The Elements of Literature
Table of Contents
Language…………………………… ……………………………………………page 1
Syntax
Diction
Sound Qualities
Figurative Language
Dialogue
Mood
Tone
Theme………………………………..……………………………………………page 2
Subject
Theme
Symbol
Plot…………………………………………………………………………………page 3
Conflict
Internal conflict
External conflict
Protagonist
Antagonist
Chronological Order
Flashback/Flashforward
Characterization
Characters………………………….. ……………………………………..page 4
Flat (simple) characters
Round (complex) characters
Static characters
Dynamic characters
Setting…………………………..…………………………………………………..page 5
Physical Setting
Temporal Setting
Cultural Setting
Point of View………………………………………………………………………page 6
Omniscient
Limited Omniscient
First person
Objective/Dramatic
Language
Language is the medium through which authors tell stories. Authors use many language
devices to affect the audience:
-Syntax (sentence structure)
-Diction (word choice)
-Sound qualities (rhyme, rhythm)
-Figurative language (metaphor, simile, personification)
-Dialogue
Language establishes MOOD. Mood is the overall emotional impact of the literary work
on the reader.
Language also establishes TONE. Tone is the narrator’s attitude toward the subject of
the writing. Tone may, for example, be sarcastic, friendly, sad, or angry.
Questions for Analyzing Language
1. What characterizes the language of the work? Why does the author use this kind
of language?
2. What do we learn about the characters from the way they use language?
3. What is the tone of the literature? How does the language communicate that
tone?
Theme
Theme is an idea or message about human life and the real world that is embedded in the
literary text. A theme is different from a subject. A subject is something the literature is
about, such as love, fate, justice, bravery, or loss. A theme is what the work says about a
particular subject: Love demands commitment, fate is often fickle, justice is elusive etc.
A subject can be stated in one word or phrase. A theme is stated in one or more complete
sentences.
An author communicates theme through symbol. A symbol is something that represents
something else and has meaning beyond itself. For example, winter may represent death
and spring may represent rebirth. The color red may represent passion or anger while
white may represent purity. Symbols help to develop literary themes.
Authors communicate themes through the development of characters and the plot or
actions of the story. Though themes may be difficult to pin down or to state simply,
literary works have implicit themes that reflect an author’s complex vision of life.
Questions for Analyzing Theme
1. What are some of the subjects of the work?
2. What are some of the themes of the work? (What does the work seem to say about
its subjects?)
3. What symbols, if any, does the author seem to use? What do they seem to
communicate about the meaning of the work?
4. Are the themes of the work difficult to identify? Do the themes seem
contradictory?
5. What worldview does the work represent? Is the work pessimistic or optimistic
about the conditions of life? Are the characters happy with their lives? Do they
strive for goals they find meaningful? How successful are they in solving their
problems? Does the literary work seem to show that life can have purpose and
order?
Plot
Plot is the succession of events or what happens in a piece of literature. But plot is not
just the evens of a narrative. Plot is the arrangement and the selection of events.
Arrangements of events:
Chronological
Flashback and Flashforward
Selection of events:
-Plot shows how events are related to one another. There is a cause and
effect relationship between the events that reveal character motivation,
setting impact, and conflicts.
-The selection of events impacts that pace of the literary work. The
selection of many events slows the pace of a literary work while the
selection of fewer events speeds it up.
Conflict is a plot device that engages readers and develops a narrative. Characters are in
conflict with one another, with their environment, or within themselves.
External conflicts occur when characters are in conflict with other people or things.
Internal conflicts occur when characters debate within themselves.
A protagonist is the main character that is in conflict with one or more antagonists.
The antagonist may be a person or may be other things such as forces in nature, forces of
gods/divinities, or psychological traits that cause emotional or intellectual conflicts
within the protagonist.
Questions for Analyzing Plot
1. Does the literary work seem to have much plot? How does the presence or
absence of plot devices affect your enjoyment or understanding of the narrative?
2. How are the evens arranged? Are they in chronological order? Does the author
use flashbacks? Flashforwards? How, if at all, does the plot depart from the
strictly chronological order? Why does the author arrange the events in this way?
3. What is the pace of the narrative? Does the pace change? Why does the author
establish a particular pace?
4. What are they key events? What seems to cause them? A character? Natural
forces? Accident? What values or traits lead characters to do what they do?
5. What are the main conflicts of the narrative? Which are external, which internal?
6. What causes the conflicts? What effect do the conflicts have? How are the
conflicts resolved?
7. Who are the protagonists? Who or what are the antagonists? In what ways are
they in conflict?
8. What values and qualities seem attached to opposing sides of conflicts? What
values and qualities does the protagonist have? What values and qualities does the
antagonist have? How does the author make one set of values seem more
appealing than another?
9. What choices about ideas and values does the ending seem to communicate?
Which side of a conflict seems to “win” and what implications does that victory
have for the themes?
Characterization
Characters are actors in a literary work and characterization is the author’s presentation
and development of such characters. Characters are often human beings but may also be
supernatural beings, animals, or nonhuman beings that take on human characteristics.
Characterization occurs through various techniques. The acronym for such techniques is
ODDCATS.
O. Other characters
D. Description and Direct Comment
D. Dialogue
C. Culture
A. Actions
T. Thoughts and Feelings
S. Setting
There are two general kinds of characters: Simple or flat characters and complex or
round characters. Some characters change (dynamic) and some stay the same (static).
Flat Characters – Characters with one or two personality traits; easily identifiable;
sometimes stereotypical.
Round Characters – Characters with numerous and sometimes conflicting
personality traits. It may be difficult to pinpoint with certainty why they do what
they do, what their values are. Round characters are more like real people than flat
characters, and as readers we participate in the struggles of complex characters.
Static Characters- Characters who remain the same throughout a literary work.
Dynamic Characters- Characters who change – alter their beliefs or behaviors – in
a literary work.
Questions for Analyzing Characterization
1. Which are the simple characters in the work? What are their traits? How are they
used to generate conflict and move the action forward? What concepts do they
seem to represent? How do the simple characters help create the work’s themes?
2. Which are the complex characters in the work? What makes them more complex
than the simple characters? What has caused them to be the way they are? What
motivates them? What are their goals? What, if anything, is contradictory or
difficult to understand about them? Do they fully understand themselves? What
conflicts confront them? Why are the successful or not in solving their problems?
3. Which characters change? How do they change? What causes the change? What
epiphanies do they experience?
4. Which characters do you like? Which do you dislike? Why?
5. What values and ideals do the characters seem to represent? What values and
ideals seem to “win” at the end?
Setting
Authors set their characters in a “world” with a particular location in place, time and
culture. Setting is comprised of the physical details, the temporal details and the cultural
details of that world.
Physical Setting: The physical aspects of setting include all of the places where the action
takes place. It includes the geography, the climate, and the physical objects. Physical
setting may change from scene to scene.
Temporal Setting: The temporal aspects of setting consist of three things: time in history,
time of year, and time of day. Time greatly impacts character motivation and action.
Cultural Setting: The cultural setting includes patterns of behavior and belifs that
dominate the society in which the characters live. Family relationships, moral values,
political systems, class structures, gender roles and race relations are all part of the
cultural environment.
Questions for Analyzing Setting
1. What characterizes the physical setting of the literary work? If there are several
physical settings, how are they different?
2. To what senses does the author appeal in order to establish the physical setting?
What general impression does the physical setting make on the readers’ senses?
3. When does the narrative take place – what historical period, what season, what
time of day? How does the time period affect the characters and the action? How
does it relate to the characters’ attitudes?
4. How much time passes during the narrative? How does this affect the plot, the
characters, and the themes?
5. In what ways does the author slow down or speed up our impression of passage of
time?
6. What characterizes the society depicted in the literary work? What cultural codes
are reflected by the details of the setting and by the characters’ actions and
beliefs? How does society influence the characters? What conflicts does the
society create? How are these conflicts resolved?
7. What aspects of setting does the author focus on? Do the aspects of setting have
symbolic meaning?
Point of View
Point of view is the position from which the story is told. It is also the position from
which the reader experiences the story. The point of view establishes a visual perspective,
and emotional perspective, and an intellectual relationship to the places, characters, and
events in a literary work. The point of view impacts the readers’ understanding of
characters, setting and plot.
Omniscient Point of View: Third person; The narrator seems to have complete
knowledge of everything that happens in the work. The narrator knows all characters’
thoughts, feelings and actions as well as all aspects of the society.
Limited Omniscient Point of View: Third person; The narrator provides access to the
mind of only one character, usually the protagonist.
First Person Point of View: The author pretends to disappear altogether and leaves the
storytelling to one of the characters in the literary work. The narration uses the first
person pronoun, “I”.
Objective/Dramatic Point of View: The narrator remains completely outside the
characters’ minds and refrains from comment about the meaning of events. It presents
the action like a camera.
Questions for Analyzing Point of View
1. What is the point of view of the work? Is there more than one point of view? If
so, how are the points of view different? How do they affect the way you react to
the work?
2. If the author uses omniscient point of view, what judgments does the narrator
make about the setting, characters, and events? Which characters’ minds are open
to the reader and what is the effect?
3. If the author uses limited omniscient point of view, to which character’s thoughts
do we have access? To what extent is the narrative filtered through the mind of
that character? Wholly? Partly? Do the omniscient narrator and the protagonist
differ in the ways they understand or evaluate the details of the story?
4. If the author uses first person point of view, what motivates the character/narrator
to tell the story? To whom does the narrator tell the story? What is the narrator’s
outlook on life? What are the narrator’s opinions about places, events, and
characters?
5. If the author uses an objective point of view, from what angles of vision do we
experience the events of the story? What details provide insight into the qualities
and thoughts of the characters?
6. How reliable is the narrator? Do you trust the narrator to give a truthful account of
the facts? Do you agree with the narrator’s values and judgments? Would the
author agree with the narrator’s opinions?
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The Elements of Literature: A Handbook
Your Name_________________________________
Source: Griffith, Kelley. Narrative Fiction An Introduction and Anthology. Fortworth,
Texas: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1994.