The Butter Battle Book Literary Terms/Concepts

Historical Context – Knowing when a book or other type of text was written, and how it fits into the events of its time, helps us understand what the author was thinking when he or she wrote the book/text. Writers are usually writing for a reason and sometimes that reason relates to what is happening in the author’s life or in the world when he or she is writing. Historical context refers to the moods, attitudes, and conditions that existed in a certain time.

Author Purpose – When you read anything in this class and in your ‘real’ life, you should always be looking to see what the author wants you to get from his or her text. Typically, in English classes, we think of three types of purposes: to inform, persuade, or entertain. These can overlap!

Theme – Theme is defined as a main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work that may be stated directly or indirectly. It is important not to confuse a theme of a literary work with its subject. Subject is a topic which acts as a foundation for a literary work while a theme is an opinion expressed on the subject. For example, a writer may choose a subject of war for his story and the theme of a story may be writer’s personal opinion that war is a curse for humanity. Usually, it is up to readers to explore a theme of a literary work by analyzing characters, plot and other literary devices.

Audience – Authors are usually thinking of the people that they hope will read their texts as they write. These readers are the author’s intended audience. But, all readers of a text are considered the audience. You are my audience as you read this. I am thinking of you as I type this up and I am purposefully writing in a way I think you will relate to.

Author Tone – The tone is the attitude of the author. Authors might come off as angry, or sarcastic, or sappy or funny or serious. Tone is how we see the author’s attitude. It’s different from the ‘mood’ created in a text.

Allegory – An allegory is a figure of speech in which abstract ideas and concepts are represented or described in characters, or objects or events in a story. Although an allegory uses symbols, it is different from symbolism. An allegory is a complete narrative which involves characters, and events that stand for an abstract idea or an event. A symbol, on the other hand, is an object that stands for another object giving it a particular meaning.

Satire – Writing that comments humorously on human flaws, ideas, social customs, or institutions in order to change them. Basically, the story might seem funny or strange or ridiculous, but there is usually a deeper message about a serious topic.

Plot – The action of the story.

Conflict – In literature, a conflict involves a struggle between two opposing forces. One type of external conflict is a pretty obvious one, (man versus man), or a protagonist (good guy) and an antagonist (bad guy) opposing each other mentally or physically. There are five main types of conflict in literature:

· Man vs. Man

· Man vs. Nature

· Man vs. Society

· Man vs. Self - - (internal)

· Man vs. Technology