ENGL2020 Fictional terms

Question 1

Antagonist

Answer 1

Usually a character who opposes the protagonist. Sometimes this person is a villain, but he/she can also be a hero. However, the protagonist may act as his/her own antagonist in some
situations, and a societal force/situation may also be the antagonist.

Question 2

Climax

Answer 2

The moment that is the turning point or that involves a pivotal decision, which causes the tension of the fiction to peak.

Question 3

Complication (Rising Action)

Answer 3

The section of a fiction where matters become complicated and the conflict
or tension of the piece begins to develop.

Question 4

Conflict

Answer 4

The opposition of people or forces upon which the action of the fiction depends. This tension may occur between characters or social/political views. Sometimes the conflict is internal as it involves
a character’s psychological struggles.

Question 5

Denouement (Resolution)

Answer 5

The ending section of a fiction wherein the action comes to a meaningful
conclusion, one with its own particular mood that provides some form of resolution to the issues brought
up over the course of the narrative.

Question 6

Flashback

Answer 6

When the chronological flow of a fiction is interrupted to narrate a scene or scenes that occurred earlier, oftentimes involving a back-story or detail that is essential to how we understand events
in the present.

Question 7

Foreshadowing

Answer 7

A moment in a narrative that provides a fairly specific hint as to what will happen in the future.

Question 8

Genre

Answer 8

A category or type of fiction having a particular form or focus.

Question 9

Image

Answer 9

A literal or figurative representation of a person, animal, object, setting perceived through the five senses or though our feelings.

Question 10

Interior Monologue

Answer 10

Sometimes, a narrator will reveal his/her own or another character’s thoughts as if
spoken aloud. When a participating narrator does so, it is called direct interior monologue in that the thoughts are revealed by the person having them. When a non-participating narrator offers up the
thoughts of one of the characters, this situation is termed indirect interior monologue.

Question 11

Irony

Answer 11

When a commentator means the opposite of what he/she actually says or writes.

Question 12

Limited Omniscient Narrator

Answer 12

When a non-participating narrator has access to the thoughts of only one character.

Question 13

Major Characters

Answer 13

They are at the center of the plot and are detailed as per their appearance and
personalities.

Question 14

Metaphor

Answer 14

A figurative image wherein an implied analogy is created by comparing or identifying one thing with another although they have no literal connection.

Question 15

Minor Characters

Answer 15

They are on the periphery of the action and are not fully sketched out.

Question 16

Naïve Narrator

Answer 16

A participating narrator who does not fully realize the full truth of the situations being
described or experienced. Thus, the reader often knows more about the reality of the story than this type of narrator.

Question 17

Non-Participating Narrator

Answer 17

This type of narrator generally reveals the story through the third person,
referring to characters by their names or by third-person pronouns. It may comment on the action of the story being told but does not participate in it.

Question 18

Objective (Dramatic) Narrator

Answer 18

A type of non-participating narrator that describes characters only from the outside, thus never revealing their thoughts.

Question 19

Omniscient Narrator

Answer 19

This type of narrator knows everything that is happening and all the characters’ thoughts.

Question 20

Participating Narrator

Answer 20

This narrator is both a character in the story and the teller of it.

Question 21

Plot

Answer 21

A sequence of events arranged in a meaningful pattern.

Question 22

Point of View

Answer 22

The perspective through which the author tells the fiction, which helps shape readers’
response to the story being told.

Question 23

Protagonist

Answer 23

The principal or leading character of a fiction, sometimes a heroic figure that we identify with. But this person may also be a villain.

Question 24

Setting

Answer 24

The environment or surroundings in a fiction. It can include the time period when the narrative occurs or even the specific location where a scene takes place.

Question 25

Similie

Answer 25

A figurative image wherein an explicit comparison or stated similarity between apparently unrelated objects, living beings, or experiences is made using “like” or “as.”

Question 26

Symbol

Answer 26

A real person, object, or experience in a narrative that stands for or suggests something else, often an abstract idea.

Question 27

Stereotype

Answer 27

When characters are outlined based on a particular defining trait or traits, often on
commonly held assumptions about particular kinds of individuals or groups.

Question 28

Stream of Consciousness

Answer 28

A type of writing wherein a character’s perceptions and thoughts are presented as occurring in a jumbled form so as to create a sense of the person’s inner reality.

Question 29

Theme

Answer 29

The central and dominant idea in a literary work.

Question 30

Tone

Answer 30

The mood of a fiction, or section thereof, that the author is trying to evoke in the reader concerning a character, a setting, or a situation.

Question 31

Unreliable Narrator

Answer 31

When a participating narrator offers up comments about characters or situations that are actually incorrect, whether due to a deliberate attempt to deceive or to mental illness.