Literary Terms Review

1. Literary Terms Review Study Guide

2. Basic Situation/Exposition • An author’s introduction of the characters, setting, and conflict at the beginning of a story, novel, or play. • Example: What is the exposition of Romeo and Juliet?

3. Complication/Rising Action • A complicating factor or occurrence in a story. • What is a complicating factor at the beginning of Romeo and Juliet? • What is a complicating factor at the beginning of Of Mice and Men?

4. Climax • The point of greatest emotional intensity, interest, or suspense in the plot of literary work. • Is the climax always in the middle of a story? Give an example of climax from one of your readings from last year.

5. Resolution • The resolution is the part of a plot that concludes the falling action by revealing or suggesting the outcome of the conflict. • Is the resolution of a story always pleasant? Give examples from Of Mice and Men and Romeo and Juliet.

6. Conflict • The struggle between opposing forces in a story or drama. • External: exists when a character struggles against some outside force, such as another person, nature, society, or fate. • Provide an example of external conflict from Romeo and Juliet.

7. Conflict • Internal: is a struggle that takes place within the mind of a character who is torn between two opposing goals. • Provide an example of internal conflict from Of Mice and Men.

8. Foreshadowing • An author’s use of clues or hints to prepare readers for events that will happen later in the story. • What does the dead mouse foreshadow at the beginning of Of Mice and Men?

9. Protagonist • The central character in a literary work around whom the main conflict revolves. • Who is the protagonist of Romeo and Juliet? • Does the protagonist always have entirely positive personality traits?

10. Antagonist • A person or a force in society or nature that opposes the protagonist, or central character, in a story or drama. • Name an antagonist in Of Mice and Men. • Does the antagonist only possess negative personality traits?

11. Theme • The main idea or message of a story, a poem, a novel, or a play, sometimes expressed as a general statement about life. • Examples of Theme: Love, Hate, Familial Conflict, War • Provide a theme from Romeo and Juliet and one from Of Mice and Men.

12. Setting • The time or place in which the events of a literary work occur. Setting includes not only the physical surroundings, but also ideas, customs, values, and beliefs of a particular time period. • If you were reading a story in which people traveled in horse and buggy what would most likely be the setting? What is another possible option?

13. Atmosphere • The dominant emotional feeling of a literary work that contributes to the mood.

14. Symbol • Any person, animal, place, object, or event that exists on a literal level within a work but also represents something figurative. • A symbol of a cross is tangible you may touch and hold it, but it represents Christianity something you must believe in and cannot physically hold.

15. Figurative Language • Language that uses figures of speech, or expressions that are not literally true, but express some truth beyond a literal level. Types of figurative language include: hyperbole, metaphor, personification, simile, symbol, understatement. • Ms. Wall’s nagging is like a hang-nail.

16. Verbal Irony • A person says one thing and means another. • Example: Sarcasm, “Yes, I totally want you to turn in your paper a week late.”

17. Situational Irony • The actual outcome of a situation is the opposite of what is expected.

18. Dramatic Irony • The audience or reader knows information that the characters does not know.

19. Satire • Writing that uses humor or wit to ridicule the vices or follies of people or societies to bring about improvement. • Examples: The Simpsons, South Park