Terms!
Add to your Note Cards under the
“Literary Terms” Section
Day #2
Monday
January 3.
Terms
Moral Dilemma
A situation requiring a choice
between equally undesirable
alternatives when dealing with
principles (morals) or the
concept of right and wrong
Ex. #1: Deciding between doing the
right thing (difficult), and the easy
thing
Ex. #2: Equality 7-2521 faces a moral
dilemma when he has to choose
between the Collective (all he
knows) and his desire to learn/his
invention (what he’s taught is wrong).
Ex. #3: Harrison Bergeron must
choose between living a life
captive to all his handicaps, or
breaking free but knowing that it
means he will die
Ex. #2: In “The Wife’s Story” the wife
must choose between the love for
her children and the love for her
husband
Terms
Epiphany
A character’s sudden flash of
insight into a conflict or situation
Page R23
• An “Ah-HA!” moment
• Everything clicks into
place and makes
sense
• Sudden solution to a
problem
• Sudden realization of
another character’s
motivations
Ex. #1: When Equality discovers the word
“I” everything he has been feeling falls into
place.
Ex. #2: Right before Mary Maloney kills her
husband, she sees his back turned towards
her and suddenly realizes that he is not the
ideal husband and his betrayal has taken
away the ideal life she thought she had.
Ex. #3: All the oddities the wife wonders
about in “The Wife’s Story” suddenly make
sense when she witnesses her husband turn
human right in front of her.
Terms
Tone
The writer’s attitude toward his or
her audience and subject.
Page R30
Can be described by a single adjective,
although there may be shifts in tone
throughout the piece:
– Formal
– Serious
– Bitter
--Informal
– Playful
– Ironic
Tone of Anthem:
Tone of Lamb to the Slaughter:
Tone of A Wife’s Story:
Terms
Allegory
• A story or tale with two or more levels of
meaning:
a Literal Level and a Symbolic Level.
• The events, setting, and characters in an
allegory are symbols for ideas and qualities
Page R21
Ex. #1: Animal Farm =
Russian Revolution
Ex. #2: Prodigal Son =
the sinner and God’s love
Ex. #3: Avatar =
the taking of North
America’s West; any
colonization