale to teach and illustrate a moral lesson, often with talking animals (personification) or inanimate objects as characters. Aesop's fables are the most famous apologues: The fable of the tortoise and the hare; The moral of the story is if you are persistent, show diligence and are focused vs, acting quickly and carelessly you will succeed.
Figurative Language: colorful vivid language employing figures of speech (a word or phrase used in a non-literal sense for rhetorical or vivid effect); language that cannot be taken literally or only literally. Figurative language takes ordinary everyday writing (prose) and pumps it up. It gently alludes, infers to something without directly or explicitly stating it. Figurative language is a way to engage your readers, lifting and inspiring them with a more a more creative and poetic tone.
Common Types Figures of Speech: Some common figures of speech are alliteration, anaphora, antimetabole, antithesis, apostrophe, assonance, hyperbole, irony, metonymy, onomatopoeia, paradox, personification, pun, simile, synecdoche, and understatement.
Flashback: a scene, or an incident that happened before the beginning of a story, or at an earlier point in the narrative.
Foil: a character who provides a striking contrast to another character.
Foreshadowing: a writer’s use of hints or clues to indicate events that will occur later in the narrative.
Hyperbole: in rhetoric (effective or persuasive speaking or writing), an obvious and deliberate exaggeration or overstatement, intended for effect and not to be taken literally, an exaggeration for emphasis or humorous effect.
Hyperbole Examples
- He had a million excuses
- He runs faster than the wind.
- My backpack weighs a ton.
- The cost me a million dollars.
- My dad will kill me when he sees my grades.
- She's as skinny as a toothpick.
Imagery: words and phrases that create vivid experiences or a picture for the reader.
Irony: a contrastasting phrase or odd statement that is usually interesting, paradoxical, and or surprising between what one would normally expect and what the real thing or situation is. Examples of Situational Irony An anti-facebook group sets up a facebook page to recruit new members. using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect, a contrast between appearance and actuality.
Types of Irony:
- Situational irony: occurs when something happens that is entirely different from what is expected.
- Dramatic irony: occurs when the reader knows information that the characters do not.
- Verbal irony: a writer says one thing, but means something entirely different.
Literal: A word for word interpretation for what is written or said.
Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a comparison or analogy is made between two seemingly unlike things, a word or phrase that is compared or applied to an idea, object or action to which it is not usually or literally related/applicable.
Metaphor Examples:Metonymy: a figure of speech that substitutes the name of a related object, person, or idea for the subject at hand.
- The world is a stage.
- My kid's room is a disaster area.
- Life is a rollercoaster.
- Their home was a prison.
- His heart is ice cold.
- The stars are sparkling diamonds.
- Ben's temper was a volcano, ready to explode.
- Those best friends are two peas in a pod
Mood: the feeling, or atmosphere, that a writer creates for the reader. Connotative words, sensory images, and figurative language contribute to the mood of a selection, as do the sound and rhythm of the language.
Motif: A unifying element in an artistic work, especially any recurrent image, symbol, theme, character type, subject or narrative detail.
Narrator: the person from whose point of view events are conveyed.
First person: the narrator is a character in the story, uses the pronoun “I.” The first person narrator does not have to be the main character in the story.
Third person: is indicated by the pronouns he, she and they. The third person narrator is not a participant in the action and thus maintains a certain distance from the characters. A) In third person omniscient point of view, the narrator is all-knowing about the thoughts and feelings of the characters. B) The third person limited point of view deals with a writer presenting events as experienced by only one character. This type of narrator does not have full knowledge of situations, past or future events. C) In third person objective the story conveys only the external details of the characters—never their thoughts or inner motivations.
Onomatopoeia: The formation or use of words. Such as: buzz, or cuckoo, whose meaning is suggested by the sound of the word itself. (boom, click, plop)
Oxymoron: a figure of speech in which two contradictory words or phrases are combined in a single expression, giving the effect of a condensed paradox: “wise fool,” “cruel kindness.”
Paradox: a seemingly absurd or contradictory idea, statement or proposition that when investigated or explicitly explained may prove to be well founded or true, a statement or situation containing obvious contradictions, but is nevertheless true.
Paradox Examples:
- "I know that I know nothing" If I know one thing, it's that I know nothing.is the Socratic Paradox.
- This is the beginning of the end.
- Deep down, you're really shallow.
- I'm a compulsive liar.
- "What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young." - George Bernard Shaw
- "I can resist everything but temptation."
Parallelism: the use of similar grammatical form gives items equal weight, as in Lincoln’s line “of the people, by the people, for the people.” Attention to parallelism generally makes both spoken and written expression more concise, clear and powerful.
Parody: an imitation of a serious work of literature for the purpose of criticism or humorous effect or for flattering tribute.
Personification: a person considered to be a perfect example or embodiment of some quality or other abstraction, a figure of speech in which human qualities, traits or characteristics are given to an animal, object, or concept.
Personification Examples:
- Lightning danced across the sky.
- The wind howled in the night.
- The car complained as they climbed the mountain.
- Mr. Taylor heard the last piece of pie calling his name.
- My alarm clock screams at me to get out of bed every morning.
Plot: the plan of action or sequence of events of the story.
Point of view: the vantage point, or stance from which a story is told, the eye and mind through which the action is perceived. (See also narrator.)
Protagonist: the central character in a story; the one upon whom the actions center. The protagonist faces a problem and must undergo some conflict to solve it.
Pun: a joke exploiting the two or more words which sound alike but have different meanings, A form of wit, not necessarily funny, involving a play on a word with two or more meanings.
Pun Examples:
- Scientists have created a mosquito from scratch.
- Insects that make honey are always on their best bee-hive-iour.
- When a new hive is done bees have a house swarming party.
- There was a mushroom who couldn't understand why nobody invited him to their parties. He thought he was such a fungi!
Rhyme scheme: the pattern of end rhyme in a poem.
Satire: a literary technique in which foolish ideas or customs are ridiculed for the purpose of improving society.
Setting: the time and place in which the action of a story occurs.
Simile: simile a figure of speech in which two different things are compared by using the words "like" or "as," a non-literal phrase in which two unseemingly ideas are compared to make a description more emphatic, poetic or vivid. The comparison is made explicit by the use of a word or phrase such as: like, as, than, similar to, resembles, or seems as in.
Simile Examples:
- March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.
- He was strong as a bull.
- You were as brave as a lion.
- They fought like cats and dogs.
- He is as funny as a barrel of monkeys.
- This house is as clean as a whistle.
- Your explanation is as clear as mud.
- Watching the show was like watching paint dry.
Soliloquy: A dramatic convention in which a character in a play, alone on stage, speaks his or her thoughts aloud. The audience is provided with information about the characters’ motives, plans, and state of mind.
Stream of Consciousness: the technique of presenting the flow of thoughts, responses, and sensations of one or more characters is called stream of consciousness.
Style: the way in which a piece of literature is written. Style refers not to what is said, but how it is said.
Suspense: the tension or excitement felt by the reader as he or she becomes involved in the story.
Syllogism: a logical argument based on deductive reasoning.
Symbol: a person, object, idea or action that stands for something else. It is usually something literal that stands for something figurative. For example: Roads can stand for choices.
Synecdoche: a figure of speech in which a part of something stands for the whole thing.
Syntax: sentence structure (see handout).
Theme: the central idea in a literary work. The theme is usually an idea about life or about people. Writers sometimes state the story’s theme outright, but more often they simply tell the story and let the reader discover the theme. Therefore, theme is an idea revealed by the events of the story; plot is simply what happens in the story; it is not the theme.
Tone: the writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward a subject.
Understatement: a type of verbal IRONY in which something is purposely represented as being far less important than it actually is; also called meiosis.
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