Fiction Vocabulary Words Flashcards
Symbol
An object, an event, a place, or a person that suggests more than its literal meaning.
What is an example of a symbol?
When you give your boo a present on Valentine’s Day, the present symbolizes that you care for that person.
What are ways to spot a symbol?
Prominence
Significance
Prominence
repeated mention, especially detailed description, strategic placement
Significance
weighted by how it is different or how it stands out from what’s around it
Allegory
A narrative in which many elements of the story are equated with outside elements
What is an example of an allegory?
Most elements are symbols and how those symbols interact with each other is supposed to make a grander statement about the meaning of the work than the literal work itself.
Theme
“What it all adds up to?” Upon taking all the stories aspects into account, what does it all mean.
What does a theme do?
Points out a subject and makes a direct claim about that subject.
What terms are related to Theme and Symbols?
Allegory
Significance
Prominence
Tone
Gets in, around, and behind the words to indicate the attitude the work takes toward the characters, setting, subject, or issues, or the attitude a character reveals toward an issue, situation, setting, or another character.
How do authors show tone in a story?
Authors rely on word choice, ways of phrasing, and kind of comparisons to convey an attitude/tone (serious, somber, solemn, playful, excited, impassioned, dejected, angry, etc.).
How many tones can a story have?
A work can have a single tone, but more often, it is mixed between two or more tones that are juxtaposed or mingled or played off each other.
Style
The way the author handles words and sentences to present its subject.
When is style particularly important?
More complex tone of irony
Irony
Expression in which the writer or speaker creates a discrepancy or incongruity between what seems to be (appearance) and what is (reality).
What usually helps to signal to the reader when something is ironic?
Stylistic Choices
Sarcasm
A type of irony that is especially harsh, bitter, or hurtful.
What term is related to Tone, Style, and Irony?
Sarcasm
Setting
A story, poem, or play’s overall context – where, when, and in what circumstances the action occurs.
What are the three different types of settings?
Setting as Place
Setting as Time
Setting as Cultural Context
What is involved in Setting as Place?
The actual Physical Environment and
The Significance of the Place
The Actual Physical Environment
The city, town, downtown, village, suburb, apartment, brick house, factory, farm, junction, interstate, prison, hill, lake, ocean, valley
The Significance of the Place
What the setting conveys and suggests
What is involved in Setting as Time?
The Historical Time and The Social Milieu
The Historical Time
How the time influences the story; what was happening in history then and how did it influence the story
The Social Milieu
What’s the social environment of the setting and how does it influence the story
What is involved in Setting as Cultural Context?
Social Circumstances and Cultural Transplantation
Social Circumstances
How were people feeling about what was going on around them; this can tie into the historical context discussed above
Cultural Transplantation
When a character is put into a setting that does not correlate with his/her cultural expectations
Atmosphere
The mood or emotional quality that surrounds a literary work
What terms are related to Setting?
Setting as Place
Setting as Time
Setting as Cultural Context
Atmosphere
What terms are related to Character?
Characterization Telling Showing Dialogue Entering a Character's Mind Round Characters Flat Characters Major Characters Minor Characters Stock Characters Protagonist Antagonist Motivation Consistent
Characters
The created persons who appear or are referred to in narratives and dramas (and sometimes poems)
Characterization
The methods and techniques an author uses to represent people and to enable us to know and relate to them.
What are the techniques of characterization?
Telling
Showing
Dialogue
Entering a Character’s Mind
Telling
Most direct method as we are simply told what the characters are like, all at once or bit by bit.
Showing
Depends upon the character’s actions, which may be presented without interpretive comment, leaving the reader to draw her own conclusions.
Dialogue
What the character reveals about herself or her thoughts on others by what she says (or by what other characters say about her).
Entering a Character’s Mind
Usually done through third-person omniscient or third-person limited, reveals his thoughts and feelings.
What are the Categories of Characterization?
Round Characters Flat Characters Major Characters Minor Characters Stock Characters Protagonist Antagonist
Round Characters
More complex and sometimes challenging to understand. They often change or grow as the story unfolds. Sometimes, they remain static, thought they may be described so richly that we have a sense of how they could change, even though we don’t see it happening.
Flat Characters
Less complex and do not demonstrate change in the story. They typically have one or two traits that define them.
Major Characters
Typically the round characters.
Minor Characters
Typically the flat characters, sometimes referred to as stock characters
Stock Characters
Stereotypes easily recognized by readers
Protagonist
The central character in a story.
Antagonist
The character or force that opposes the protagonist to give rise to the central conflict in the work.
What are Qualities of Characterization?
Character’s Motivation and Consistency
Character’s Motivation
The reasons, explanations, and/or justifications behind a character’s behaviour. This grows out of what the character wants or desires and how that causes the character to react in a specific situation.
Consistent
What a characters behavior must be. Should his behaviour change, clear reasons for the change should be evident. This consistency makes characters believable.
What terms are related to Plot?
Story Chronological Order in media res Flashback Exposition Conflict Physical Conflict Social Conflict Internal or Psychological Conflict Suspense Foreshadowing Repetition Rising Action Climax Epiphany Gaps
Plot
The action in a story and the way events are selected and arranged for the reader.
Story
A straightforward account of everything that happens in the order it happens. Story provides the material (the events, the characters, the outcome) from which plot is constructed.
Chronological Order
When the plot unfolds in the order in which the events occurred.
in media res
Another place where a plot can start. In Latin, this means “into the middle of things.” When the plot begins in media res this means that the plot starts in the middle of the story. Doing this tends to plunge readers directly into the action and tension of a story.
Flashback
When earlier events are inserted as a narrative or scene, perhaps through a character remembering
Exposition
A nondramatized explanation, perhaps through a speech by the narrator or a character
Conflict
A struggle or confrontation between opposing characters or a character and opposing forces.
What are the three types of conflict?
Physical Conflict
Social Conflict
Internal or Psychological Conflict
Physical Conflict
May occur between characters and between characters and nature or some other type of setting.
Social Conflict
May involve differences in personal or societal relationships or values
Internal or Psychological Conflict
Deals with struggle within a character as s/he wrestles with competing moral claims or a difficult decision. This can be seen in an identity crisis, a belief crisis, a value crisis, or a loss through death.
Suspense
Some uncertainty and concern about how things will turn out.
Foreshadowing
A way to help readers anticipate what might happen later.
Repetition
Used to draw attention to especially important aspects of a story.
Rising Action
Development of a plot used to holds readers’ attention by becoming more complex and more intense
Climax
Crisis of some sort
Epiphany
A type of climax when a character experiences a sudden moment of illumination or revelation
Gaps
Omissions that withhold whatever is not significant to the action of a story.
