| Term | Definition |
|---|
| suspense | feeling of uncertainty; building tension |
| plot | the sequence of events in a story |
| mood | the atmosphere or feeling of the story |
| tone | the author's attitude toward the audience |
| theme | the central message in the story |
| exposition | the part that introduces characters, setting, and the basic situation |
| climax | the high point in a story |
| imagery | language that appeals to the five senses |
| diction | the author's word choice |
| genre | the category of a story |
| flashback | recounting events; memory |
| resolution | the outcome of the conflict |
| conflict | struggle between two opposing forces |
| verbal irony | words suggest opposite of what is meant |
| propaganda | a message aimed at influencing the opinions of people |
| point of view | the perspective from which the story is told |
| Freytag's Triangle | the plot diagram |
| setting | time and place of action |
| metaphor | figure of speech in which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else |
| foreshadowing | clues that suggest events that have yet to occur |
| first person point of view | when the character tells the story only allowing readers to see or hear things this person experiences |
| third person-omniscient | all knowing voice outside the story |
| third person-limited | sees the world only through one character's eyes |
| conflict | struggle between opposing forces |
| irony | portrays differences between appearance and reality, expectation and result, or meaning and intention |
| verbal irony | words suggest the opposite of what is meant |
| dramatic irony | a contradiction between what a character thinks and what the audience knows to be true |
| protagonist | the main character in a literary work |
| antagonist | a character or force in conflict with a main character, or protagonist |
| round character | shows many different traits - faults as well as virtues |
| dynamic character | develops and grows during the course of the story |
| direct characterization | the author directly states a character's traits |
| indirect characterization | the author tells what a character looks like, does, and says, as well as how others characters react to him or her. It is up to the reader to draw conclusions about the character based on this information |
| internal conflict | character in conflict with himself or herself |
| external conflict | character struggles against an outside force |
| dialogue | conversation between characters |
| diction | word choice |
| assonance | repetition of vowel sounds followed by different consonants in two ro more stressed syllables |
| alliteration | repetition of initial consonant sounds |
| onomatopoeia | the use of words that imitate sounds |
| paradox | statement that seems contradictory but that sctually may be true |
| personification | a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics |
| simile | figure of speech in which like or as is used to make a comparison |
| inciting incident | introduces the central conflict |
| rising action | all the events that lead to the climax |
| falling action | events which lead to the resolution |
| resolution | the end |
| denouement | events that occur after the resolution |
| symbol | anything that stands for or represents something else |
| allusion | reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art. |
Combine with other sets
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