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| 14876838879 | Allegory | A story in which each aspect of the story has a symbolic meaning outside the tale itself. ex: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis | 0 | |
| 14876838880 | allusion | A reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art ex: "Don't act like a Romeo in front of her." - "Romeo" is a reference to Shakespeare's Romeo, a passionate lover of Juliet, in "Romeo and Juliet". | 1 | |
| 14876838881 | antagonist | a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary. ex: Darth Vadar is the main antagonist of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. | 2 | |
| 14876838882 | archetype | A detail, image, or character type that occurs frequently in literature and myth and is thought to appeal in a universal way to the unconscious and to evoke a response ex: The Damsel in Distress - The hero rescues her. | 3 | |
| 14876838883 | climax | the most intense, exciting, or important point of something; a culmination or apex. ex: In William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, the story reaches its climax in Act 3. | 4 | |
| 14876838884 | comedy | A literary work which ends happily because the hero or heroine is able to overcome obstacles and get what he or she wants. ex: William Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, is a good example of a romantic comedy, presenting young lovers falling comically in and out of love for a brief period. Their real world problems get resolved magically, enemies reconcile, and true lovers unite in the end. | 5 | |
| 14876838885 | confidant | One to whom secrets or private matters are disclosed. A character in a drama or fiction, such as a trusted friend or servant, who serves as a device for revealing the inner thoughts or intentions of a main character. ex:"He was my confidant, the person who was always on my side even when he wasn't taking my side." ~Lisa Kleypas | 6 | |
| 14876838886 | conflict | A struggle between opposing forces ex:Man vs. Man. | 7 | |
| 14876838887 | cosmic irony | sometimes called irony of fate. It is the idea that human fate and destiny is controlled by outside forces, even gods, who do not care about humans or their hopes and dreams. ex: Thomas Hardy's 1891 Tess of the d'Urbevilles. Despite being innocent, the main character loses everything, including her life, in tragic circumstances beyond her control | 8 | |
| 14876838888 | crisis | A sudden, unpredictable, and potentially dangerous event requiring the president to play the role of crisis manager. ex: when your house is flooding due to the rains from a hurricane. | 9 | |
| 14876838889 | denouement | as the resolution of the issue of a complicated plot in fiction ex: Romeo and Juliet | 10 | |
| 14876838890 | Dialogue | Conversation between characters ex: "I don't want to go home," said Julia. "I like it here at the zoo. | 11 | |
| 14876838891 | diction | the choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing. ex: (formal, informal,pedantic,colloquial,slang,abstract,concrete,poetic) | 12 | |
| 14876838892 | direct characterization | The author directly states a character's traits ex: "The patient boy and quiet girl were both well mannered and did not disobey their mother." ... The boy is "patient" and the girl is "quiet." | 13 | |
| 14876838893 | dramatic irony | Irony that occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play. ex: Girl in a horror film hides in a closet where the killer just went (the audience knows the killer is there, but she does not). | 14 | |
| 14876838894 | dynamic character | a literary or dramatic character who undergoes an important inner change, as a change in personality or attitude ex: Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes, Hamlet, Prince Hal, and Neville Longbottom are just a few examples of dynamic characters. | 15 | |
| 14876838895 | epiphany | A moment of sudden revelation or insight ex: The original epiphany occurs in the Bible when three wise kings, or Magi, see a divine star in the sky, and it leads them to the Christ child. His nature-as a king-is revealed to them, while the rest of the world is unaware. | 16 | |
| 14876838896 | exposition | A narrative device, often used at the beginning of a work that provides necessary background information about the characters and their circumstances. ex: Hassan is a Hazara while Amir is a Pashtun | 17 | |
| 14876838897 | fiction | A story that is not true or is made up ex: Harry Potter | 18 | |
| 14876838898 | first person | "I" and "Me" standpoint. Personal perspective. ex: I married him' in Charlotte Brontë's famous classic. | 19 | |
| 14876838899 | flashback | A method of narration in which present action is temporarily interrupted so that the reader can witness past events ex: In a story about a girl who is afraid of heights, there is a flashback to a time when she fell off of the top of a playground as a young child. | 20 | |
| 14876838900 | flat character | A character who embodies a single quality and who does not develop in the course of a story ex: Gertrude from Hamlet | 21 | |
| 14876838901 | foreshadowing | the use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot ex: Sometimes a future event is mentioned earlier in the story, like a comment about a meeting between characters | 22 | |
| 14876838902 | genre | A category or type of literature (or of art, music, etc.) characterized by a particular form, style, or content. ex: poetry, drama, fiction, and non-fiction. All of these genres have particular features and functions that distinguish them from one another. | 23 | |
| 14876838903 | Imagery | visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work. ex: The concert was so loud that her ears rang for days afterward. | 24 | |
| 14876838904 | indirect characterization | the process by which the personality of a fictitious character is revealed through the character's speech, actions, appearance, etc. ex: Our teacher was quick to laugh. He had a great sense of humor | 25 | |
| 14876838905 | in medias res | the practice of beginning an epic or other narrative by plunging into a crucial situation that is part of a related chain of events; the situation is an extension of previous events and will be developed in later action. ex: Homer has started his narrative directly with a quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon during the events of the Trojan War instead of beginning chronologically from the birth of Achilles to onward. | 26 | |
| 14876838906 | irony | the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect. ex: a character stepping out into a hurricane and saying, "What nice weather we're having!" | 27 | |
| 14876838907 | horatian | Satire in which the voice is indulgent, tolerant, amused, and witty. The speaker holds up to gentle ridicule the absurdities and follies of human beings, aiming at producing in the reader not the anger of a Juvenal, but a wry smile. ex: he Ig Nobel Prizes. Bierce, Ambrose, The Devil's Dictionary. | 28 | |
| 14876838908 | juvenilian | any bitter and ironic criticism of contemporary persons and institutions that is filled with personal invective, angry moral indignation, and pessimism ex: (Juvenalian satire is angrier and personal, attempting to produce anger in the reader.) | 29 | |
| 14876838909 | limited omniscient point of view | Author tells the story in third person, but from the viewpoint of a single character. The thoughts and feelings of other characters are not shown. ex: Katherine Anne Porter's short story The Jilting of Granny Weatherall. In this narrative, readers follow the main character very closely. They know the feelings and thoughts of Granny Weatherall. | 30 | |
| 14876838910 | minimalist | characterized by the use of only the simplest or most essential elements, as in the arts, literature, or design ex: Written by William Carlos Williams, The Red Wheelbarrow serves as a perfect example of minimalist poetry. | 31 | |
| 14876838911 | motif | (n.) a principal idea, feature, theme, or element; a repeated or dominant figure in a design ex: A common example is that a heart is a symbol for love. | 32 | |
| 14876838912 | motivation | a reason behind a character's specific action or behavior. This type of behavior is characterized by the character's own consent and willingness to do something. ex: All actions that Hamlet commits in the play are the result of his motivation, such as revenge, justification, and integrity of his character. | 33 | |
| 14876838913 | narrator | the person who tells the story ex: Amir in the kite runner | 34 | |
| 14876838914 | objective point of view | a narrator who is totally impersonal and objective tells the story, with no comment on any characters or events. ex: .. A classic example of objective POV used to perfect effect is the short story "The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson. Here's our Hansel and Gretel example, but from the objective POV: "Hansel walked ahead of Gretel. | 35 | |
| 14876838915 | omniscient point of view | The point of view where the narrator knows everything about the characters and their problems - told in the 3rd person. ex: In classic literature, a good example of third person omniscient is found in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. | 36 | |
| 14876838916 | plot | the sequence of events in a literary work ex: Exposition, Rising Action,Climax,Falling Action. Denouement. | 37 | |
| 14876838917 | point of view | the perspective from which a story is told ex: if the narrator is a participant in the story, it is more likely that the point of view would be first person, as the narrator is witnessing and interacting with the events and other characters firsthand. | 38 | |
| 14876838918 | protagonist | Main character in a story ex: Alice in the story, Alice in Wonderland | 39 | |
| 14876838919 | round character | A character who demonstrates some complexity and who develops or changes in the course of a work ex: Rowling develops Harry Potter as a round character throughout the series. | 40 | |
| 14876838920 | setting | The context in time and place in which the action of a story occurs. ex: Kabul in the Kite Runner | 41 | |
| 14876838921 | short story | a story with a fully developed theme but significantly shorter and less elaborate than a novel ex: The Tell-Tale Heart | 42 | |
| 14876838922 | situational irony | irony involving a situation in which actions have an effect that is opposite from what was intended, so that the outcome is contrary to what was expected. ex: Ralph wakes up late and thinks he is going to be late to school. After rushing around to get dressed, he realizes it is Saturday | 43 | |
| 14876838923 | static character | a literary or dramatic character who undergoes little or no inner change; a character who does not grow or develop. ex: Mr. Collins from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. He plays a vital role in the novel by making efforts to get Darcy and Elizabeth together, and contributes comedy to the story; however, his character does not change. Thus, he is a perfect example of a static character | 44 | |
| 14876838924 | stock character | the stereotyped character in which he is immediately known from typical characters in history ex: the mean stepmother, the loyal servant, the abusive boyfriend, or the evil dictator or CEO are all stock characters. | 45 | |
| 14876838925 | story of initiation | A short story depicting a decisive incident that initiates a character into a higher state of awareness, whether for better or for worse. ex: joseph Camp- bell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces. | 46 | |
| 14876838926 | stream of consciousness | a style of writing in which the author tries to reproduce the random flow of thoughts in the human mind ex: James Joyce's Ulysses (1922), a complex evocation of the inner states of the characters Leopold and Molly Bloom and Stephen Dedalus. | 47 | |
| 14876838927 | style | A basic and distinctive mode of expression. ex: like tone, word choice, grammar, language, descriptive technique, and so on. | 48 | |
| 14876838928 | symbol/ symbolism | Generally, anything that represents itself and stands for something else. ex: Hassan's cleft lip symbolizing poverty and social status | 49 | |
| 14876838929 | syntax | The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language. ex: Usually in the English language the syntax should follow a pattern of subject-verb-object agreement but sometimes authors play around with this to achieve a lyrical, rhythmic, rhetoric or questioning effect. | 50 | |
| 14876838930 | theme | a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in a literary or artistic work ex: Love. It shouldn't come as a surprise that the number one spot on our list goes to the theme of love. | 51 | |
| 14876838931 | third person | Narrator is not a character, but sees the world through only one character's eyes and thoughts ex: he, she, it, they, him, her, them, his, her, hers, its, their, and theirs. | 52 | |
| 14876838932 | tragedy | A serious form of drama dealing with the downfall of a heroic or noble character ex: Hamlet. Othello. King Lear. | 53 | |
| 14876838933 | tone | A writer's attitude toward his or her subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization on the sentence and global levels. ex: airy, comic, condescending, facetious, funny, heavy, intimate, ironic, light, playful, sad, serious, sinister, solemn, somber, and threatening. | 54 | |
| 14876838934 | unreliable narrator | a narrator whose account of events appears to be faulty, misleadingly biased, or otherwise distorted ex: Tristram Shandy and Bras Cubas. The Naïf. a narrator whose perception is immature or limited through their point of view. | 55 | |
| 14876838935 | verbal irony | A figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant ex: "What nice weather we're having!" | 56 |
