Diction
The author’s choice of words and the
arrangement of those words used in
phrases, sentences, or lines of a poem.
Characterization
The various literary means by which
characters are presented (e.g. developing,
flat, foil, round, static, stock)
Flat Character
•A character whose distinguishing moral
qualities or personal traits are summed
up in one or two traits.
•Example: Amy Tan’s relatives from
“Fish Cheeks” will always be viewed as
noisy and rude by the minister’s son.
Round character
•A character whose distinguishing moral
qualities or personal traits are complex
and many-sided.
•Example: Amy Tan in “Fish Cheeks.”
Static Character
•A character who is the same sort of person at
the end of a work as at the beginning.
•Robert, the minister’s son in “Fish Cheeks”
Dynamic (developing) character
•A character who during the course of a
work undergoes a permanent change in
some distinguishing moral qualities or
personal traits or outlook.
•Amy Tan in “Fish Cheeks”
Foil Character
•A minor character whose situation or
actions parallel those of a major
character, and thus by contrast sets off or
illuminates the major character; most
often the contrast is complimentary to
the major character.
•Amy Tan’s mother in “Fish Cheeks”
Mood
•Mood is the emotions that you feel while
you are reading. Some literature makes you
feel sad, others joyful, still others, angry.
•The general atmosphere created by the
author’s words and imagery.
•Types of mood: scary, romantic,
violent, hopeful, mysterious, joyful. . .
Tone
•Tone - the manner in which written words
might be said. For example: sarcastic,
hateful, witty, angry
•Tone is different from mood in that a story
typically has one mood; whereas, tone can
change a lot throughout a story.
Stereotype
A character who is so ordinary or unoriginal
that the character seems like an
oversimplified representation of a type,
gender, class, religious group, or occupation.
Audience
The particular group of readers or viewers
that the writer is addressing. A writer
considers his or her audience when deciding
on a subject, a purpose for writing, and the
tone and style in which to write.
Stock Character
•A stereotyped character, one whose
nature is familiar to us from prototypes
in previous literature.
•E.g. Jiminey Cricket, Cinderella…
Imagery
A rather vague critical term covering those uses
of language in a literary work that evokes senseimpressions by literal or figurative reference to
perceptible or concrete objects, scenes, actions,
or states as distinct from the languages of
abstract argument or exposition.
Simile
•A figure of speech in which an explicit
comparison is made between two things
essentially unlike. The comparison is made
explicit by the use of some such word or
phrase as like, as, than, similar to,
resembles, or seems.
Personification
•A figure of speech in which human attributes
are given to an animal, an object, or a
concept.
•“A slimy rock cod…that pleaded not to be
thrown..”
Allusion
•A reference, explicit or implicit, to
something in previous literature, art, or
history.
• “…as white as Mary in the manger.”
Hyperbole
•Great exaggeration used for emphasis or
effect.
•“This backpack weighs a ton!!”
Protagonist
The main character of a story—often
considered to be the hero of the story.
Antagonist
The character who frustrates, deceives,
fights or works against the main
character.
Connotation
The range of further associations that a
word or phrase suggests in addition to its
straightforward denotation, the literal
dictionary meaning of a word