Terms that will be used voraciously to both analyze literary fiction and to answer discussion questions, seminar questions, writing prompts, and in-class timed essays.
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| 7164567736 | act | A major unit of action in a drama or play. Each act can be further divided into smaller sections called scenes. | 0 | |
| 7164567737 | allegory | A story in which people, things, and actions represent an idea about life; allegories often have a strong moral or lesson. | 1 | |
| 7164567738 | alliteration | The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words. (think: tongue twister) | 2 | |
| 7164567739 | allusion | A reference in a literary work to a person, place, or thing in history or another work of literature. Allusions are often indirect or brief references to well-known characters or events. | 3 | |
| 7164567740 | analogy | A comparison of two or more like objects that suggests that if they are alike in certain respects, they will probably be alike in other ways as well. | 4 | |
| 7164567741 | anecdote | A brief account of an interesting incident or event that usually is intended to entertain or to make a point. | 5 | |
| 7164567742 | antagonist | A character in a story or poem who deceives, frustrates, or works against the main character, or protagonist, in some way. The antagonist doesn't necessarily have robbed a person. It could be death, the devil, an illness, or any challenge that prevents the main character from living "happily ever after." | 6 | |
| 7164567743 | aside | An actor's speech, directed to the audience, that is not supposed to be heard by other actors on stage. An aside is used to let the audience know what a character is about to do or what he or she is thinking. | 7 | |
| 7164567744 | assonance | Repetition of vowel sounds within a line of poetry. | 8 | |
| 7164567745 | audience | The particular group of readers or viewers that the writer is addressing. A writer considers his or her audience when deciding on a subject, a purpose for writing and the tone and style in which to write. | 9 | |
| 7164567746 | author | The writer of a book, article, or other text. | 10 | |
| 7164567747 | author's purpose | An author's purpose is his or her reason for creating a particular work. The purpose can be to entertain, explain or inform, express an opinion, or to persuade. | 11 | |
| 7164567748 | autobiography | A form of nonfiction in which a person tells the story of his or her life. | 12 | |
| 7166321676 | ballad | A poem that tells a story and is meant to be sung or recited. | 13 | |
| 7166321677 | biography | The story of a person's life that is written by someone else. | 14 | |
| 7166321678 | blank verse | Unrhymed iambic pentameter. | 15 | |
| 7166321679 | caesura | A pause or sudden break in a line of poetry. | 16 | |
| 7166321680 | cause and effect | Two events are related as cause and effect when one event brings about or causes the other. The event that happens first is the cause; the one that follows is the effect. | 17 | |
| 7166321681 | character | A person who is responsible for the thoughts and actions within a story, poem, or other literature. Characters are extremely important because they are the medium though which a reader interacts with a piece of literature. Each characters has his or her own personality, which a creative author uses to assist in forming the plot of a story or creating a mood. | 18 | |
| 7166375112 | characterization | All the techniques that writers use to create characters. | 19 | |
| 7166375113 | chorus | Repetition in literature of one of more lines at regular intervals; sometimes called the refrain. | 20 | |
| 7166375114 | chronological order | The order in which events happen in time. | 21 | |
| 7166523359 | clarifying | The reader's process of pausing occasionally while reading to quickly review what he or she understands. By clarifying as they read, good readers are able to draw conclusions about what is suggested but not stated directly. | 22 | |
| 7166523360 | cliche | A type of figurative language containing an overused expression or a saying that is no longer considered original. | 23 | |
| 7166523361 | climax | The sequence of related events that make up a story. | 24 | |
| 7166523362 | comedy | A dramatic work that is light and often humorous in tone and usually ends happily with a peaceful resolution of the main conflict. | 25 | |
| 7166523363 | comparison | The process of identifying similarities. | 26 | |
| 7166523364 | concrete poetry | A type of poetry that uses its physical or visual form to present its message. | 27 | |
| 7166523365 | conflict | The tension or problem in the story; a struggle between opposing forces. | 28 | |
| 7166523366 | connecting | A reader's process of relating the content of a literary work to his or her own knowledge and experience. | 29 | |
| 7166523367 | connotation | The idea and feeling associated with a word as opposed to its dictionary definition or denotation. | 30 | |
| 7166523368 | consonance | The repetition of consonant sounds anywhere within a line of poetry. Alliteration is a specific type of consonance. | 31 | |
| 7166523369 | context clues | Hints or suggestions that may surround unfamiliar words or phrases and clarify their meaning. | 32 | |
| 7166523370 | contrast | The process of pointing out differences between things. | 33 | |
| 7166523371 | couplet | A rhymed pair of lines in a poem. One of William Shakespeare's trademarks was to end a sonnet with a couplet. (Ex: "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day": So long as men can breathe or eyes can see / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.) | 34 | |
| 7166523372 | denotation | The opposite of connotation in that it is the exact or dictionary meaning of a word. | 35 | |
| 7166523373 | denouement | Pronounced: day-noo-mon. Occurs after the climax and is where conflicts are resolved and loose ends are tied up. Also called resolution. | 36 | |
| 7166523374 | dialect | A form of language that is spoken in a particular place or by a particular group of people. | 37 | |
| 7166523375 | dialogue | The conversation between characters in a drama or narrative. A dialogue occurs in most works of literature. | 38 | |
| 7166523376 | drama | A form of literature meant to be performed by actors before an audience. In a drama, the characters' dialogue and actions tell the story. The written form of a drama is known as a script. | 39 | |
| 7166523377 | drawing conclusions | Combining several pieces of information to make an inference is called drawing a conclusion. | 40 | |
| 7166523378 | dramatic monologue | A literary device that is used when a character reveals his or her innermost thoughts and feelings, those that are hidden throughout the course of the storyline, through a poem or a speech. This speech, where only one character speaks, is recited while other characters are present onstage. This monologue often comes during a climatic moment in a work and often reveals hidden truths about a character, their history, and their relationships. | 41 | |
| 7166523379 | elegy | A type of literature defined as a song or poem that expresses sorrow or lamentation, usually for one who has died. | 42 | |
| 7166523380 | enjambment | In poetry, the running over of a line of thought into the next of verse. | 43 | |
| 7166523381 | epigram | A short poem or verse that seeks to ridicule a thought or event, usually with witticism or sarcasm. | 44 | |
| 7166523382 | epic | A long narrative poem about the adventures of a hero whose actions reflect the ideals and values of a nation or group. | 45 | |
| 7166523383 | epiphany | A sudden moment of understanding that causes a character to change or to act in a certain way. | 46 | |
| 7166523384 | epitaph | A short poem or verse written in memory of someone. | 47 | |
| 7166523385 | essay | A short work of nonfiction that deals with a single subject. | 48 | |
| 7166523386 | evaluatinb | The process of judging the value of something or someone. A work of literature can be evaluated in terms of criteria such as entertainment, believability, originality, and emotional power. | 49 | |
| 7166523387 | exaggeration | A figure of speech in which the truth is exaggerated for emphasis or humorous effect. Also called hyperbole. | 50 | |
| 7166523388 | exposition | Introduces the characters and the conflicts they face. | 51 | |
| 7166523389 | extended metaphor | A figure of speech that compares two essentially unlike things in great length. | 52 | |
| 7166523390 | external conflict | The problem or struggle that exists between the main character and an outside force. (Ex: person vs. person, person vs. society, person vs. nature, person vs. the supernatural, person vs. technology, etc.) | 53 | |
| 7166523391 | fable | A brief tale that teaches a lesson about human nature. Fables often feature animals as characters. | 54 | |
| 7166523392 | fact and opinion | A fact is a statement that can proved. An opinion, in contrast, is a statement that reflects the writer's or speaker's belief, but which cannot be supported by proof or evidence. | 55 | |
| 7166523393 | falling action | The end of the central conflict in a story, when the action starts to wind down. | 56 | |
| 7166523394 | fantasy | A work of literature that contains at least one fantastic or unreal element. | 57 | |
| 7166523395 | fiction | Prose writing that tells an imaginary story. Fiction includes both short stories and novels. | 58 | |
| 7166523396 | figurative language (figure of speech) | Expressions that are not literally true. (See: simile, metaphor, hyperbole, understatement, irony, oxymoron, cliche, metonymy) | 59 | |
| 7166523397 | first person point of view | The person telling the story is one of the characters in the story. It is the "I" point of view. It is the most limited among the types because the narrator can only state what he or she sees, feels, and hears. He or she cannot go into the minds of the other characters. | 60 | |
| 7166523398 | flashback | An interruption of the chronological sequence (as in a film or literary work) of an event of earlier occurrence. A flashback is a narrative technique that allows a write to present past events during current events, in order to provide background for the current narration. | 61 | |
| 7166523399 | foil | A character who serves as a contrast or a conflict to another character. | 62 | |
| 7166561236 | folklore | Traditions, customs, and stories that are passed down within a culture. Folklore contains various types of literature such as legends, folktales, myths, and fables. | 63 | |
| 7166561237 | folktale | A simple story that has been passed from generation to generation by word of mouth. Folktales are told primarily to entertain rather than to explain or teach a lesson. | 64 | |
| 7166561238 | foot | A unit of meter within a line of poetry. | 65 | |
| 7166561239 | foreshadowing | When the writer provides clues or hints that suggest or predict future events in a story. | 66 | |
| 7166561240 | free verse | Poetry without regular patterns of rhyme and rhythm. Often used to capture sounds and rhythm of ordinary speech. | 67 | |
| 7166561241 | generalization | A broad statement about an entire group. | 68 | |
| 7166561242 | genre | A type or category of literature. The four main literary genres include: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama. | 69 | |
| 7166561243 | haiku | A traditional form of Japanese poetry, usually dealing with nature. A haiku has three lines and describes a single moment, feeling, or thing. The first and third lines contain five syllables, and the second line contains seven syllables. | 70 | |
| 7166561244 | hero / heroine | A character whose actions are inspiring or noble; often the main character in a story. | 71 | |
| 7166561245 | heroic couplet / closed couplet | A couplet consisting of two successive rhyming lines that contain a complete thought. | 72 | |
| 7166561246 | historical fiction | Fiction that explores a past time period and may contain references to actual people and events of the past. | 73 | |
| 7166561247 | horror fiction | Fiction that contains mysterious and often supernatural events to create a sense of terror. | 74 | |
| 7166561248 | humor | The quality that provokes laughter or amusement. Writers create humor trough exaggeration, sarcasm, amusing descriptions, irony, and witty dialogue. | 75 | |
| 7166561249 | hyperbole | A figure of speech in which the truth is exaggerated for emphasis or humorous effect. Also called exaggeration. | 76 | |
| 7166561250 | iambic pentameter | Syllables follow the pattern of unstressed (X) stressed (/ or U), and there are five feet per line. | 77 | |
| 7166561251 | idiom | A phrase or expression that means something different form what the words actually say. (Ex: "Over his head" being used in place of "He doesn't understand.") | 78 | |
| 7166561252 | imagery | The use of words and phrases that appeal to the five senses. Writers use sensory details to help readers imagine how things look, feel, smell, sound, and taste. | 79 | |
| 7166818549 | inference | A logical guess based on evidence in the text. | 80 | |
| 7166818550 | internal conflict | The problem or struggle that takes place in the main character's mind. (Person vs. self) | 81 | |
| 7166823607 | interview | A meeting in which one person asks another about personal matters, professional matter, or both. | 82 | |
| 7166823608 | irony | A contrast between what is expected and what actually exists or happens. Irony spices up a literary work by adding unexpected twists and allowing the reader to become more involved with the characters and plot. | 83 | |
| 7166847320 | legend | A story handed down from the past about a specific person, usually someone of heroic accomplishments. | 84 | |
| 7166848282 | limerick | A short humorous poem composed of five lines that usually has the rhyme scheme a/a/b/b/a, created by two rhyming couplets followed by a fifth line that rhymes with the first couplet. A limerick usually has a sing-song rhythm. | 85 | |
| 7166851509 | literal meaning | The actual meaning of a word or phrase. | 86 | |
| 7166852498 | lyric poetry | A song-like poem written mainly to express the feelings or emotions of a single speaker. | 87 | |
| 7166853612 | main characters | The characters who are central to the plot of the story; main characters are usually dynamic and round. | 88 | |
| 7166856182 | main idea | The most important point that a writer wishes to express. | 89 | |
| 7166857112 | memoir | A specific type of autobiography; like an autobiography, a memoir is about the author's personal experiences. However, a memoir does not necessarily cover the author's entire life. | 90 | |
| 7166858416 | metaphor | A type of figurative language in which a comparison is made between two things that are essentially unalike but may have one quality in common. Unlike a simile, a metaphor does not contain an explicit word of comparison, such as "like" or "as." | 91 | |
| 7166860443 | meter | The regular pattern of accented and unaccented syllables. Although all poems have rhythm, not all poems have regular meter. Each unit of meter is known as a foot. The conventional symbols used to identify accented and unaccented syllables are: "/" to indicate an accented syllable; and an "X" or a small symbol shaped like a "U" to indicate an unaccented symbol. The metrical foot is the basic unit of meter. The meter of the poem is determined by the predominant metrical foot, and by the number of feet per line that predominates in the poem. | 92 | |
| 7166891071 | metonymy | The metaphorical substitution of one word or phrase for another related word or phrase. (Ex: "The pen is mightier than the sword." The word "pen" is used in place of "words" and the word "sword" is used to represent the idea of fighting or war.) | 93 | |
| 7166894916 | minor characters | Less important characters who interact with the main characters, helping to move the plot along and providing background to the story. Minor characters are usually static and flat. | 94 | |
| 7166896654 | mood | A mood or atmosphere is the feeling that a literary work conveys to readers. Mood is created through the use of plot, character, the author's descriptions, etc. | 95 | |
| 7166898657 | moral | A lesson that a story teaches. A moral is often stated directly at the end of a fable. | 96 | |
| 7166899981 | motif | A recurring object, concept, or structure in a work of literature. A motif may also be two contrasting elements in a work, such as good and evil. A motif is important because it allows one to see main points and themes that the author is trying to express, in order that one might be able to interpret the work more accurately. | 97 | |
| 7166902903 | motivation | The reason why a character acts, feels, or thinks in a certain way. | 98 | |
| 7166904107 | myth | A traditional story that attempts to explain how the world was created or why the world is the way is the way it is. Myths are stories that are passed on from generation to generation and are of unknown authorship. Also known as folklore. | 99 | |
| 7166923573 | narrative | Any writing that tells a story. Most novels and short stories are placed into the categories of first-person and third-person narratives, which are based upon who is telling the story and from what perspective. | 100 | |
| 7166960284 | narrative poetry | Poetry that tells a story. A narrative poem can come in many forms and styles, both complex and simple, short or long, as long as it tells a story. Like fiction, narrative poetry contains characters, settings, and plots. | 101 | |
| 7166960529 | narrator | One who tells a story; the speaker or the "voice" or an oral or written work. The narrator is not usually the same person as the author. The narrator is the direct window into a piece of work. Who the author chooses to narrate establishes the point of view in the story. | 102 | |
| 7166964443 | nonfiction | Prose writing that presents and explains ideas or that tells about real people, places, objects, or events. (Ex: autobiographies, newspaper articles, biographies, essays, etc.) | 103 | |
| 7166968186 | novel | A work of fiction that is longer and more complex than a short story. In a novel, setting, plot, and characters are usually developed in great detail. | 104 | |
| 7166969608 | ode | A lyric poem of some length, usually of serious of meditative nature and having an elevated style and formal structure. | 105 | |
| 7166970591 | onomatopoeia | The use of words whose sound suggest their meaning. (Ex: buzz, bang, hiss) | 106 | |
| 7166974011 | oral history | Stories of people's lives related by word of mouth. These histories usually include both factual material and personal reactions. | 107 | |
| 7166977038 | oxymoron | A form of figurative language combining contradictory words or ideas. (Ex: jumbo shrimp, bittersweet) | 108 | |
| 7166978247 | paradox | A statement that seems to contradict itself, but is, nevertheless, true. | 109 | |
| 7166980194 | parallelism | The use of similar grammatical constructions to express ideas that are related or equal in importance. (Ex: The sun rises. The sun sets.) | 110 | |
| 7166982900 | paraphrasing | The restatement of a text by readers in their own words or in another form. | 111 | |
| 7166985747 | parody | A literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author's work for comic effect or ridicule. | 112 | |
| 7166988925 | personification | A figure of speech where animals, ideas, or inanimate objects are given human characteristics. | 113 | |
| 7166992689 | perspective | The point of view from which a story is told. Understanding the perspective used in a work is critical to understanding literature; it serves as the instrument to relate the events of a story, and in some instances, the feelings and motives of the character(s). | 114 | |
| 7166994720 | persuasion | Writing meant to sway readers' feelings, beliefs, or actions. Persuasive writing normally appeals to both the mind and the emotions of readers. | 115 | |
| 7166996431 | play | A form of literature meant to be performed by actors before an audience. In a play, the characters' dialogue and actions tell the story. The written form of a play is known as a script. | 116 | |
| 7166999036 | plot | The sequence of related events that make up a story. | 117 | |
| 7166999953 | poetry | A type of literature in which ideas and feelings are expressed in compact, imaginative, and often musical language. Poets arrange words in ways designed to touch readers' senses, emotions, and minds. Most poems are written with lines that may contain patterns of rhyme and rhythm. These lines may in turn be grouped into stanzas. (See: narrative, epic, ballad, lyric, haiku, limerick, and concrete poetry) | 118 | |
| 7167005923 | point of view | Perspective from which a story is told. Understanding the point of view used in a work is critical to understanding literature; it serves as the instrument to relay the events of a story, and in some instances, the feelings and motives of the character(s). | 119 | |
| 7167075923 | predicting | The process of gathering information and combining it with the reader's own knowledge to guess what might occur in the story. | 120 | |
| 7167077313 | primary source | A first hand account of an event. (Ex: diaries, journals, letters, speeches, news stories, photographs, and pieces of art.) | 121 | |
| 7167080001 | propaganda | Text that uses false or misleading information to present a slanted point of view. | 122 | |
| 7167080599 | prose | The ordinary form of spoken and written language; that is, language that lacks the special features of poetry. (Ex: essays, stories, articles, speeches, etc.) | 123 | |
| 7167083359 | protagonist | Main character. A character who is central to the plot of the story; usually dynamic and round. | 124 | |
| 7167088077 | questioning | The process of raising questions while reading in an effort to understand characters and events. | 125 | |
| 7167090612 | realistic fiction | Imaginative writing set in the real, modern world. The characters act like real people who use ordinary human abilities to cope with problems and conflicts typical of modern life. | 126 | |
| 7167094388 | refrain | Repetition in literature of one or more lines at regular intervals; sometimes called the chorus. | 127 | |
| 7167096214 | repetition | A technique in which a sound, word, phrase, or line is repeated for effect or emphasis. | 128 | |
| 7167097531 | resolution | Occurs after the climax and is where conflicts are resolved and loose ends are tied up. | 129 | |
| 7167102931 | rhyme | Repetition of an identical or similarly accented sound or sounds in a work. Rhyme gives poems flow and rhythm, helping the lyricist tell a story and convey a mood. | 130 | |
| 7167133047 | rhyme scheme | The pattern of end rhyme used in a poem, generally indicated by matching lowercase letters to show which lines rhyme. The letter "a" notes the first line, and all other lines rhyming with the first line. The first line that does not rhyme with the first, or "a" line, and all others that rhyme with this line, are noted by the letter "b", and so on. The rhyme scheme may follow a fixed pattern (as in a sonnet) or may be arranged freely according to the poet's requirements. | 131 | |
| 7167137720 | rhythm | The pattern or flow of sounds created by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry. The accented, or stressed, syllables are marked with "/" and the unstressed, or unaccented, syllables are marked with "X" or "U". | 132 | |
| 7167142633 | rising action | Following the introduction of the central conflict; complications arise as the characters struggle with the conflict. | 133 | |
| 7167151335 | sarcasm | The use of praise to mock someone or something; the use of mockery or verbal irony. | 134 | |
| 7167154140 | satire | A literary technique in which ideas or customs are ridiculed for the purpose of improving society. | 135 | |
| 7167156213 | scanning | The process of searching through writing for a particular fact or piece of information. | 136 | |
| 7167157288 | scene | A section in a play presenting events that occur in one place at one time. | 137 | |
| 7167157649 | science fiction | Prose writing in which a writer explores unexpected possibilities of the past or the future by using scientific data and theories as well as his or her imagination. | 138 | |
| 7167159880 | secondary source | A secondary source presents information complied from or based on other sources. | 139 | |
| 7167161781 | sensory details | Words and phrases that help readers see, hear, taste, feel, or smell what an author is describing. | 140 | |
| 7167163827 | sequence | The order in which events occur or in which ideas are presented. | 141 | |
| 7167181848 | setting | The time, place, physical details, and circumstances in which a story occurs. Settings include the background, atmosphere or environment in which characters live and move, and usually include physical characteristics of the surroundings. Settings enable the reader to better envision how a story unfolds by relating necessary physical details of a piece of literature. | 142 | |
| 7167187800 | short story | A brief work of fiction that generally focuses on one or two main characters who face a single problem or conflict. | 143 | |
| 7167188893 | simile | A type of figurative language that makes a comparison between two otherwise unlike objects or ideas by connecting them with the words "like" or "as". | 144 | |
| 7167190522 | soliloquy | A speech delivered by a character who is alone on stage. | 145 | |
| 7167191229 | sonnet | A distinctive poetic style that uses a system or pattern of metrical structure and verse composition usually consisting of fourteen lines, arranged in a set rhyme scheme or pattern. There are two main styles of sonnet, the Italian sonnet and the English sonnet. | 146 | |
| 7167194738 | Italian sonnet | Also called the Petrarchan sonnet. Usually written in iambic pentameter. It consists first of an octave, or eight lines, which asks a question or states a problem or preposition and follows the rhyme scheme abba, abba. The seset, or last six lines, offers an answer, or a resolution to the proposed problem, and follows the rhyme scheme cdecde. | 147 | |
| 7167200449 | English sonnet | Also called the Shakespearean sonnet. The octave and seset are replaced by three quatrains, each having its own independent rhyme scheme typically rhyming every other line. Instead of a break between the octave and the seset (like in the Italian sonnet), the break comes between the twelfth and thirteenth lines. The ending couplet is often the main thought change of the poem, and has an epigrammatic ending. It follows the rhyme scheme abab, cdcd, efef, gg. | 148 | |
| 7167210737 | sound devices | Ex: alliteration, onomatopoeia, repetition, rhyme, and rhythm. | 149 | |
| 7167212260 | speaker | The voice that talks to the reader in a poem, as the narrator foes in a work of fiction. The speaker in the poem is not necessarily the author. | 150 | |
| 7167213627 | speech | A talk given in public. | 151 | |
| 7167214355 | stage directions | The instructions to the actors, director, and stage crew in the script of a play. | 152 | |
| 7167215978 | stanza | A grouping of two or more lines within a poem. A stanza is comparable to a paragraph in prose. | 153 | |
| 7167261050 | static character | A character who does not change or who changes very little in the course of a story. | 154 | |
| 7167262279 | stereotype | A broad generalization or an oversimplified view that disregards individual differences. | 155 | |
| 7167285000 | story mapping | A visual organizer that helps a reader understand a work of literature by tracking setting, characters, events, and conflicts. | 156 | |
| 7167285758 | style | How a writer says something; many elements contribute to style, including word choice, sentence length, tone, and figurative language. | 157 | |
| 7167291776 | subplot | An additional minor plot that involves a secondary conflict in the story; the subplot may or may not affect the main plot. | 158 | |
| 7167298932 | summarizing | The process of briefly recounting the main ideas of a piece of writing in a person's own words, while omitting unimportant details. | 159 | |
| 7167300035 | suspense | A feeling of growing tension and excitement. Writers create suspense by raising questions in readers' minds about what might happen. | 160 | |
| 7167304598 | symbolism | Using something specific to stand for something else, especially an idea. A symbol is a person, place, object, or action that stands for something beyond itself. (Ex: dove = peace. The dove can be seen and peace cannot) | 161 | |
| 7167306638 | synecdoche | A literary technique in which the whole is represented by naming one of its parts (genus named for species), or vice versa (species named for genus). (Ex: "Come look at my new set of wheels!" The vehicle is represented by its parts, or wheels.) | 162 | |
| 7167309884 | tall tale | A humorously exaggerated story about impossible events. | 163 | |
| 7167310480 | theme | A common thread or repeated idea that is incorporated throughout a literary work. A there is a thought or idea the author presents to the reader about life or human nature. Generally, a theme has to be extracted as the reader explores the passages of a work. The author utilizes the characters, plot, and other literary devices to assist the reader in this endeavor. The author often intertwines the theme throughout the work, and the full impact is slowly realized as the reader processes the text. The ability to recognize a theme is important because it allows the reader to understand part of the author's purpose in writing the book. | 164 | |
| 7167318275 | third person limited / third person objective | The person telling the story is not one of the characters in the story. He or she is an outside observer. The reader can only know what one characters learns through interaction with other characters or through overheard conversations. The narrator cannot supply the thoughts or feelings of other characters in the story. | 165 | |
| 7167320107 | third person omniscient | The narrator is not a character in the story, but the events in the story are seen through the eyes of more than one of the characters. The narrator is considered to be "all knowing" and cannot only see and hear everything that is happening to all of the characters in the story, but can also enter their minds and tell the reader what each is thinking and feeling. This is the least limited point of view because the narrator has knowledge of all the characters. | 166 | |
| 7167321602 | tone | The writer's attitude or feeling about his or her subject. | 167 | |
| 7167323063 | tragedy | A dramatic work that presents the downfall of a dignified character or characters who are involved in historically or socially significant events. The events in a tragic plot are set in motion by a decision that is often an error in judgement. Succeeding events inevitably lead to a disastrous conclusion, usually death. | 168 | |
| 7167325487 | trait | A character's personality; a trait is not a physical description of a character. | 169 | |
| 7167326174 | understatement | A statement that is restrained in ironic contrast to what might have been said; the opposite of hyperbole. Understatement is usually used for a humorous effect. | 170 | |
| 7167328051 | unreliable narrator | A narrator who gives his or her own understanding of a story, instead of the explanation and interpretation the author wishes the audience to obtain. This type of action tends to alter the audience's opinion of the conclusion. | 171 | |
| 7167328595 | urban legend | A contemporary story that is told in many rumored versions that have little basis in fact. | 172 | |
| 7167331740 | voice | An author or narrator's distinctive style or manner of expression. Voice can reveal much about the author or narrator's personality. | 173 |
