This document provides definitions and explanations of various literary terms that will be used throughout a short story unit and the school year. It defines terms like character, protagonist, antagonist, plot, setting, conflict, climax, resolution and others. It explains concepts like static vs dynamic characters, ways characters are revealed, and types of conflicts. Examples are provided for many of the terms.

1. Literary Terms
We will be using these literary terms
throughout the Short Story Unit as
well as throughout the school year.
You need to keep up with your notes.
Don’t lose your terms! You will want
them when it comes time to study for
the final –
be RESPONSIBLE!!

2. We will use the following terms:
Character Antagonist Protagonist
Diction Denotation Connotation
Imagery Mood Plot
Exposition Rising Action Climax
Falling Action Resolution Conflict
Flashback Foreshadowing Suspense
Point of View Setting Style
Theme Tone Figures of Speech
Metaphor Simile Oxymoron
Personification Alliteration

3. Character
A character is a person or
an animal that takes part
in the action of a literary
work.

4. Protagonist
• The Protagonist is the main
character in a literary work
• Can you name some famous
Protagonists that are found in
literature?

5. Antagonist
•The Antagonist is a
character or force in conflict
with a main character, or
protagonist.

6. Do you know your Antagonists???
• On your paper take a few minutes to write
down some Antagonists that you can
recall from movies, television shows, and
video games
• Remember the Antagonist is in conflict
with the Protagonist or, main character!
• Helpful hint – you should now know why
people use the saying “Don’t antagonize
me!”

7. Static vs. Dynamic
• Static – stereotype, only one or two
characteristics that never change
(wicked stepmother)
• Dynamic – many personalities that
change, for better or worse by the
end of the story

8. Ways in which a character is
revealed
• His/her physical appearance
• What he/she says, thinks, feels and
dreams
• What he/she does or does not do
• What others say about him/her and how
others react to him/her

9. Setting
The setting of a literary work is the time and
place of the action.
The setting includes all the details of a place and
time – the year, the time of day, even the
weather. The place may be a specific country,
state, region, community, neighborhood,
building, institution, or home.
Details such as dialect, clothing, customs, and
modes of transportation are often used to
establish setting.
In most stories, the setting serves as a backdrop
– a context in which the characters interact.
The setting of a story often helps to create a
particular mood, or feeling.

10. Plot
Plot is the sequence of events. The first event
causes the second, the second causes the third,
and so forth.
In most novels, dramas, short stories, and narrative
poems, the plot involves both characters and a
central conflict.
The plot usually begins with an exposition that
introduces the setting, the characters, and the
basic situation. This is introduced and developed.
The conflict then increases until it reaches a high
point of interest or suspense, the climax. The
climax is followed by the falling action, or end, of
the central conflict. Any events that occur during
the falling action make up the resolution.

11. PLOTLINE
Climax
Resolution
Exposition
Conflict Introduced

12. Exposition
The Exposition is the
introduction. It is the part
of the work that introduces
the characters, setting, and
basic situation.

13. Conflict
Conflict is the struggle
between opposing forces in
a story or play. There are
two types of conflict that
exist in literature.

14. Internal Conflict
Internal conflict exists within the mind of a
character who is torn between different
courses of action.
Man vs. Himself
The leading character struggles with
himself/herself; with his/her own soul, ideas
of right or wrong, physical limitations,
choices, etc.

15. External Conflict
External conflict exists when a character
struggles against some outside force, such
as another character, nature, society, or
fate.
• Man vs. Man (physical) - The leading character struggles with his
physical strength against other men, forces of nature, or animals.
• Man vs. Circumstances (classical) - The leading character
struggles against fate, or the circumstances of life facing him/her.
• Man vs. Society (social) - The leading character struggles against
ideas, practices, or customs of other people.

16. Rising Action
Rising Action is the part of the
plot that begins to occur as
soon as the conflict is
introduced. The rising action
adds complications to the
conflict and increases reader
interest.

17. Climax
The Climax is the point of
greatest emotional intensity,
interest, or suspense in the
plot of a narrative. The climax
typically comes at the turning
point in a story or drama.

18. Falling Action
Falling Action is the action that
typically follows the climax and
reveals its results.

19. Resolution
The Resolution is the part of
the plot that concludes the
falling action by revealing or
suggesting the outcome of
the conflict.

20. Theme
The theme of a literary work is its central
message, concern, or purpose. A theme can
usually be expressed as a generalization, or
general statement, about people or life. The
theme may be stated directly by the writer
although it is more often presented indirectly.
When the theme is stated indirectly, the reader
must figure out the theme by looking carefully at
what the work reveals about the people or about
life.

21. Point of View
Point of View is the perspective, or vantage point, from
which a story is told. It is the relationship of the
narrator to the story.
First-person is told by a character who uses the first-
person pronoun “I”.
Third-person limited point of view is the point of view
where the narrator uses third-person pronouns such as
“he” and “she” to refer to the characters.
Third person omniscient The author can narrate the
story using the omniscient point of view. He can move
from character to character, event to event, having free
access to the thoughts, feelings and motivations of his
characters and he introduces information where and
when he chooses.

22. Flashback
A flashback is a literary device in
which an earlier episode,
conversation, or event is inserted
into the sequence of events.
Often flashbacks are presented as
a memory of the narrator or of
another character.

23. Flashback continued…
The movie Titanic is told almost entirely in a
flashback.
What are some other films that contain
flashback to help tell stories?
Holes
Willy Wonka
Think of some more…

24. Irony
• Situational irony – contrast between what
the reader expects to have happen, and
what actually happens in the story.
• Dramatic Irony – the reader knows
something that a character does not.
• Verbal Irony – saying one thing and
meaning another.

25. Imagery
Imagery is words or phrases
that appeal to one or more of
the five senses. Writers use
imagery to describe how their
subjects look, sound, feel,
taste, and smell.

26. Suspense
Suspense is the growing interest and
excitement readers experience while
awaiting a climax or resolution in a work
of literature. It is a feeling of anxious
uncertainty about the outcome of events.
Writers create suspense by raising
questions in the minds of their readers.

27. Tone
Tone is a reflection of a writer’s or speaker’s
attitude toward a subject of a poem, story, or
other literary work. Tone may be communicated
through words and details that express
particular emotions and that evoke and
emotional response from the reader.
For example, word choice or phrasing may seem
to convey respect, anger, lightheartedness, or
sarcasm.

28. MOOD
Mood, or atmosphere, is the feeling
created in the reader by a literary
work or passage. Writer’s use many
devices to create mood, including
images, dialogue, setting, and plot.
Often, a writer creates a mood at the
beginning of a work and then
sustains the mood throughout.
Sometimes, however, the mood of
the work changes dramatically.

29. Style
Style is the distinctive way in which
an author uses language.
Word choice, phrasing, sentence
length, tone, dialogue, purpose,
and attitude toward the audience
and subject can all contribute to
an author’s writing style.

30. Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is the author’s use of clues
to hint at what might happen later in the
story. Writers use foreshadowing to build
their readers’ expectations and to create
suspense. This is used to help readers
prepare for what is to come.

31. Can you think of an
element of
foreshadowing?

32. Figures of Speech
A figure of speech is a specific device or kind of
figurative language, such as hyperbole,
metaphor, personification, simile, or
understatement.
Figurative language is used for descriptive effect,
often to imply ideas indirectly. It is not meant
to be taken literally. Figurative language is used
to state ideas in vivid and imaginative ways.

33. Metaphor
A Metaphor is a type of speech that
compares or equates two or more things
that have something in common. A
metaphor does NOT use like or as.
Example: Life is a bowl
of cherries.

34. Simile
A Simile is another figure of speech that
compares seemingly unlike things.
Simile’s DO use the words like or as.
Example: Her voice was like nails on a
chalkboard.

35. Oxymoron
An Oxymoron is a figure of speech that is a
combination of seemingly contradictory
words.
Examples: Same difference
Pretty ugly
Roaring silence

36. Personification
Personification is a
figure of speech in
which an animal,
object, force of
nature, or idea is
given human qualities
or characteristics.
Example: Tears began
to fall from the dark
clouds.

37. Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of sounds, most
often consonant sounds, at the beginning
of words. Alliteration gives emphasis to
words.
Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of
pickled peppers