First Set of Figurative Language and Literary Terms
1. Theme—the message about life that is at the center of a story.
2. Universal Theme—themes that apply to every time and place and are part of many different cultures.
3. Moral—a lesson about life taught in a story.
4. Hero or Heroine—a character whose actions are inspiring or noble. They often struggle to overcome obstacles.
5. Hyperbole—using exaggeration or overstatement. (I could eat a horse.)
6. Personification—giving human characteristics to non-human subjects, such as animals or nature. (The camera loves her.)
7. Allusion—the mention of a well-known person, place, event, or work of art. (Scary Movie)
8. Imagery—using words that describe how something/someone looks, sounds, feels, tastes, or smells.
9. Symbolism—using words that represent something else (dove with olive branch in its beak=peace)
10. Irony—a contradiction between what happens and what is expected (someone who is crying but says they’re not upset)
11. Narration/Narrative—writing that tells a story, (can be fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or drama)
12. Simile—a figure of speech that uses “like” or “as” to make a comparison (clever as a fox)
13. Metaphor—a comparison without the use of “like” or “as” (He is the wind.)
14. Idiom—an expression that has a meaning specific to a language or region (That’s a piece of cake.)
15. Euphemism—nicer ways of saying something unpleasant (“physically challenged” instead of “crippled”)
16. Alliteration—words with repeated consonant sound (Peter Piper picked a peck…)
17. Point of View—the perspective from which a story is told—by a character outside the story or a character in the story.
18. First-person—the narrator uses the pronoun “I”
19. Omniscient Third-person—the narrator uses the pronouns “she” and “he” and knows what every character thinks and feels
20. Selective Singular Third-person—the narrator uses the pronouns “she” and “he” but only knows how one character thinks and feels and tells the story from that character’s perspective
21. Characterization- Direct and Indirect Characterization, how the author reveals the personality of the characters
Direct: Author tells us in the story about character’s personality
Indirect: Author shows how personality is revealed through speech, thoughts, effect, looks, or actions
Second Set of Literary Terms
1. Flashback—a scene within a story that interrupts the sequence of events to tell events that occurred in the past
2. Foreshadowing—the author’s use of clues that hint at what might happen later in the story
3. Plot—the sequence of events in a story. The characters and setting are introduced, a conflict (problem) is presented, the problem develops to a climax (high point), the problem comes to a resolution.
4. Character—a person or animal that takes part in the action of a literary work
5. Setting—the time and place of the action
6. Tone—the writer’s attitude toward the audience (informal, serious, playful, humorous)
7. Speaker—voice of the narrator
8. Extended Metaphor—a comparison without using like or as that runs throughout a poem or story (“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”)
9. Oxymoron—a figure of speech that links two opposite words in order to emphasize an idea (steel magnolias)
10. Author’s Purpose—the reason the author writes a story or a message that the author wants to convey
11. Dialogue—a conversation between characters (in quotation marks if its in a story)
12. Onomatopoeia—the use of words that imitate sounds (crash, screech, hiss)
13. Stanza—a group of lines of poetry that are similar in length and pattern and are separated by spaces (like a song verse)
14. Rhyme—repeating sounds at the ends of words (shower & flower)
15. Repetition—repeating a sound, a word, a phrase, or a sentence
16. Refrain—a regularly repeated line or group of lines (the chorus of a song)
17. Static Character -a character that remains primarily the same throughout a story or novel. Events in the story do not alter a static character’s outlook, personality, motivation, perception, habits, etc.
18. Dynamic Character -a character which changes during the course of a story or novel. The change in outlook or character is permanent.
19. Round Character -a well developed character who demonstrates varied and sometimes contradictory traits. Round characters are usually dynamic (change in some way over the course of a story).
20. Flat Character -a character who reveals only one, maybe two, personality traits in a story or novel, and the trait(s) do not change.
21. Conflict- A conflict in literature is defined as any struggle between opposing forces, either Internal or External.