Quiz #1 Flashcards
Plot
It is the author’s arrangement of incidents in a story. It is the organizing principle that controls the order of events.
Flashback
A device that informs us about events that happened before the opening scene of a work.
Character
An imagined person in the story
Characterization
The methods by which a writer creates people in a story so that they seem actually to exist.
Showing
Allows the author to present a character talking and acting, and lets the reader infer what kind of person the character is.
Telling
The author intervenes to describe and sometimes evaluate the character for the reader.
Hero/heroine
Otherwise known as the protagonist, the central character who engages the reader’s interest and empathy
Antagonist
The character, force, or collection of forces that stands directly opposed to the protagonist and gives rise of the conflict of the story.
Static character
A character who does not change throughout the work, and the reader’s knowledge of the character does not grow.
Dynamic character
A character who undergoes some kind of change because of the action in the plot.
Flat character
Embodies one or two qualities, ideas, or traits that can be readily described in a brief summary. They are not psychologically complex characters and therefore are readily accessible to readers.
Stock character
Embody stereotypes such as the “dumb blonde” or the “mean stepfather.”
Round character
A character who is more complex than flat or stock character, and often display the inconsistencies and internal conflicts found in most real people. They are more fully developed, and therefore are harder to summarize.
Motivated action
Occurs when the reader or audience is offered reasons for how the characters behave, what they say, and the decisions they make.
Plausible action
Action by a character in a story that seems reasonable, given the motivations presented.
Pyramidal pattern
Divides the plot into three essential parts: rising action, climax, and falling action
Rising action
Complication creates some sort of conflict for the protagonist
Climax
The moment of greatest emotional tension in a narrative, usually marking a turning point in the plot at which the rising action reverses to become the falling action
Falling action
Otherwise known as resolution; characterized by diminishing tensions and the resolution of the plot’s conflicts and complications
Media res
A term used to describe the common strategy of beginning a story in the middle of the action. In this type of plot, we enter the story on the verge of some important moment.
Setting
The context in which the action of a story occurs
Point of view
Refers to who tells us the story and how it is told
Narrator
Teller of a story
First-person narrator
the “I” in the story presents the point of view of only one character. The reader is restricted to the perceptions, thoughts, and feelings of that single character
Unreliable narrator
Reveals an interpretation of events that is somehow different from the author’s own interpretation of the events.
Naive characters
Are usually characterized by youthful innocence
Omniscient narrator
An all-knowing narrator who is not a character in the story and who can move from place to place and pass back and forth through time, slipping into and out of characters as no human being possibly could in real life. They can report the thoughts and feelings of the characters, as well as their words and actions.
Editorial omniscience
Refers to an intrusion by the narrator in order to evaluate a character for a reader.
Neutral omniscience
Narration that allows the characters’ actions and thoughts to speak for themselves.
Limited omniscience
Occurs when an author restricts a narrator to the single perspective of either a major or minor character. The way people, places, and events appear to that character is the way they appear to the reader.
Stream-of-consciousness technique
Takes a reader inside a character’s mind to reveal perceptions, thoughts, and feelings on a conscious or unconscious level
Objective point-of-view
Employs a narrator who does not see into the mind of any character
Antihero
A protagonist who has the opposite of most of the traditional attributes of a hero.
Theme
The central idea or meaning of a story
Style
Refers to the distinctive manner in which a writer arranges words to achieve particular effects. That arrangement includes individual word choices and matters such as the length of sentences, their structure and tone, and the use of irony
Diction
Refers to a writer’s choice of words
Tone
The author’s implicit attitude toward the people, places, and events in a story.
Irony
A device that reveals a reality different from what appears to be true.
Verbal irony
Consists of a person saying one thing but meaning the opposite.
Sarcasm
Verbal irony that is calculated to hurt someone by false praise
Situational irony
Exists when there is an incongruity between what is expected to happen and what actually happens.
Dramatic irony
Occurs when an author allows the reader to know more about a situation than a character knows; creates a discrepancy between what a character believes or says and what the reader understands to be true.
