Unit 2 Literary Terms

Question 1

A one-dimensional character, often revealing a single personal quality and staying the same throughout the story

Answer 1

Flat character

Question 2

A fully developed character who is complex, revealing several sides to his/her personality and growing and changing as the story progresses

Answer 2

Round Character

Question 3

A character who opposes the main character or who is against the main character

Answer 3

Antagonist

Question 4

The main character in the story

Answer 4

Protagonist

Question 5

The time and place in which events in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem occur

Answer 5

Setting

Question 6

The sequence of events or actions in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem

Answer 6

Plot

Question 7

The vantage point from which a narrative is told

Answer 7

Point of View

Question 8

The story is told by one of the characters in his or her own words—use of first person pronouns.

Answer 8

First person

Question 9

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.”

Answer 9

First Person

Question 10

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

Answer 10

Third Person

Question 11

Narrator focus on only one character

Answer 11

Third Person Limited

Question 12

Eudora Welty’s “A worn Path” focuses on Phoenix Jackson

Answer 12

Third Person Limited

Question 13

Narrator focuses on all the characters

Answer 13

Third Person Omniscent

Question 14

Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat”

Answer 14

Third Person Omniscient

Question 15

The general idea or insight about life that a writer wishes to convey in a literary work

Answer 15

Theme

Question 16

A terse, pointed statement expressing some wise ar clever observation

Answer 16

Aphorism

Question 17

“He that lives upon hope will die fasting.” - Ben Franklin

Answer 17

Aphorism

Question 18

A book of months and days for one year with weather predictions, a wide variety of miscellaneous info, and proverbs

Answer 18

Almanac

Question 19

Poor Richard’s Almanac - Ben Franklin

Answer 19

Almanac

Question 20

A short, often biblical, saying that expresses a basic truth

Answer 20

Proverb

Question 21

“The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord.” ~Proverbs 9:10

Answer 21

Proverb

Question 22

An inscription on a tombstone or a short poem written in memory of someone who has died

Answer 22

Epitaph

Question 23

“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

Answer 23

Epitaph

Question 24

A question suggesting its own answer or not requiring an answer

Answer 24

Rhetorical Question

Question 25

Patrick Henry’s “Speech in the Virginia Convention”:

They tell us sir that we are weak…. and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house?”

Answer 25

Rhetorical question

Question 26

The use of phrases, clauses, or sentences that are similar or complementary in structure or in meaning

Answer 26

Parallelism

Question 27

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…

Answer 27

Parallelism

Question 28

Repetition of words, sounds, or phrases for effect—a sound device in poetry

Answer 28

Repetition

Question 29

Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Raven":
...Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore,'...
With such name as 'Nevermore'...
Then the bird said, 'Nevermore'...
Of 'Never---nevermore'

Answer 29

Repetition

Question 30

A person, animal, thing, or natural force appearing in a literary work

Answer 30

Character