IMPORTANT LITERARY TERMS
1. Simile—a comparison using “like” or “as.”
Example: The brain is like a sponge, soaking in new information.
2. Metaphor—a comparison stating that two seemingly dissimilar things are
essentially the same.
Ex/”All the world’s a stage.”—William Shakespeare
3. Narrative—a story, a sequence of ideas.
Ex/”The Highwayman” is a narrative poem; it tells the story of two star
crossed loves.
4. First person narration—a character tells you his or her story using “I.”
Ex/”Raymond’s Run” was told in first person by Squeaky.
5. Third person omniscient narration—the “all-knowing” perspective. An
outside narrator tells you about the feelings and actions of all characters.
Ex/The narrator of Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings can tell the readers
about all of the characters’ inner lives and activities.
6. Third person limited narration—the outside narrator’s perspective is
limited to that of one character.
Ex/The Witch of Blackbird Pond is told by an outside narrator who only
knows the inner thoughts of Kit Tyler.
7. Setting—the time and place of a story’s action.
Ex/The setting of Julius Caesar is ancient Rome.
8. Imagery—using appeals to the five senses to create descriptive writing
that paints a picture in the readers’ minds.
Ex/The cool breeze, brushing lightly through my hair, mixed with the
sweet jasmine scented air to relax my aching muscles.
9. Characterization—using details about a character’s physical traits,
beliefs, actions, and other characters’ thoughts about the character.
Ex/We looked at Daniel Mannix’s complete characterization of the
dynamic Grace Wiley.
10. Hyperbole—extreme exaggeration.
Ex/”I was so hungry I could eat 1,000 slices of pizza.”
11. Irony (situational)—when the opposite of what is expected or should
happen occurs.
Ex/ It was ironic that the snake Grace Wiley christened “My Snake”
ended up being the one to betray her.
12. Dramatic Irony—when the reader or audience knows something the
characters do not know.
Ex/The audience realizes that Mrs. Van Daan is sadly mistaken when she
sees Miep’s cake and says they should get peace in 1944.
13. Alliteration—when a series of words in close succession have a repeated
first sound.
Ex/She sells sea shells by the sea shore.
14. Onomatopoeia—spelling out the sound something makes.
Ex/Boom! Pow! Kablooey!
15. Personification—to give human-like traits to animal or non-living objects.
Ex/The wind has tiger-like strength and a mean desire to blow my papers
away.
16. Flashback—reverting to a previous time.
Ex/The Diary of Anne Frank flashed back from 1945 to 1942 when the
family first entered the attic.
17. Foreshadowing—clues the author gives about later events.
Ex/The appearance of rain spots on the hitchhiker, even in the steamy
desert, foreshadowed that something was odd about the man.
18. Allusion—a reference to another work.
Ex/”Flowers for Algernon” alluded to the story of Adam and Eve from
the Bible.
19. Theme—the author’s lesson.
Ex/One theme of the play was that people are capable of doing terrible
deeds, but also wonderful acts of kindness.
20. Climax—the height of tension in a story.
Ex/The climax of The Diary of Anne Frank occurs when the Nazis storm
the attic.
21. Prose—regular paragraph writing.
Ex/ Your essays are written in prose form.
22. Internal conflict—a character’s struggle from within him or herself.
Ex/The boy struggle with depression.
23. External conflict—a character’s struggle with an outside force, such as
nature, another character or group, society, or machine.
Ex/The Franks’ struggle against the Nazis.
24. Free verse—poetry without a set rhyme or rhythm.
Ex/”the lesson of the moth” was told by archy in free verse.
25. Mood—the atmosphere of the story.
Ex/Poe sets a dark mood in “The Tell-Tale Heart.”