Short Stories Vocab

Question 1

Flat Character

Answer 1

A character whose personality traits can be described in only a few words.

Question 2

Round Character

Answer 2

A character whose personality traits are complex and multi-faceted (more like a real person).

Question 3

Antagonist

Answer 3

The person or force that works against the protagonist.

Question 4

Setting

Answer 4

1) the place and time in which a story’s action place time might include year, season, time of day.
2) also includes the culture, way of life, and shared beliefs of the characters (the atmosphere).

Question 5

Point of View (POV)

Answer 5

point of view is the mode of narration that an author employs ot let the readers “hear” and “see” what takes place in a story or poem.
First Person (I, Me, My, Our, Us) :
ex: Sylvia - “The Lesson”
ex: Esperanza House On Mango St.
ex: Mama - “Everyday Use”
ex: Waverly - “Rules Of the Game”
Third Person (They, Them, She, Her, Him, His):
Thoughts/feeling of many character = omniscient
Thoughts/feeling for one character = limited
Ex: “A Jury Of Her Peers”
No inner thoughts/feelings of characters, like sound camera = objective
Ex: “The Lottery”

Question 6

Metaphor

Answer 6

Compares two things that aren’t actually the same. (Does not use “like” or “as”)
Ex) “Time is a thief”

Question 7

Static Character

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Dynamic Character

Answer 8

A character who undergoes a permanent change in moral qualities, personal habits, or outlook.

Question 9

Protagonist

Answer 9

The central character: we care about him/her and follow his/her struggle with interest.

Question 10

Theme

Answer 10

1) a main idea or an underlying message of a literary work that may be stated directly or indirectly.
2) do not confuse a theme of a literary work with it’s subject; the subject is a topic which acts as a foundation for the work while a theme expresses the authors opinion about a topic.

Question 11

Irony

Answer 11

A discrepancy between appearances and reality (or incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs.)

Question 12

Simile

Answer 12

Compares two things that aren’t actually the same. (Uses “like” or “as”)
Ex) “As quiet as a mouse”

Question 13

Symbol

Answer 13

An object or an action that signifies beyond its literal meaning.

Question 14

Foreshadowing

Answer 14

An indication or suggestion of what might happen later in the text.

Question 15

Alliteration

Answer 15

Repeating a letter as the first letter of a word.
Ex) “Busy as a bee”

Question 16

Imagery

Answer 16

Description that causes the reader to use their senses to imagine a scene that the narrator is describing.
Ex) “The sky was as blue as the ocean and the clouds sailed across it like white boats.”

Question 17

Stock Character

Answer 17

A personified stereotype, one whose nature is familiar to us from prototypes in literature.

Question 18

Suspense

Answer 18

The quality in a story that makes the reader eager to discover what will happen next (that feeling of being “on the edge of your seat”). The reader’s curiosity is combined with anxiety about the fate of a sympathetic character. The author uses mystery or a dilemma to create anxiety and curiosity.

Question 19

Types Of Conflict

Answer 19

Person v. person
Person v. environment
Person v. society
Person v. supernatural
Person v. self (internal).

Question 20

Personification

Answer 20

Language that gives inanimate objects or things human like qualities.
Ex) “The wind screamed through the woods.”

Question 21

Tone

Answer 21

1) an author’s attitude towards a subject or audience. 2) Generally conveyed through the author’s diction (choice of words). 3) Examples of tone might be: formal, informal, serious, comic, sarcastic, sad, cheerful, etc.

Question 22

Paraphernalia

Answer 22

1) noun 2) articles of equipment designed for a particular use or activity. 3) “The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago, and the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born.” (739)

Question 23

Jovial

Answer 23

1) adjective 2) characterized by good-humored cheerfulness and conviviality. 3) “He was a round-faced, jovial man and he ran the coal business, and people were sorry for him, because he had no children and his wife was a scold.” (739)

Question 24

Boisterous

Answer 24

1) adjective 2) marked by or expressive of exuberance and high spirits. 3) “they tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into boisterous play, and their talk was still of the classroom and the teacher, of books and reprimands.” (738)

Question 25

Perfunctory

Answer 25

1) adjective 2) characterized by routine or superficiality. 3) “at one time, some people remembered, there had been a recital of some sort, performed by the official of the lottery, a perfunctory, tuneless chant that had been rattled off duly each year” (740)

Question 26

Interminably

Answer 26

1) adverb 2) having or seeming to have no end. 3) “Mr. Summers was very good at all this; in his clean white shirt and blue jeans, with one hand resting carelessly on the black box, he seemed very proper and important as he talked interminably to Mr. Graves and the Martins.”

Question 27

Furtive

Answer 27

1) adjective 2) done in a quiet and secretive way to avoid being noticed 3) “Furtive boys in pink shirts hanging about on washday after school.” (169)

Question 28

Surly

Answer 28

Surly: 1) adjective 2) irritably sullen and churlish in mood or manner. 3) “So me and Sugar leaning on the mailbox being surly, which is a Miss Moore word.” (196)

Question 29

Cowering

Answer 29

1) verb 2) to shrink away or crouch especially for shelter from something that menaces, domineers, or dismays. 3) “She stoops down quickly and lines up picture after picture of me sitting there in front of the house with Maggie cowering behind me.” (170)

Question 30

Doctrines

Answer 30

1) noun 2) a principle or position or the body of principles in a branch of knowledge or system of belief. 3) “Hakim-a-barber said, ‘I accept some of their doctrines, but farming and raising cattle is not my style.’” (171)

Question 31

Clabber

Answer 31

1) noun 2) sour milk that has thickened or curdled. 3) “She jumped up from the table and went over in the corner where the churn stood, the milk in it clabber by now.” (171)

Question 32

Dasher

Answer 32

1) noun 2) a device having blades for agitating a liquid or semisolid 3) “When she finished wrapping the dasher the handle stuck out.” (172)

Question 33

Heritage

Answer 33

1) noun 2) property that descends to an heir 3) “‘Your heritage,’ she said, And then she turned to Maggie, kissed her, and said, ‘You ought to try to make something of yourself too, Maggie. It’s really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live you’d never know it.’” (174)

Question 34

Trifles

Answer 34

1) noun 2) something of little value, substance, or importance 3) “Oh, well,” said Mrs. Hale’s husband, with good-natured superiority, “women are used to worrying over trifles.” (821)

Question 35

Disdainful

Answer 35

1) adjective 2) Full of or expressing contempt for someone or something regarded as unworthy or inferior 3) “Then, as if releasing herself from something strange. Mrs. Hale began to arrange the dirty pans under the sink, which the county attorney’s disdainful push of the foot had deranged.” (823)

Question 36

Acquiescence

Answer 36

1) verb 2) to accept, comply, or submit tacitly or passively 3) “Of course it’s no more than their duty,” said the sheriff’s wife, in her manner of timid acquiescence” (823)

Question 37

Scrutinized

Answer 37

1) verb 2) to examine closely and minutely 3) “Mrs. Peter’s back turned, Martha Hale now scrutinized that piece, compared it with the dainty, accurate sewing of the other blocks.” (827)

Question 38

Shabby

Answer 38

1) adjective 2) clothed with worn or seedy garments 3) “”Wright was close!” she exclaimed, holding up a shabby black skirt that bore the marks of much making over. “I think maybe that’s why she kept so much to herself. I s’pose she felt she couldn’t do her part; and then, you don’t enjoy things when you feel shabby. She used to wear pretty clothes and be lively–when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls, singing in the choir. But that–oh, that was twenty years ago.”” (824)

Question 39

Incisively

Answer 39

1) adjective 2) impressively direct and decisive (as in manner or presentation) 3) “‘No, Peters,” said the county attorney incisively; ‘it’s all perfectly clear, except the reason for doing it.’” ( 832)

Question 40

Evasion

Answer 40

1) noun 2) the act or an instance of evading 3) “There was a moment when they held each other in a steady, burning look in which there was no evasion or flinching.” (833)

Question 41

Facetiously

Answer 41

1) adjective 2) joking or jesting often inappropriately 3) “‘Well, Henry,’ said the county attorney facetiously, ‘at least we found out that she was not going to quilt it.’” (834)

Question 42

Pungent

Answer 42

1) adjective 2) having a stiff and sharp point 3) “My brothers and I would peer into the medicinal herb shop, watching old Li dole out onto a stiff sheet of white paper the right amount of insect shells, saffron-colored seeds, and pungent leaves for his ailing customers” (225)

Question 43

Solemnity

Answer 43

1) noun 2) formal or ceremonious observance of an occasion or event 3) “I nodded back with equal solemnity” (226)

Question 44

Benevolently

Answer 44

1) adjective 2) marked by or disposed to doing good 3) “‘Little sister, been a long time since I play with dolls,’ he said, smiling benevolently.” (229)

Question 45

Malodourous

Answer 45

1) adjective 2) having a bad odor 3) “He wore a dark, malodorous suit” ( 231)

Question 46

Concessions

Answer 46

1) noun 2) the act or an instance of conceding (as by granting something as a right, accepting something as true, or acknowledging defeat) 3) “My parents made many concessions to allow me to practice” (232)