Literary Elements

Literary Elements Terms You Need to Know to Better Understand and Discuss Literature

Conflict • Conflict: the struggle between opposing forces • External Types • Charactervs. Character • Charactervs. Nature • Charactervs. Society • Internal Types • charactervs. Self

Character • Antagonist • a character working against the progress of the story. Works against solving the conflict • Protagonist • a character working forward in the progress of the story. Works for solving the conflict • Flat or Static • a character who stays the same and has little depth • Dynamic or Round • a character who grows or changes throughout the story

Characterization • Characterization: how an author tells readers about a character • May be direct, such as descriptions of characters • May be indirect, such as learning about a character’s attitude through his/her interactions with others

Narrator and Point of View • Narrator: speaker or character who tells a story • First Person Point of View • Told from character using “I” pronouns • Third Person Limited Point of View • Told from one character observing others and using “he/she/they” pronouns • Third Person Omniscient Point of View • Told from an all-knowing narrator who knows and tells about what each character feels and thinks • Second person- Narrator use pronoun “you” when telling story • Least used in literature

Foreshadowing & Flashback • Foreshadowing: when an author gives tips and clues to events later in the story • Flashback: when the story goes back in time to provide readers with additional background information

Plot Elements • Exposition: introduces the setting, characters, and basic situation • Inciting incident: conflict is introduced • Rising Action: central conflict is developed • Climax: highest point of interest or suspense (“last battle”) • Falling Action: last elements of the central conflict • Resolution: ending when all loose ends are tied up

Setting • Setting: time and place of the action • Includes time, place, and social environment • Year, time of day, weather • Country, state, region, community, or neighborhood • Dialect, clothing, customs, and transportation • Often sets the mood or feeling of the story

Theme • Theme: central message, concern, or purpose of a literary work • Often a general statement about people or life • Usually not stated directly, instead readers must look carefully at what the literary work reveals about people or life

Dialogue • Dialogue: a conversation between characters • Usually set off with quotation marks • Punctuation of dialogue has specific rules • Dialogue in drama follows the names of the characters and does not include quotation marks

Figurative Language/Figures of Speech • Simile • Comparison of two unlike things using like or as • Metaphor • Comparison of two unlike things, saying one thing is something else • Personification • Nonhuman thing is given human characteristics • Alliteration • Repetition of beginning consonant sounds

Figurative Language/Figures of Speech cont. • Hyperbole • Exaggeration for effect, not to be taken literally • Onomatopoeia • Use of words that imitate sounds • Oxymoron • Apparently contradictory terms appear together • Dramatic Irony • When the audience knows something the characters in the story do not know

Imagery/Sensory Language • Imagery and Sensory Language • Words or phrases that appeal to one or more of the five senses • Provides more detailed reading experiences • Look, sound, feel, taste, and smell

Literary Elements