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.