ONLY THE IMPORTANT STUFF. English 9 2013-2014
Setting Helps readers visualize Helps set tone or mood of story is WHEN and WHERE a story takes place Sights Sounds Colors Textures Time of day Time of year Time in history Scenery Weather Location 2
Character the people or animals in a story. Major: The conflict revolves around these characters. vs. Minor: Help move plot events forward but are not essential to the conflict. Static does not change over time Dynamic changes over time Round - has a complex personality Flat has a one characteristic type of personality 3
Plot The sequence of events in a story. 4
Not always bad Conflict Sometimes brings About change The struggle between opposing characters or forces. What does the character want? What is keeping the character from getting what he or she wants? 5
Conflict External Conflict A character struggles against something outside of himself Man v. Man Man v. Society Man v. Nature Internal Conflict A character struggles against something inside of herself Man v. Himself/Herself Without CONFLICT there is no plot! 6
Point of View The perspective from which the story is being told. First Person The narrator is a character in the story. I, me, my, our, we Third Person The narrator is an outsider looking in on the story as it unfolds. Him, her, them, their 7
Characterization The way we get to know the characters in a story. Direct Characterization What the speaker directly says or thinks about a character. The speaker tells what the character is like. Indirect Characterization What the character says or does. The reader has to infer (gather clues) what the character is like. 8
Theme The central message or insight into life revealed through a literary work. May be stated directly May be implied (hinted at) readers think about what the work suggests about people or life. 9
Flashback An interruption in the action of the plot to tell what happened earlier time. 10
Irony The differences between appearance and reality, or between expectation and result. There are three types of Irony. 1.Verbal Irony 2.Situational Irony 3.Dramatic Irony 11
Foreshadow Clues that suggest events that have yet to occur. Helps create suspense Keeps readers wondering about what will happen next. 12
Mood The feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage. Created by descriptive details. Often described in a single word. 13
Imagery The descriptive or figurative language used in literature to create word pictures for the reader. The burning spice left its mark in their mouths Sight Sound Taste Touch Smell Her velvety soft and gentle hands reassured me Her weathered and leathery skin showed the abuse from the sun The train brakes screeched in the distance Our noses cringed as the stench of death wafted past us 14
Simile A figure of speech in which the words like or as are used to compare two apparently dissimilar items. Ex. Does it dry up/like a raisin in the sun? 15
Metaphor A figure of speech in which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else. Ex. if dreams die/ Life is a broken-winged bird/ That cannot fly. 16
Personification The type of figurative language in which a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics. Ex. Tossing their heads in sprightly dance 17
Hyperbole A deliberate exaggeration or overstatement (often used for comic effect) Ex. If someone told you to take a long walk off a short pier, would you do that too? 18
Onomatopoeia The use of words that imitate sounds. buzz sizzle thud hiss 19
Diction/Tone The author s attitude toward a subject. 20
4. Protagonist Meaning the main character Example Alice from Alice in Wonderland Tarzan from Tarzan Cinderalla from Cinderella
5. Antagonist Meaning the character that the protagonist struggles against The bad guy Example: Captain Hook from Peter Pan The Big Bad Wolf from The Three Little Pigs
FOIL CHARACTER a character whose main purpose is to offer a contrast to another character, usually the protagonist 23
Symbolism The use of a symbol to convey an idea. SYMBOL a person or thing that represents both itself and a larger idea. 24
Repetition The use of any element of language (sound, word, phrase, clause, sentence, line, etc.) more than once. Examples: (repetition of sounds and sound patterns) Alliteration Assonance Rhyme rhythm ** used for musical effect and/or emphasis 25
Monologue Long speech made by one character while other characters are on stage 26
Soliloquy Long speech made by one character ALONE on stage (no other characters involved) 27
Rhyme The repetition of sounds at the ends of words. Ex. Swans sing before they die twere no bad thing Should certain persons die before they sing. 28
Alliteration The repetition of initial consonant sounds. (used to give emphasis to words, to imitate sounds, and to create musical effects) Ex. Once upon a midnight dreary, While I pondered weak and weary 29
Assonance The repetition of vowel sounds followed by different consonants in two or more stressed syllables. Examples: "If I bleat when I speak it's because I just got... fleeced." (Al Swearengen in Deadwood, 2004) "It beats... as it sweeps... as it cleans!" (advertising slogan for Hoover vacuum cleaners, 1950s) "The law may not change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless." (Martin Luther King, Jr., address to the National Press Club on July 19, 1962) "Those images that yet Fresh images beget, That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea." (W.B. Yeats, "Byzantium") 30
Consonance The repetition of final consonant sounds in stressed syllables with different vowel sounds, as in hat and sit. T was later when the summer went Than when the cricket came, And yet we knew that gentle clock Meant nought but going home. T was sooner when the cricket went Than when the winter came, Yet that pathetic pendulum Keeps esoteric time. (Emily Dickinson, " T was later when the summer went") 31