Short Story Definitions

Question 1

Moment of insight, discovery, or revelation by which a character’s life or view of life is greatly altered

Answer 1

epiphany

Question 2

Pleasurable anxiety we feel that heightens our attention to the story

Answer 2

suspense

Question 3

Teller of a story (not the author, but the invented speaker of the story)

Answer 3

narrator

Question 4

Force or character that opposes the main character

Answer 4

antagonist

Question 5

Term that means “all-knowing” in regard to the narrator of a story

Answer 5

omniscient

Question 6

Central character around whom the majority of the action revolves

Answer 6

protagonist

Question 7

Type of irony that reveals a reality different from what is said and what is meant

Answer 7

verbal

Question 8

Refers to who tells the story and how it is told. What we know and how we feel about the events in a story are shaped by the author’s decision on how to tell a story

Answer 8

point of view

Question 9

Story is told in the order in which things happen

Answer 9

Chronological

Question 10

Story is told in the order in which things happen

Answer 10

chronological

Question 11

Moment of greatest tension at which the balance of power shifts decidedly in a different direction, revealing how the outcome is to be decided

Answer 11

climax

Question 12

Indication of events to come; the introduction of specific words, images, or events into a story to suggest or anticipate later events that are central to the action and its resolution

Answer 12

foreshadowing

Question 13

Type of character that is full, round, complex, multidimensional, whose personality allows for change and growth

Answer 13

dynamic

Question 14

The opening portion that sets the scene, introduces the main characters, tells us what happened before the story opened, and provides the background information needed in order to understand and care about the events to follow

Answer 14

exposition

Question 15

Type of characterization in which the author shows details about characters in order to infer and draw conclusions

Answer 15

indirect

Question 16

Type of characterization in which the author shows details about characters in order to infer and draw conclusions

Answer 16

indirect

Question 17

Artistic arrangement of events in a story

Answer 17

plot

Question 18

Type of irony that is the contrast between what the audience knows and what a character says

Answer 18

dramatic

Question 19

Prevailing attitude as perceived by the reader; the author’s feelings toward the central character or the main events

Answer 19

tone

Question 20

One-dimensional characters with simple personalities, showing none of the human depth, complexity, and contrariness of a round character or of most real people

Answer 20

flat

Question 21

Central idea or meaning of a story; what the work is about

Answer 21

theme

Question 22

Locale, time, and social circumstances of a story

Answer 22

setting

Question 23

Opposition presented to the main character of a story by another character, by events or situations, by fate, or by some act of the main character’s own personality or nature

Answer 23

conflict

Question 24

Latin for “in the midst of things”. Readers enter the story on the verge of some important moment

Answer 24

in medias res

Question 25

Imagined person in a literary work

Answer 25

character

Question 26

Person, object, action, or situation, that, charged with meaning, suggests another thing

Answer 26

symbol

Question 27

Characters paired and intentionally set off against other characters to contrast their development or qualities

Answer 27

foils

Question 28

External forces and internal forces that compel a character to act as he or she does in a story

Answer 28

motivation

Question 29

Device that informs us about events that happened before the opening scene of a work

Answer 29

flashback

Question 30

Term that means “untying the know”; resolution

Answer 30

Denouement

Question 31

Contract of some sort; reveals a reality different from what happens to be true

Answer 31

irony