Literary Terms
We will be using these literary terms
throughout the school year.
You need to keep up with your notes.
Don’t lose your terms! You might be
able to use them –
be RESPONSIBLE!!
We will use the following terms:
Character
Diction
Imagery
Exposition
Falling Action
Flashback
Point of View
Theme
Metaphor
Alliteration
Irony
Antagonist
Denotation
Mood
Rising Action
Resolution
Foreshadowing
Setting
Tone
Simile
Onomatopoeia
Inference
Protagonist
Connotation
Poetry Devices
Climax
Conflict
Suspense
Mood
Personification
Oxymoron
Hyperbole
Character
A character is a person
or an animal that takes
part in the action of a
literary work.
Edward Cullen from Twilight
Shakespeare’s Queen of the faeries
in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Harry Potter
Wilbur from Charlotte’s Web
Antagonist
 The Antagonist is a
character or force in
conflict with a main
character, or protagonist.
Do you know your
Antagonists???
 On your paper take a few minutes to write
down some Antagonists that you can
recall from movies, television shows, and
video games
 Remember the Antagonist is in conflict
with the Protagonist, or main character!
 Helpful hint – you should now know why
people use the saying “Don’t antagonize
me!”
NAME THAT ANTAGONIST
Antagonists can be anyone or
anything that poses as an
obstacle for the protagonist
Protagonist
 The Protagonist is the main
character in a literary work
 Can you name some famous
Protagonists that are found in
literature?
 Protagonists also come in all shapes,
sizes, species, etc.
Wilbur
Ponyboy Curtis and the Greasers
Jonas
Catherine & Garfield
Diction
 Diction is the manner in which
we express words; the wording
used.
 Diction = enunciation
 Some easy examples are:
Don’t say ‘goin’ – say ‘going’, Don’t say ‘wanna’ – say ‘want to’
*Now, it’s your turn to provide some enunciation
errors or slurs
Denotation
The denotation of a word is its
dictionary meaning, independent
of other associations that the
word may have.
Connotation
 The connotation of a word is the set of
ideas associated with it in addition to its
explicit meaning.
 The connotation of a word can be
personal, based on individual
experiences.
 More often, cultural connotations – those
recognizable by most people in a group –
determine a writer’s word choices.
Denotation versus
Connotation
Some examples –
Cheap is “low in cost” (denotation) but
“stingy” or “poorly made” are the
connotations of cheap
 Let’s use the word HOT
The denotation (or dictionary definition – remember d in denotation =
dictionary) of HOT is having a temperature higher
than that of a human body.
However, when you say “Man! He/She is hot!”,
are you saying “Man! He is having a
temperature higher than that of a human body!”?
NO!!!!!!!!!
You are saying the CONNOTATION of HOT –
which could mean a variety of things – man
he/she is cute, attractive, beautiful, and many
other meanings – those come from personal
experiences and cultural meanings, etc.
Imagery
Imagery is words or phrases
that appeal to one or more of
the five senses. Writers use
imagery to describe how their
subjects look, sound, feel,
taste, and smell.
EXAMPLES OF IMAGERY

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If you're tired and hopeless, how can you show someone this instead of
just telling them?
I took a walk around the world to
Ease my troubled mind
I left my body laying somewhere
In the sands of time
I watched the world float to the dark
Side of the moon
I feel there is nothing I can do
--"Kryptonite" by Three Doors Down
If you're a rapper, instead of telling someone to let your freestyles come
naturally, how can you show them with your words?
From the family tree of old school hip hop
Kick off your shoes and relax your socks
The rhymes will spread just like a pox
Cause the music is live like an electric shock
--Beastie Boys "Intergalactic" From Hello Nasty
IMAGERY IN THE OLDEN DAYS
“I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud”
by William Wadsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and
hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the
breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending
line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly
dance.

The waves beside them danced;
but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in
glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed---and gazed---but little
thought
What wealth the show to me had
brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure
fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
MOOD
Mood, or atmosphere, is the feeling created in the reader
by a literary work or passage.
 Writer’s use many devices to create mood, including
images, dialogue, setting, and plot.
 Often, a writer creates a mood at the beginning of a work
and then sustains the mood throughout.
 Sometimes, however, the mood of the work changes
dramatically.
**Edgar Alan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” emits a mood of
terror based on the insanity of the murderous protagonist
Plot
Plot is the sequence of events. The first event
causes the second, the second causes the third,
and so forth.
In most novels, dramas, short stories, and narrative
poems, the plot involves both characters and a
central conflict.
The plot usually begins with an exposition that
introduces the setting, the characters, and the
basic situation. This is introduced and developed.
The conflict then increases until it reaches a high
point of interest or suspense, the climax. The
climax is followed by the falling action, or end, of
the central conflict. Any events that occur during
the falling action make up the resolution.
PLOTLINE
Climax
Resolution
Exposition
Conflict Introduced
Exposition
The Exposition is the introduction. It is the part of
the work that introduces the characters,
setting, and basic situation.
***In Harry Potter & the Sorcerer Stone, we quickly learn
that Harry was turning 11, had a mysterious scar on his
forehead, was living with his very disgruntled and
burdened aunt, uncle, and bullying cousin due to the
death of his parents when he was a baby. At the end of
the exposition, we learn that he was the product of two
wizard parents and on his way to entering Hogwarts.
Rising Action
Rising Action is the part
of the plot that begins
to occur as soon as
the primary conflict is
introduced. The
rising action adds
complications to the
conflict and
increases reader
interest.
Climax
The Climax is the point of greatest emotional
intensity, interest, or suspense in the plot of a
narrative.
On a plot diagram, it is the highest point due to
how intense it is and immediately after the
climax, there is a drastic drop in events leading
to the resolution.
The climax typically comes at the turning point in
a story or drama.
Falling Action
Falling Action is the action that
typically follows the climax and
reveals its results.
Resolution
The Resolution is the part of
the plot that concludes the
falling action by revealing or
suggesting the outcome of
the conflict.
Conflict
Conflict is the struggle
between opposing forces in
a story or play. There are
two types of conflict that
exist in literature.
External Conflict
External conflict exists when a character struggles
against some outside force, such as another
character, nature, society, or fate.
Person vs. Person
Person vs. Society
Person vs. Nature (environment)
Person vs. Time
Person vs. Supernatural
Person vs. Technology (machine)
NAME THAT CONFLICT
Internal Conflict
Internal conflict exists within the mind of a
character who is torn between different
courses of action.
Questioning
Having a Dilemma
In a predicament
What to Do?
Example: Person vs. Self
Man Versus Self
Flashback
A flashback is a literary device in which an
earlier episode, conversation, or event is
inserted into the sequence of events.
Often flashbacks are presented as a
memory of the narrator or of another
character.
Flashback continued…
The movie Titanic is told almost entirely in a
flashback.
What are some other films that contain
flashback to help tell stories?
Holes
Willy Wonka
Think of some more…
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is the author’s use of clues
to hint at what might happen later in the
story. Writers use foreshadowing to build
their readers’ expectations and to create
suspense. This is used to help readers
prepare for what is to come.
Can you think of
an element of
foreshadowing?
Suspense
Suspense is the growing interest and
excitement readers experience while
awaiting a climax or resolution in a work
of literature. It is a feeling of anxious
uncertainty about the outcome of events.
Writers create suspense by raising
questions in the minds of their readers.
Point of View
Point of View is the perspective, or vantage
point, from which a story is told. It is the
relationship of the narrator to the story.
First-person is told by a character who uses
the first-person pronoun “I”.
Third-person limited point of view is the point
of view where the narrator uses thirdperson pronouns such as “he” and “she” to
refer to the characters.
Types of Third Person
 Limited: storyteller lets us know thoughts
and feelings of main character
(protagonist) only
 Omniscent: storyteller lets us know
thoughts and feeling of all characters
Setting
The setting of a literary work is the time and place
of the action.
The setting includes all the details of a place and
time – the year, the time of day, even the
weather. The place may be a specific country,
state, region, community, neighborhood,
building, institution, or home.
Details such as dialect, clothing, customs, and
modes of transportation are often used to
establish setting.
In most stories, the setting serves as a backdrop
– a context in which the characters interact.
The setting of a story often helps to create a
particular mood, or feeling.
Style
Style is the distinctive way in which
an author uses language.
Word choice, phrasing, sentence
length, tone, dialogue, purpose,
and attitude toward the audience
and subject can all contribute to
an author’s writing style.
Theme
The theme of a literary work is its central
message, concern, or purpose. A theme can
usually be expressed as a generalization, or
general statement, about people or life. The
theme may be stated directly by the writer
although it is more often presented indirectly.
When the theme is stated indirectly, the reader
must figure out the theme by looking carefully
at what the work reveals about the people or
about life.
Tone
Tone is a reflection of a writer’s or speaker’s
attitude toward a subject of a poem, story, or
other literary work. Tone may be communicated
through words and details that express particular
emotions and that evoke and emotional
response from the reader.
For example, word choice or phrasing may seem
to convey respect, anger, lightheartedness, or
sarcasm.
Figures of Speech
A figure of speech is a specific device or kind of
figurative language, such as hyperbole,
metaphor, personification, simile, or
understatement.
Figurative language is used for descriptive effect,
often to imply ideas indirectly. It is not meant to
be taken literally. Figurative language is used to
state ideas in vivid and imaginative ways.
Metaphor
A Metaphor is a type of speech that
compares or equates two or more things
that have something in common. A
metaphor does NOT use like or as.
Example: Life is a bowl
of cherries.
Simile
A Simile is another figure of speech that
compares seemingly unlike things.
Simile’s DO use the words like, as, than,
or resembles.
Example: Her voice was like nails on a
chalkboard.
Oxymoron
An Oxymoron is a figure of speech that is a
combination of seemingly contradictory
words.
Examples:
Same difference
Pretty ugly
Roaring silence
Personification
Personification is a
figure of speech in
which an animal,
object, force of nature,
or idea is given
human qualities or
characteristics.
Example: Tears began
to fall from the dark
clouds.
Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of sounds, most
often consonant sounds, at the beginning
of words. Alliteration gives emphasis to
words.
Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of
pickled peppers
Alliterative Fun
Caring Cats

Caring cats cascade off
Laughing llamas
Lounging.
Underneath yelling yaks
Yelling at roaming
Rats
Rain
Rain races,
Ripping like wind.
Its restless rage
Rattles like
Rocks ripping through
The air.
Irony
 Special contrast between reality and
appearance
 Usually one in which reality is the
opposite from what it seems
Irony
 Situational-contrast between what would seem
appropriate and what really happens or what
we expect to happen is in fact quite opposite to
what really does take place
 This is like a surprise ending or a twist in the
plot that you didn’t expect.
Irony
 Verbal-someone knowingly exaggerates
or says one thing and means another
 Sarcasm is often verbal irony—We use this
in our every day lives
 Example: “We try to be civilized here,” said
General Zaroff. “The Most Dangerous
Game”
Irony
 Dramatic-When the reader or viewer
knows something that a character does
not know.
 Romeo and Juliet example
Hyperbole
 An exaggeration
 Example: “enough
food to feed a whole
army”
Fiction
 Imaginary elements
 Can be based on real people and events
 Realistic fiction/historical fiction
Nonfiction
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Real events, people, and places
Autobiography/biography
Personal narrative/memoirs
Newspapers
Informative articles
Inference
 A conclusion derived from facts/evidence
 Making an educated guess based on
what you have read, learned, or know
 While reading a story, you may be able to
infer something about the character
based on what you have read in regards
to his action, thoughts, viewpoints of
others, etc.