LITERARY TERMS

CHARACTERIZATION

• Literary device used to highlight and explain the details about a character in a story
• Sympathetic
• Nice
• Selfish

MOOD

• Overall emotion created by a work of literature
• The wind blew swiftly on that fall day, and the leaves danced in the wind.
• As I walked down the street, I saw a dark figure stroll under the streetlight, not far behind me.
• They had no money, and lived in the old family house, which was tilted and ready to crumble.

TONE

• The attitude a writer takes toward the subject of a work, the characters in it, or the audience.
• Aggressive
• Pessimistic
• Sarcastic

CONFLICT

• The struggle between opposing forces or characters in a story.
• Man vs. Man
• Man vs. Nature
• Man vs. Himself

CONNOTATION

• The associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a work or phrase.
• Slender
• Thrifty
• Uppity

SOLILOQUY

• A long speech made by a character in a play while no other characters are onstage.
• "Oh Romeo, Oh Romeo, Wherefore Art Thou Romeo?"
• "To be or not to be."
• "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow."

ARCHETYPE

• A very old imaginative pattern that appears in literature across cultures and through thr ages.
• The hero
• The villain
• The victim

AUTHOR'S PURPOSE

• The reason an author writes a story.
• Writing to entertain.
• Writing to inform.
• Writing to persuade.

THEME

• The insight about human life that is revealed in literary work.
• Love and friendship
• War
• Crime and mystery

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

• The characters of a play, novel, or narrative.
• Ensemble
• List of characters
• Film

PERSONIFICATION

• A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, and attitudes.
• A tree with a face.
• The sun has sunglasses.
• A dog is walking on its hind legs.

PROSE

• Written or spoken language that has no formal metrical structure.
• It was a bright, cold day in April, and the clocks were strinking thirteen.-George Orwell
• You better not tell nobody but God. -Alice Walker
• Hes a man from outer space and we're taking him to his spaceship. -E.T

ANTAGONIST

• A person who is opposed to, struggles, or competes with another; opponent; adversary.
• The Joker in 'Batman'
• Plankton in 'SpongeBob Squarepants'
• Henry Parrish in 'Sleepy Hollow'

PROTAGONIST

• The leading character or one of the major characters in a movie, novel, or other fictional text.
• Batman
• Superman
• Spiderman

TRAGEDY

• a play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character.
• Titanic
• (500) Days of Summer
• A Walk to Remember

TRAGIC FLAW

• The character defect that causes the downfall of the protagonist of a tragedy.
• Keith- Keith has cancer and dies at the end of the movie.
• A Walk to Remember- Jamie has cancer amd dies at the end if the movie.
• The Notebook- Ally gets alzheimer disease and can't remember her past.

APOSTROPHE

• "You stupid chair."
• "Go away clouds!"
• "Twinkle twinkle little star..."

FOIL

• Another character in the story who contrasts with the main character.
• Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
• Huckleberry Finn and Ton Sawyer
• Randall and Mr. Waternoose

MONOLOGUE

• A form of dramatic entertainment, comedic solo, or the like by a single speaker.
• "To be or not to be"
• "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock"
• "My last duchess"

ASIDE

• Something spoken by an actor to or for the audience and supposedly not heard by others on stage.
• Ferris Bueller's Day Off
• Young Frankenstein
• Eloise at Christmastime

METAPHOR

• a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable
• The sun was a bright shiny penny.
• It's raining men.
• You are the light of my life.

ALLUSION

• Figure of speech that refers to a well known story, event, person, or object in order to make a comparison in the readers minds.
• Please stop acting like my ex.
• Guess who the new Newton is.
• Don't act like a a Romeo.

PUN

• A play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word, and sometimes on the similar sense or sound