Literary Elements And Devices Flashcards
Character
A character is a person or an animal that takes part in the action of a literary work.
Protagonist
The Protagonist is the main character in a literary work
Antagonist
The Antagonist is a character or force in conflict with a main character, or protagonist.
Round/Dynamic character
A complex, complete character who changes or develops through the course of the story.
Flat/static character
An undeveloped character who does not change or develop throughout the story.
Setting
The time or place where the action occurs.
Mood
The kind of atmosphere the story creates on the readers’ emotions.
Theme
The theme is the moral or main message of the story; a lesson that the reader or the protagonist learns about in life.
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is the author’s use of clues to hint at what might happen later in the story.
Point of view
The perspective, or vantage point, from which a story is told.
It is the relationship of the narrator to the story.
First person P.O.V
Is told by a character who uses the first-person pronoun “I,” “me,” etc.
Third person (limited)
The narrator tells the reader only what s/he sees or understands; story told from the perspective of one or two main characters.
The narrator does not tell or know the thoughts of others.
Uses pronouns like “he” and “she”
Hyperbole
Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.
Onomatopoeia
A word which imitates the natural sounds of a thing.
Metaphor
A metaphor is a type of speech that compares two or more things together. A metaphor does not use “like” or “as”
