Definitions and Examples
• Extended metaphor
where the object &
actions in a narrative,
are equated with the
meaning that lie outside
the narrative itself
• e.g. Blindfolded female
statue with scales for
Justice
http://www.wellpromo.com/PrintableImprinted-Branded-Printing-Printed/j/Justice/
• Reference to a person,
place, thing, event, or
idea in history, classical
literature, or even pop
culture (mostly biblical)
• e.g. Clockwork Orange
http://moviescreens.tripod.com/clockw
ork/
http://templepoetry.blogspot.com/20
09/10/intertextuality-allusion.html
• Intentional or
Unintentional use of a
person, object or event
that is out of place
chronologically
• e.g. The Knight’s Tale
(2001) in a scene of
jousting tournament the
crowd sings “We Will
Rock You” by Queen and
also does the wave
• Force that opposes the
protagonist
• e.g. Voldemort vs. Harry
Potter or Edward vs.
Jacob
http://elirutten.deviantart.com/art/Harry-Potter-vs-Voldemort211975713
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=jacob+vs+edward&um=1&hl
=en&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:enUS:official&biw=1366&bih=575&tbm=isch&tbnid=uVggeZ1YaB
• Is the process by which the
writer reveals the personality
of a character.
• Direct Characterization tells
the audience what the
personality of the character
is.
• e.g. “The patient boy and
quiet girl were both well
mannered and did not
disobey their mother.”
• Indirect Characterization
shows things that reveal the
personality of a character.
• S-Speech
• T-Thoughts
• E-Effect on others toward the
character
• A-Actions
• L-Looks
• e.g “The boy took his time
with work. The girl responds
with phrases like “Yes
ma’am” and “No sir.”
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resou
rces/lesson_images/lesson800/Characteri
zation.pdf
• The point of greatest
tension or emotional
intensity in a plot, the
turning point
• Carrie (1976) pigs blood
before killing classmates
http://theeverythingstore.wordpress.
com/2009/02/08/725/
• A confrontation or
struggle between
opposing characters or
forces in a plot whether
it be internal or external.
• e.g. Man vs. Self
Man vs. Man
Man vs. Nature
Man vs. Society
Man vs. Technology
http://systematicdeviation.blogspot.co
m/
• “Unknotting” of the plot
falling action, resolution,
or conclusion/solution to
mystery
• e.g Cinderella’s wedding
• The language of a particular
district, class, or group of
persons-encompasses the
sounds, spelling, grammar,
and diction employed by a
specific people as
distinguished from other
persons either
geographically or socially.
• e.g Mark Twain uses
exaggerated dialect in his
Huckleberry Finn to
differentiate between
characters:
http://bernel.blogspot.com/2010_08_0
1_archive.html
http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms_d
.html
• Jim: "We's safe, Huck, we's
safe! Jump up and crack yo'
heels. Dat's de good ole
Cairo at las', I jis knows it."
• Huck: "I'll take the canoe and
go see, Jim. It mightn't be,
you know."
Connotation
• Associations & Implications
that go beyond a word’s
definitions (positive or
negative)
• Hollywood is the place of
romance and glittering
success.
http://www.gointothestory.
com/2011/06/hollywoodtales_21.html
Denotation
• Literal dictionary definition
of word
• Hollywood is a city in
California.
• Interruption of the
chronological sequence
of events by interjection
of scenes or events of
earlier occurrence
• e.g. Toy Story (1999)
Jessie’s backstory
• Hints & Clues to suggest
what will happen later in
a plot
• e.g. Romeo & Juliet by
Shakespeare “Prologue”
http://morgankoehn.blogspot.
com/
• “A pair of star-cross'd
lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured
piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury
their parents' strife” (Act
I, Prologue).
• Distinctive type of
category of literary
composition, such as epic,
novel, poem, short story,
etc.
• e.g. Fairy-Tales
http://ah_coo.tripod.com/goldil
ocks.htm
• Pictures or images in the
reader’s mind;
description based on any
of the five senses
• e.g. Smell-sweaty
clothes, the pungent skin,
dusty odor of the dry
earth
http://www.dlackey.org/weblog/2010/03/
• Logical conclusion drawn
from available data
• e.g. Student X has only
two grades a 65 and a
59. One can infer the
student is not passing.
http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook
-college-grades-2009-04
• Dramatic-the audience
knows more than the
characters e.g. pranks or
scary movies
• Verbal-Sarcasm e.g. “Sure
you can live forever”
• Situational- An occasion in
which the outcome is
significantly different from
what was expected or
considered appropriate
e.g. Juliet takes a drug to
fake her death, Romeo
however takes poison as he
believes Juliet to be dead,
when she awakens from
her self-induced coma, she
finds Romeo's body and
thus kills herself for real.
• Comparison of an
unknown object between
a known object without
using “like” or “as” to
understand the unknown
object
• e.g. “His head was
spinning with ideas.”
• Emotions intended to be
felt by the reader of a
literary work
• “He furtively glanced
behind him, for hear of
his imagined pursuers,
then hurriedly walked on,
jumping at the slightest
sound even of a leaf
crackling under his own
foot.”
http://www.inetteacher.com/Upload1/102670
/docs/Tone-Mood%20Worksheet.pdf
• The mixture of situation
and personality that
impels a character to
behave the way he or
she does.
• e.g. Wolf in Red Riding
hood
http://www.onlineaudiostories.com/tag/good-vsevil/
• A speaker through whom an
author presents a narrative,
often but not always a
character in the work.
• e.g. Wilson, the volleyball
addressed by Chuck Noland,
the marooned character
played by Tom Hanks in the
film Cast Away (2000), is a
narrative device used to
inform the audience of the
thoughts and feelings of the
isolated, lonely protagonist.
http://www2.ljworld.com/photos
/2001/jan/08/16298/
• Attributing of human
characteristics to
nonhuman things
• e.g. cartoons
http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/The_Little_Mermaid
http://www.fanpop.com/spots/beauty-and-thebeast/images/309492/title/beauty-beast-photo
• Structure of the story
• The arrangement and
interrelation of events in
a narrative work
Conflict
Climax
Falling Action
Rising Action
Exposition
Denouement
• 1st Person- “I” e.g “I just finished a
60 hour work week. Exhausted out
of my mind I begged for sleep. Just
as I, was drifting, I heard the
startling sound of a saxophone.”
• 2nd person- “you” e.g. “You come
home after a long night’s work.
Your only focus is sleeping. Just as
your head hits the pillow, you hear
the unwelcome sound of a
saxophone.”
• 3rd Person Omniscient- All knowing
shares thoughts, feels, and beliefs
of any character e.g. “The smooth
jazz sax player needed extra cash
on the spot. Little did he know, the
over-worked labor despised the
music rising in the air. However, the
woman in 14B smiled at the jazz
player and her heart skipped a
beat as he smiled back.”
• 3rd Person Limited- Not all knowing
shares thoughts, feels, and beliefs
of some characters e.g. “The jazz
player played and smiled at his
audience. Even the man screaming
from his apartment window.”
• e.g. Harry Potter, Bella,
and Jersey Shore Cast
http://members.outpost10f.com/~lindax/harrypotter/wallpaper.html
http://twilightupdates.com/twilight-quotes/bella-quotes/
http://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/2010/01/could-jersey-shore-be-moretrashtastic-the-cast-says-yes.html
• Literary mode based on
criticism of people and
society through ridicule or
mocking e.g. The the
impotence of proofreading
By Taylor Mali
www.taylormali.com & South
Park
• Has this ever happened to you? You work
very horde on a paper for English clash
And then get a very glow raid (like a D or
even a D=) and all because you are the
word¹s liverwurst spoiler. Proofreading
your peppers is a matter of the the utmost
impotence. This is a problem that affects
manly, manly students.
• I needed a place that would offer me
intellectual simulation, I really need to be
challenged, challenged dentally. I know this
makes me sound like a stereo, but I really
wanted to go to an ivory legal collegue.
• So I needed to improvement…So I got
myself a spell checker and figured I was on
Sleazy Street. But there are several missed
aches that a spell chukker can¹t can¹t catch
catch. For instant, if you accidentally leave
a word your spell exchequer won¹t put it in
you.
• The place where the
story happens and the
time when it happens
• e.g. once upon a time in
a far away land
• Indirect comparison using
“like” or “as”
• e.g. The soul in the body
is like a bird in a cage.
• An author's method of
treating a character so
that the character is
immediately identified with
a group. A character may
be associated with a
group through accent, food
choices, style of dress, or
any readily identifiable
group characteristic.
• e.g. are the rugged
cowboy, the bearded
psychiatrist, and the
scarred villain.
• Manner of expression of a
particular writer produced
by diction, grammar,
structures, devices, and all
possible parts of language
use
• e.g Ernest Hemingway's
style derives, in part, from
his short, powerful
sentences. The style of the
Declaration of
Independence can be
described as elegant.
• A man can be destroyed
but not defeated.
• A man's got to take a lot
of punishment to write a
really funny book.
• That quality of a literary
work that makes the reader
or audience uncertain or
tense about the outcome of
events. Suspense makes the
reader ask "What will
happen next?".
• Suspense is greatest when it
focuses attention on a
sympathetic character. Thus,
the most familiar kind of
suspense involves a character
hanging form the ledge of a
tall building, or tied to a
railroad tracks as a train
approaches.
• Something that on the
surface is its literal self
but which also has
another meaning or even
several meanings
• Central idea the thesis or
moral
• e.g. Lord of the Flies –
There is evil in all
mankind.
• Attitude of a writer toward
his/her subject
• D-Diction (word Choice)
• I-Imagery
• D-Details
• L-Language
• S-Syntax (Arrangement of
words & grammatical
elements in a sentence)
• "Life and death appeared
to me ideal bounds, which I
should first break through,
and pour a torrent of light
into our dark world." Frankenstein: Victor speaks
these words at the very
beginning of the novel,
setting an ominous mood
for the rest of the tale.