Literary Elements

Question 1

Plot

Answer 1

The sequence of events in a story.

Question 2

Exposition

Answer 2

Introduces the setting, main characters, and the basic situation.

Question 3

Climax

Answer 3

The highest point of interest in a story.

Question 4

Resolution

Answer 4

The end of the central conflict.

Question 5

Denouement

Answer 5

Anything that takes place after the resolution.

Question 6

Conflict

Answer 6

A struggle between two or more opposing forces.

Question 7

Protagonist

Answer 7

The main character involved in the center of the action/central conflict.

Question 8

Antagonist

Answer 8

The force that opposes the protagonist.

Question 9

The Five Conflicts

Answer 9

Person vs. Person, Person vs. Nature, Person vs. Self (internal conflict), Person vs. Society, Person vs. Unknown (a.k.a Fate at times).

Question 10

Dilemma

Answer 10

A situation where there is a choice to be made between two equal alternatives.

Question 11

Irony

Answer 11

A surprising, interesting, or amusing contradiction in a story.

Question 12

Verbal Irony

Answer 12

When words are used to suggest the opposite of their usual meaning.

Question 13

Situational Irony

Answer 13

An unexpected outcome.

Question 14

Dramatic Irony

Answer 14

When the reader knows something that a character or characters do not.

Question 15

Setting

Answer 15

The time and place of the story’s action.

Question 16

Foreshadowing

Answer 16

Hints or clues about events that have yet to occur.

Question 17

Dynamic Character

Answer 17

A character that changes in either attitude, beliefs, or personality.

Question 18

Static Character

Answer 18

A character that does not change/remains the same.

Question 19

Characterization

Answer 19

Characterization

Question 20

Direct Characterization

Answer 20

Used when specifically stating or describing a character’s traits.

Question 21

Indirect Characterization

Answer 21

Showing a character’s personality through actions, thoughts, feelings, dialogue, or through another character’s observations and reactions.

Question 22

Point of View

Answer 22

The perspective from which a story is told.

Question 23

First Person

Answer 23

A character in the story tells the story.

Question 24

Third Person

Answer 24

Someone outside the story tells the story.

Question 25

Omniscient

Answer 25

The all-knowing perspective.

Question 26

Theme

Answer 26

The central idea, concern, or purpose in a story.

Question 27

Mood

Answer 27

The feeling created in the reader by a story.

Question 28

Tone

Answer 28

The author’s attitude toward the reader and the subject.

Question 29

Symbol

Answer 29

Anything that stands for or represents something else.

Question 30

Suspense

Answer 30

A feeling of growing curiosity about the outcome of events in a story.

Question 31

Motivation

Answer 31

A reason that explains a character’s thoughts, feelings, actions, or speech.

Question 32

Satire

Answer 32

A type of writing that ridicules or criticizes the faults of individuals or groups.

Question 33

Flashback

Answer 33

A section of a story that interrupts the sequence of events to relate an event from an earlier time.

Question 34

Genre

Answer 34

A division of literature.

Question 35

Nonfiction

Answer 35

Writing that is based on facts, real events, and real people.

Question 36

Description

Answer 36

Creating a portrait in words of a person, place, or object.

Question 37

Sensory Language

Answer 37

Writing or speech that appeals to one or more of the five senses (Visual, Olfactory, Gustatory, Auditory, Tactile).

Question 38

Image

Answer 38

A word or phrase that appeals to one or more of the five senses.

Question 39

Biography

Answer 39

An account of a person’s life written by someone else.

Question 40

Classification

Answer 40

The action or process of classifying something according to shared qualities or characteristics.

Question 41

Critical Writing

Answer 41

Writing that analyzes, interprets, or evaluates a text.

Question 42

Personification

Answer 42

Giving human qualities to non-human things.

Question 43

Simile

Answer 43

A figure of speech that compares two things using ‘like’ or ‘as’.

Question 44

Metaphor

Answer 44

A figure of speech that compares two things without using ‘like’ or ‘as’.