Literary Terms #2 Flashcards
a one-dimensional character, often revealing a single personal quality and staying the same throughout the story.
Flat Character
a person, animal, thing, or natural force appearing in a lit work
Character
a fully developed character who is complex, revealing several sides to his/her personality and growing and changing as the story progresses.
Round Character
a character who opposes the main character or who is against the main character.
Antagonist
the main character in the story.
Protagonist
the time and place in which events in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem occur.
Setting
the sequence of events or actions in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem.
Plot
the vantage point from which a narrative is told.
Point of View
the story is told by one of the characters in his or her own words—use of first person pronouns
e.g., Updike‟s “The Lucid Eye in Silver Town,” is narrated by an adult who recalls an incident from his youth:
“The first time I visited New York City, I was thirteen and went with my father. I went to meet my Uncle Quin and to buy a book about Vermeer.”
First person
the narrator is not a character in the story at all but is telling about the characters in the story—use of third person pronouns.
Third person
narrator focuses on only one character.
e. g., Eudora Welty‟s “A Worn Path” focuses on Phoenix Jackson.
Third person limited
narrator focuses on all the characters e. g., Stephen Crane‟s “The Open Boat.”
Third person omniscient
The general idea or insight about life that a writer wishes to convey in a lit work.
Theme
a terse, pointed statement expressing some wise or clever observation about life.
e. g., “He that lives upon hope will die fasting.” ~Ben Franklin
Aphorism
a book of months and days for one year with weather predictions, a wide variety of miscellaneous info, and proverbs.
e. g., Poor Richard’s Almanac ~Ben Franklin
Almanac
a short, often biblical, saying that expresses a basic truth.
e. g., “The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord.” ~Proverbs 9:10
Proverb
an inscription on a tombstone or a short poem written in memory of someone who has died.
e. g., “Lucinda Matlock”
. . . I spun, I wove, I kept the house, I nursed the sick,
I made the garden, and for holiday
Rambled over the fields where sang the larks . . . It takes life to love Life.
~Edgar Lee Masters, Spoon River Anthology
Epitaph
a question suggesting its own answer or not requiring an answer.
e. g., Patrick Henry‟s “Speech in the Virginia Convention” :
“They tell us, sir, that we are weak—unable to cope with so formidable an
adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house?”
Rhetorical Question
the use of phrases, clauses, or sentences that are similar or complementary in structure or in meaning.
e. g., Walt Whitman‟s “Beat! Beat! Drums!”
Beat! Beat! Drums!—Blow! Bugles! Blow!
Make no parley—Stop for no expostulation
Mind not the timid—Mind not the weeper or prayer Mind not the old man beseeching the young man . . .
Parrellelism
repetition of words, sounds, or phrases for effect—a sound device in poetry.
e. g., Edgar Allan Poe‟s “The Raven” :
. . . Quoth the Raven, „Nevermore.‟ . . . With such name as „Nevermore‟ . . . Then the bird said, „Nevermore‟ . . . Of „Never—nevermore.‟
Repetition
