English 4
Mrs. La Morte
August 15, 2011
 The process by which the writer reveals the personality
of a character.
 1. By telling us directly what the character is like:
humble, ambitious, impetuous, easily manipulated, and
so on.
 2. By describing how the character looks and dresses
 3. By letting us hear the character speak
 4. By revealing the character’s private thoughts and
feelings
-5. By revealing the character’s effect on other
people==showing how other characters feel or behave
toward the character
-6. By showing the character’s actions.
Direct characterization—When a reader does not have
to figure out what a character’s personality is like- the
author tells us directly.
 Indirect characterization– the reader has to use their
own judgment and put clues together to figure out
what a character is like—just as we do in real life when
we are getting to know someone.
 Static character- one who does not change much in
the course of a story.
 Dynamic character changes in some important way as
a result of the story’s action.
 Flat/Round-- flat characters have only one or two
personality traits. Round characters have more
dimensions to their personalities-they are complex,
solid and multifaceted, like real people.
 The vantage point from which a writer tells a story.
There are three main points of view first-person,
limited third-person, and omniscient third-person.
 First-person pov- the narrator is a character in the
story. Using the pronoun I, this narrator tells us his or
her own experiences but cannot reveal any other
character’s private thoughts. May or may not be
objective…so we may have to interpret what the
narrator says.
Limited third-person point of view– the narrator is
outside the story, like an omniscient narrator—but tells
the story from the vantage point of only one character.
The narrator can enter the mind of this chosen
character, but cannot tell what any other characters are
thinking except by observation. This narrator can also
only go where the chosen character goes.
 In the omniscient point of view, the person telling the
story knows everything that’s going on in the story.
This omniscient narrator is outside the story, a godlike
observer who can tell us what all the characters are
thinking and feeling, as well as what is happening
anywhere in the story.
 A struggle or clash between opposing characters,
forces, or emotions.
 In an external conflict, a character struggles against
some outside force: another character, society as a
whole, or some natural force.
 An internal conflict, on the other hand, is a struggle
between opposing needs, desires, or emotions within a
single character.
 Conversation between two or more people.
 Writers use dialogue to advance the action of a plot,
to present an interplay of ideas and personalities, and
to reveal the background, occupation, or social level of
the characters through tone and dialect.
 Language that appeals to the senses.
 Most images are visual—that is, the appeal to the sense
of sight. But imagery can also appeal to the senses of
hearing, touch, taste, or smell.
 A person, place, thing or event that stands both for
itself and for something beyond itself.
 The attitude a writer takes towards the reader, a
subject or a character. Tone is conveyed through the
writer’s choice of words and details.
 The central idea or insight of a work of literature. A
theme is not the same as the subject of a work, which
can usually be expressed in a word or two: old age,
ambition, love. The theme is the idea the writer
wishes to convey ABOUT that subject the writer’s view
of the world or revelation about human nature.
 Themes are usually implied. It is up to the reader to
piece together all the clues the writer has provided
about the work’s total meaning.
 (Bill-dungs-row-mon)
 A novel about the moral and psychological growth of
the main character
 The goal is maturity, and protagonist achieves it
gradually and with difficulty.
 Often features a main conflict between the main
character and society.
 Social satire is a piece of literature, or some other form
of expression such as a cartoon or song, that reflects
on a (while criticizing or poking fun at a) specific time
period or group of people and certain lifestyles,
morals, and beliefs of that group.
 A literary genre that deals with aspects of behavior,
language, customs and values characteristic of a
particular class of people in a specific historical
context.
 Often shows a conflict between individual aspirations
or desires and the accepted social codes of behavior.
 There is a vital relationship between manners, social
behavior and character. Downplays physical
appearances.
 Characters in the novels are not always morally and
socially obliging to each other. There is a
differentiation between the upstanding hero or
heroine and the socially less acceptable characters.
 The different degrees of how the characters uphold the
standard level of social etiquette is what usually
dominates the plot of the novel.