Final Exam Lit Terms

Question 1

alienation

Answer 1

• feeling of not belonging
• feeling is physical, mental, spiritual, political, social, or economic and usually a combination of more than one of these types
• driving force that pushes the human conscience to extremes

Question 2

alliteration

Answer 2

the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words

Question 3

allusion

Answer 3

reference to a famous person, place, event, or literary work

Question 4

antagonist

Answer 4

character who blocks the protagonist from what he or she wants

Question 5

aside

Answer 5

character’s remark, either to the audience or another character, that no one else on stage is supposed to hear

Question 6

external conflict

Answer 6

involves a character and another person or thing

Question 7

internal conflict

Answer 7

always takes place within a character’s mind, heart, or soul

Question 8

connotation

Answer 8

emotions or feelings associated with a word

Question 9

couplet

Answer 9

rhymed pair of back to back lines (follow your heart’s desire/and good things may transpire)

Question 10

epiphany

Answer 10

sudden insight a character experiences

Question 11

extentialism

Answer 11

• emphasizes individual existence, freedom and choice.
• humans define their own meaning in life and try to make rational decisions despite existing in an irrational universe.
• focuses on the question of human existence
• feeling that there is no purpose or explanation at the core of existence.
• no God or force, only way to counter nothingness is by embracing existence.
• individuals are free and must take care of themselves
• emphasizes action, freedom and decision as fundamental
• holds the only way to rise above condition of humanity (which is suffering and inevitable death) is by exercising our personal freedom and choice

Question 12

expressionism

Answer 12

the response of an individual is more important than the object/situation that causes the response
-action is more important than cause

Question 13

metaphor

Answer 13

comparison that are basically unlike but do not use like or as

Question 14

personification

Answer 14

human qualities are given to an animal, object, or idea

Question 15

simile

Answer 15

comparison between two things, uses like or as

Question 16

flashback

Answer 16

scene that occurs out of sequence and tells of events that happened in the past

Question 17

foreshadow

Answer 17

a hint or clue about something that will happen later in the story

Question 18

freudianism

Answer 18

every human action is influenced by an unconscious mind.
-early experiences such as one’s relationship with one’s father have a profound effect on the development of the unconscious mind.

Question 19

imagery

Answer 19

language that appears to our 5 senses(sight,smell,taste,touch,hearing)

Question 20

indirect characterazation

Answer 20

writer allows readers to visualize the character in action by showing how the character speaks, private thoughts(diary), appearance, and how other characters interact with the character.

Question 21

irony

Answer 21

contrast between what is expected with what actually happens

Question 22

situational irony

Answer 22

situation turns out to be the opposite of what u expected

Question 23

dramatic irony

Answer 23

when reader/audience knows something that the characters dont

Question 24

verbal irony

Answer 24

say one thing but mean the other

Question 25

monologue

Answer 25

long, interrupted speech by 1 character, to which other characters listen.

Question 26

mood

Answer 26

atmosphere, affecting the way we feel as we read

Question 27

motif

Answer 27

theme, idea, or subject

Question 28

motivations

Answer 28

needs or conflicts that drive a character

Question 29

novella

Answer 29

• longer/more complex than short stories
• one major conflict, one major character, develop one major theme
• novels have larger fictional world
• focuses on limited number of characters, short period of time, single chain of events

Question 30

paradox

Answer 30

contradiction that suggests an important truth

Question 31

parallelism

Answer 31

repetition of grammatical structures to express ideas are related or of equal importance.

Question 32

protagonist

Answer 32

main character, drives the action

Question 33

satire/satirical/satirizes

Answer 33

ideas,customs, behaviors, or institutions RIDICULED for the purpose of improving society. uses irony and exaggeration to force readers to see a topic in a critical light

Question 34

setting

Answer 34

story’s time and pllace

Question 35

surrealism

Answer 35

stresses power of imagination and dreams over conscious control

Question 36

symbol

Answer 36

person,place, thing, or event that stands for both itself and for something beyond itself

Question 37

theme

Answer 37

makes some revelation about the subject

-reveals a truth about human behavior

Question 38

tone

Answer 38

writers attitude towards a subject

Question 39

tragic flaw

Answer 39

• error in judgement or a character defect

- ultimately leads to his or her downfall

Question 40

tragic hero

Answer 40

• character of high social rank, king, prince, or general
• has a tragic flaw
• suffers complete ruin or death
• faces his downfall with courage or dignity

Question 41

tragedy

Answer 41

• drama where a series of actions leads to the downfall of the main character(tragic hero)
• plot builds to a catastrophe, disastrous final outcome, involves death of hero and many others
• create suspense, Shakespeare uses dramatic conventions, dramatic irony, soliloquy, the aside