Literary Devices

Question 1

Exposition

Answer 1

A comprehensive description and explanation of an idea or theory.

Question 2

Climax

Answer 2

The turning point or high point in a plot.

Question 3

Denouement (a.k.a. Resolution)

Answer 3

That portion of a plot that reveals the final outcome or the conclusion of the story.

Question 4

Genre

Answer 4

A particular kind or style of art or literature.
Example: horror, comedy, action, thriller.

Question 5

Style

Answer 5

The manner of writing, speaking or doing something.
Example: persuasive, narrative, descriptive

Question 6

Setting

Answer 6

The context in time and place in which the action of a story occurs.
Example: England, medieval times, 1066 A.D.

Question 7

Plot

Answer 7

The sequence of incidents or events of which a story is composed.

Question 8

Theme

Answer 8

The central idea of a literary work.
Example: love, friendship, revenge.

Question 9

Prologue

Answer 9

A section or speech at the start of a story that serves as an introduction or pre-history to what is about to happen.

Question 10

Epilogue

Answer 10

A section or speech at the end of a story that serves as a comment on, an extension or a conclusion to what has happened earlier.

Question 11

Flashback

Answer 11

A changing of the scene in a story to a scene at an earlier time.

Question 12

Synopsis

Answer 12

A brief summary of the story

Question 13

Conflict

Answer 13

A clash of actions, desires, ideas, or goals in the plot of a story or drama.

Question 14

Dialogue

Answer 14

A conversation between two characters

Question 15

Monologue

Answer 15

One character talking, often to itself

Question 16

Narrator

Answer 16

The one who ‘tells’ the story, speaking directly to the audience. The narrator may or may not be a major character in the story itself.

Question 17

Omniscient narrator

Answer 17

The story is told by an all-knowing person or thing who is free to tell us anything, including what the characters are thinking or feeling and why they act as they do.

Question 18

Reliable narrator

Answer 18

If the one telling the story truthfully explains and reveals all that happens.

Question 19

Unreliable narrator

Answer 19

If the one telling the story is withholding information or the information is biased (opinionated).

Question 20

Point of view

Answer 20

The angle of vision from which a story is told.

Question 21

First person point of view

Answer 21

The story is told by one of its characters, using the first person (the I / we) perspective
Example: “I am not your average type of person.”
Example: “We were all liars back then.”

Question 22

Second person point of view

Answer 22

The story is told by a narrator, which is often the protagonist itself, using the “you” perspective.
Example: “You are often told to listen to adults when you are a child. Well, what if you discovered that they have been lying to you all this time?

Question 23

Third person point of view

Answer 23

The story is told as someone ‘observing’ the story unfold. Often, this narrator knows what the different character think, feel, see, or hear but this does not always have to be the case.
Example: “Max was walking down the stairs and grabbed his car keys. His mind was racing with fear as he knew that today was going to be the day he was to die.”

Question 24

Protagonist

Answer 24

The main character in a story

Question 25

Antagonist

Answer 25

The one in conflict with the protagonist. An antagonist may be another person, an aspect of the physical or social environment, or a destructive element in the protagonist’s own nature.

Question 26

Round character

Answer 26

A character with many different character traits which can develop and change over the course of the story.

Question 27

Flat character

Answer 27

A character who is the same sort of person at the end of a story as at the beginning.

Question 28

Foil

Answer 28

A person or thing that contrasts strongly with another and therefore makes the other’s qualities more obvious.
Example: Demons are foils to angels.

Question 29

Prose

Answer 29

Written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure or rhyme.
Example: “This is how I speak so this is how I write”

Question 30

Rhyme

Answer 30

Correspondence of sound between words or the endings of words, especially when these are used at the ends of lines of poetry.
Example: old-cold, vane-reign, court-report, order-recorder.

Question 31

Denotation

Answer 31

The basic definition or dictionary meaning of a word.
Example: The girl was blue (literally painted blue as opposed to feeling down)

Question 32

Connotation

Answer 32

What a word suggests beyond its basic definition.
Example: ‘vintage’ might have a positive connotation (old and valuable) or negative connotation (old and useless).

Question 33

Metaphor

Answer 33

A thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else.
Example: Life is a highway, he is a shining star.

Question 34

Simile

Answer 34

An explicit comparison made between two things essentially unlike.
The comparison is made by the use of some such word or phrases such as: “like, as, than, similar to, resembles, or seems.”
Example: Love is like a battlefield, she is a sweet as an angel.

Question 35

Symbol (symbolism)

Answer 35

A thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract.
Example: a wedding ring symbolizes commitment, a green traffic light symbolizes ‘go’.

Question 36

Analogy

Answer 36

A partial likeness between two things that are compared.
Example: Black is to white as on is to off as both comparisons are opposites.

Question 37

Imagery

Answer 37

Visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work.
Example: The autumn leaves are a blanket on the ground, her lips tasted as sweet as sugar.

Question 38

Allusiom

Answer 38

A reference, explicit or implicit, to something in previous literature or history.
Example: Chocolate is his Kryptonite (hints at the weakness of “Superman”),

Question 39

Allegory

Answer 39

Something that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.
Example: Animal Farm by George Orwell is an allegory representing the political situation in Soviet Russia.

Question 40

Personification

Answer 40

Giving human attributes to an animal, an object, or a concept.
Example: Lightning danced across the sky, my alarm clock yells at me every morning.

Question 41

Hyperbole

Answer 41

Overt exaggeration
Example: I will die if she asks me to dance, I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.

Question 42

Irony

Answer 42

The expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.
Example: A child runs away from someone throwing a water balloon and falls into a pool.

Question 43

Juxtaposition

Answer 43

The fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect.
Example: it’s raining cats and dogs, comparing apples and pears.

Question 44

Ambiguity

Answer 44

An unclear situation with more than one possible meaning.
Example: “I rode a black horse in red pajamas,”(did you wear the pajamas or the horse?)

Question 45

Paradox

Answer 45

A seemingly absurd or contradictory statement or proposition.
Example: to earn money you first have to spend it

Question 46

Pun

Answer 46

A humorous use of a word to suggest another that sounds the same.
Example: The cyclist was two tired (= too tired) to win the race, some bunny (= somebody) loves you.

Question 47

Parody

Answer 47

A comic imitation of a well-known person or literary work or style.
Example: Austin Powers is a parody on James Bond, Bored of the Rings is a Lord of the Rings parody.

Question 48

Satire

Answer 48

The use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices.
Example: Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, mock cartoons

Question 49

Stereotype

Answer 49

A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.
Example: girls like to play with dolls and boys like to play with cars

Question 50

Mood

Answer 50

The feeling or tone conveyed by a literary work.
Example: joyful, lonely, hopeless

Question 51

Foreshadow

Answer 51

To be a sign of something (bad) that is to come.
Example: storm clouds gathered as the protagonist exited the house.

Question 52

Tone

Answer 52

The author’s attitude toward the reader or the people, places, and events in a work as revealed by the elements of the author’s style.
Example: serious or ironic, sad or happy, etc.

Question 53

Alliteration

Answer 53

The occurrence of the same first letter or sound with adjacent words.
Example: map-moon, kill-code.

Question 54

Assonance

Answer 54

The occurrence of the same vowel (klinker) or vowel sound with adjacent or closely connected words.
Example: he claps his hands and stamps his feet.

Question 55

Consonance

Answer 55

The occurrence of the same consonant (medeklinker) or vowel sound with adjacent or closely connected words.
Example: Jack took his duck by the neck.

Question 56

Onomatopoeia

Answer 56

Words that are written to represent the sound they make
Example: miauw, pssst, clap, honk, bang.