This document provides definitions and explanations of key literary elements used in analyzing stories, including: setting, character, plot, conflict, point of view, mood, theme, and figurative language. It also defines common poetry elements such as stanza, meter, beat, and rhyme. The document is intended to serve as a reference for students to define these essential terms in their journals when studying elements of a story or poem.

1. Bell Ringer
Define the following terms in
your journal:
• Setting
• Character
• Plot
• Conflict
• Point of View
• Mood
• Theme
• Tone
• Figurative Language
• Stanza
• Meter
• Beat
• Rhyme

2. Elements of a Story
What you need to know!

3. Story Elements
Setting
Characters
Plot
Conflict
Resolution
Point of View
Theme

4. Setting
• Setting is the “where and when”
of a story. It is the time and place
during which the story takes place.

5. Setting
Details that describe:
 Furniture
 Scenery
 Customs
 Transportation
 Clothing
 Dialects
 Weather
 Time of day
 Time of year
Time and place are where the action
occurs

6. The Functions of a Setting
To create a mood or
atmosphere
To show a reader a
different way of life
To make action seem
more real
To be the source of
conflict or struggle
To symbolize an idea

7. Mood
• Mood is the feeling that the author tries to convey
throughout the story. The atmosphere or emotional
condition created by the piece, within the setting.
Does the author want the reader to be frightened
or sad, or does the story make the reader laugh
and think happy thoughts?
• To figure out mood, examine how you feel while
reading the story. Often mood is conveyed by the
story’s setting.

8. Characters
• The person,
animals, and
things
participating
in a story

9. Characters
• Protagonist and antagonist are used to describe
characters.
• The protagonist is the main character of the
story, the one with whom the reader identifies.
This person is not necessary “good”.
• The antagonist is the force in opposition of the
protagonist; this person may not be “bad” or
“evil”, but he/she opposes the protagonist in a
significant way

10. Plot (definition)
• Plot is the organized
pattern or sequence of
events that make up a story.
• Plot is the literary element
that describes the structure
of a story. It shows
arrangement of events and
actions within a story.

11. Parts of a Plot
Exposition - introduction; characters, setting and
conflict (problem) are introduced
Rising Action- events that occur as result of
central conflict
Climax- highest point of interest or suspense of a
story
Falling Action - tension eases; events show the
results of how the main character begins to resolve
the conflict
Resolution- loose ends are tied up; the conflict is
solved

12. Plot Diagram
2
1
3
4
5

13. 1.Exposition
• This usually occurs at the beginning of a short story.
Here the characters are introduced. We also learn
about the setting of the story. Most importantly, we
are introduced to the main conflict (main problem).

14. 2. Rising Action
• This part of the story begins to develop the conflict(s). A
building of interest or suspense occurs and leads to the
climax. Complications arise

15. 3. Climax
• This is the turning point of the story. Usually the main
character comes face to face with a conflict. The main
character will change in some way. This is the most intense
moment.

16. 4. Falling Action
• Action that follows
the climax and
ultimately leads to
the resolution

17. 5. Resolution
• The conclusion; all loose
ends are tied up.
• Either the character
defeats the problem,
learns to live with the
problem, or the problem
defeats the character.

18. Putting It All Together
1. Exposition
2. Rising Action
3. Climax
4. Falling Action
5. Resolution
Beginning of
Story
Middle of Story
End of Story

19. Diagram of Plot
Setting, characters,
and conflict are
introduced
Introduction
/ Exposition
Climax
Resolution

20. Special Techniques used in a Story
Suspense- excitement, tension, curiosity
Foreshadowing- hint or clue about what will
happen in story
Flashback- interrupts the normal sequence of
events to tell about something that happened in the
past
Symbolism – use of specific objects or images to
represent ideas
Personification – when you make a thing,
idea or animal do something only humans do
Surprise Ending - conclusion that reader
does not expect

21. Conflict
Conflict is the dramatic struggle
between two forces in a story. Without
conflict, there is no plot.

22. Conflict
Conflict is a problem that must be solved; an
issue between the protagonist and antagonist
forces. It forms the basis of the plot.
Conflicts can be external or internal
External conflict- outside force may be
person, group, animal, nature, or a
nonhuman obstacle
Internal conflict- takes place in a character’s
mind

23. Types of External Conflict
Character vs Nature
Character vs Society
Character vs Character
Character vs Fate QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

24. Type of Internal Conflict
Character vs. Self

25. Point of View
• First Person Point of View- a
character from the story is telling the
story; uses the pronouns “I” and “me”
• Third Person Point of View- an
outside narrator is telling the story;
uses the pronouns “he”, “she”, “they”

26. Types of Third-Person
Point of View
• Third-Person Limited
• The narrator knows the
thoughts and feelings
on only ONE character
in a story.
• Third-Person Omniscient
• The narrator knows the
thoughts and feeling of
ALL the characters in a
story.

27. Theme
The theme is the central, general
message, the main idea, the controlling
topic about life or people the author wants
to get across through a literary work
To discover the theme of a story, think big.
What big message is the author trying to say
about the world in which we live?
What is this story telling me about how life
works, or how people behave?

28. The Theme is also
• the practical lesson ( moral) that we learn
from a story after we read it. The lesson that
teaches us what to do or how to behave after
you have learned something from a story or
something that has happened to you.
Example: The lesson or teaching of the story
is be careful when you’re offered something
for nothing.

29. Any questions?

30. Figurative Language
“Figuring it Out”

31. Figurative and Literal Language
Literally: words function exactly as defined
The car is blue.
He caught the football.
Figuratively: figure out what it means
I’ve got your back.
You’re a doll.
^Figures of Speech

32. Simile
Comparison of two things using “like” or “as.”
Examples
The metal twisted like a ribbon.
She is as sweet as candy.

33. Important!
Using “like” or “as” doesn’t make a simile.
A comparison must be made.
Not a Simile: I like pizza.
Simile: The moon is like a pizza.

34. Metaphor
Two things are compared without using “like” or
“as.”
Examples
All the world is a stage.
Men are dogs.
Her heart is stone.

35. Personification
Giving human traits to objects or ideas.
Examples
The sunlight danced.
Water on the lake shivers.
The streets are calling me.

36. Hyperbole
Exaggerating to show strong feeling or effect.
Examples
I will love you forever.
My house is a million miles away.
She’d kill me.

37. Understatement
Expression with less strength than expected.
The opposite of hyperbole.
I’ll be there in one second.
This won’t hurt a bit.

38. Onomatopoeia
• A word that “makes” a sound
• SPLAT
• PING
• SLAM
• POP
• POW

39. Idiom
• A saying that isn’t meant to be taken
literally.
• Doesn’t “mean” what it says
• Don’t be a stick in the mud!
• You’re the apple of my eye.
• I have an ace up my sleeve.

40. Pun
• A form of “word play” in which
words have a double meaning.
• I wondered why the baseball was
getting bigger and then it hit me.
• I’m reading a book about anti-
gravity. It’s impossible to put it
down.
• I was going to look for my
missing watch, but I didn’t have
the time.

41. Proverb
• A figurative saying in which a bit of
“wisdom” is given.
• An apple a day keeps the doctor away
• The early bird catches the worm

42. Oxymoron
• When two words are put together that
contradict each other. “Opposites”
• Jumbo Shrimp
• Pretty Ugly
• Freezer Burn

43. Quiz
On a separate sheet of paper…
1. I will put an example of figurative language
on the board.
2. You will write whether it is an simile,
metaphor, personification, hyperbole, pun,
proverb, idiom, onomatopoeia, oxymoron or
understatement.
3. You can use your notes.

44. 1
He drew a line as straight as an arrow.

45. 2
Knowledge is a kingdom and all who learn are
kings and queens.

46. 3
Can I see you for a second?

47. 4
The sun was beating down on me.

48. 5
A flag wags like a fishhook there in the sky.

49. 6
I'd rather take baths
with a man-eating shark,
or wrestle a lion
alone in the dark,
eat spinach and liver,
pet ten porcupines,
than tackle the homework,
my teacher assigns.

50. 7
Ravenous and savage
from its long
polar journey,
the North Wind
is searching
for food—

51. 8
Dinner is on the house.

52. 9
Can I have one of your chips?

53. 10
Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

54. 11.
• The clouds smiled down at me.

55. 12.
• SPLAT!

56. 13.
• She is as sweet as candy

57. 14.
• I could sleep forever!

58. 15.
• He drove his expensive car into a tree and
found out how the Mercedes bends

59. 16.
• I used to have a fear of hurdles, but I got
over it

60. 17.
• The wheat field was a sea of gold.

61. 18.
• The streets called to him.

62. 19.
• POP!

63. 20.
• She was dressed to the nines.

64. 21.
• The early bird catches the worm.

65. 22.
• Old news

66. 23.
• Your face is killing me!

67. 24.
• She was as white as a ghost.

68. 25.
• She has a skeleton in her closet.

69. Elements of Poetry

70. Elements of Poetry
•What is poetry?
•Poetry is not prose. Prose is the ordinary language
people use in speaking or writing.
•Poetry is a form of literary expression that captures
intense experiences or creative perceptions of the
world in a musical language.
•Basically, if prose is like talking, poetry is like singing.
•By looking at the set up of a poem, you can see the
difference between prose and poetry.

71. Distinguishing Characteristics of Poetry
• Unlike prose which has a narrator, poetry
has a speaker.
• A speaker, or voice, talks to the reader. The
speaker is not necessarily the poet. It can also be
a fictional person, an animal or even a thing
Example
But believe me, son.
I want to be what I used to be
when I was like you.
from “Once Upon a Time” by Gabriel Okara

72. Distinguishing Characteristics of Poetry
• Poetry is also formatted differently from
prose.
– A line is a word or row of words that may or
may not form a complete sentence.
– A stanza is a group of lines forming a unit. The
stanzas in a poem are separated by a space.
Example
Open it.
Go ahead, it won’t bite.
Well…maybe a little.
from “The First Book” by Rita Dove

73. Figures of Speech
• A figure of speech is a word or expression that is
not meant to be read literally.
• A simile is a figure of speech using a word such as
like or as to compare seemingly unlike things.
Example
Does it stink like rotten meat?
from “Harlem” by Langston Hughes

74. Figures of Speech
• A metaphor also compares seemingly unlike
things, but does not use like or as.
Example
the moon is a white sliver
from “I Am Singing Now” by Luci Tapahonso
• Personification attributes human like
characteristics to an animal, object, or idea.
Example
A Spider sewed at Night
from “A Spider sewed at Night” by Emily Dickinson

75. Figures of Speech
• Hyperbole – a figure of speech in which
great exaggeration is used for emphasis or
humorous effect.
Example
“You’ve asked me a million times!”
• Imagery is descriptive language that applies
to the senses – sight, sound, touch, taste, or
smell. Some images appeal to more than one
sense.

76. Sound Devices
• Alliteration is the repetition of consonant
sounds at the beginning of words.
• Assonance is the repetition of vowel
sounds within a line of poetry.
• Onomatopoeia is the use of a word or
phrase, such as “hiss” or “buzz” that
imitates or suggests the sound of what it
describes.

77. Example of Sound Devices
“In the steamer is the trout
seasoned with slivers of ginger”
from “Eating Together” by Li-Young Lee
And the stars never rise but I
see the bright eyes
from “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe

78. Rhyme
• Rhyme is the repetition of the same stressed
vowel sound and any succeeding sounds in two
or more words.
• Internal rhyme occurs within a line of poetry.
• End rhyme occurs at the end of lines.
• Rhyme scheme is the pattern of end rhymes that
may be designated by assigning a different letter
of the alphabet to each new rhyme

79. Example
A
A
B
B
C
C
“All mine!" Yertle cried. "Oh, the things I now
rule!
I'm king of a cow! And I'm king of a mule!
I'm king of a house! And what's more, beyond
that,
I'm king of a blueberry bush and cat!
I'm Yertle the Turtle! Oh, marvelous me!
For I am the ruler of all that I see!”
from “Yertle the Turtle”
by Dr. Seuss

80. In the pathway of the sun,
In the footsteps of the breeze,
Where the world and sky are one,
He shall ride the silver seas,
He shall cut the glittering
wave.
I shall sit at home, and rock;
Rise, to heed a neighbor’s knock;
Brew my tea, and snip my thread;
Bleach the linen for my bed.
They will call him brave.
“Penelope” by Dorothy Parker
A
B
A
B
C
D
D
E
E
C

81. Rhythm and Meter
• Rhythm is the pattern of sound created by the
arrangement of stressed and unstressed
syllables in a line. Rhythm can be regular or
irregular.
• Meter is a regular pattern of stressed and
unstressed syllables which sets the overall
rhythm of certain poems. Typically, stressed
syllables are marked with / and unstressed
syllables are marked with  .
• In order to measure how many syllables are
per line, they are measured in feet. A foot
consists of a certain number of syllables
forming part of a line of verse.

82. Iambic Pentameter
• The most common type of meter is called
iambic pentameter
• An iamb is a foot consisting of an initial
unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
syllable. For example, return, displace, to
love, my heart.
• A pentameter is a line of verse containing 5
metrical feet.

83. Significance of Iambic
Pentameter
• Iambic Pentameter is significant to the
study of poetry because
• 1. It is the closest to our everyday speech
• 2. In addition, it mimics the sound of heart
beat; a sound common to all human beings.
• 3. Finally, one of the most influential writers of
our times uses iambic pentameter in all that he
writes – William Shakespeare.

84. Examples
Example #1
And death is better, as the millions know,
Than dandruff, night-starvation, or B.O
from “Letter to Lord Byron” by W.H.
Auden
Example #2
When you are old and grey and full of sleep
And nodding by the fire, take down this book.
W.B. Yeats

85. Connotation and Denotation
Connotation - the emotional and imaginative
association surrounding a word.
Denotation - the strict dictionary meaning of a
word.
Example: You may live in a house, but we live
in a home.

86. Which of the following has a more
favorable connotation?
thrifty penny-pinching
pushy aggressive
politician statesman
chef cook
slender skinny

87. Elements of Poetry
When we explore the connotation and
denotation of a poem, we are looking at the
poet’s diction.
Diction – the choice of words by an author or
poet.
Many times, a poet’s diction can help unlock the
tone or mood of the poem.

88. Elements of Poetry: Tone and Mood
Although many times we use the words mood and tone
interchangeably, they do not necessarily mean the same
thing.
Mood – the feeling or atmosphere that a poet creates.
Mood can suggest an emotion (ex. “excited”) or the quality
of a setting (ex. “calm”, “somber”) In a poem, mood can be
established through word choice, line length, rhythm, etc.
Tone – a reflection of the poet’s attitude toward the subject
of a poem. Tone can be serious, sarcastic, humorous, etc.

89. Narrative Poetry
• Narrative poetry is verse that tells a story.
• Two of the major examples of narrative poetry
include:
• Ballads – a song or poem that tells a story. Folk
ballads, which typically tell of an exciting or dramatic
event, were composed by an anonymous singer or
author and passed on by word of mouth for
generations before written down. Literary ballads are
written in imitation of folk ballads, but usually given
an author.
• Epics – a long narrative poem on a great and serious
subject that is centered on the actions of a heroic figure

90. Dramatic Poetry
• Dramatic poetry is poetry in which one or
more characters speak.
• Each speaker always addresses a specific
listener.
• This listener may be silent (but identifiable), or
the listener may be another character who
speaks in reply.
• Usually the conflict that the speaker is involved
with is either an intense or emotional.

91. Lyric Poetry
• Lyric poetry is poetry that expresses a
speaker’s personal thoughts and feelings.
• Lyric poems are usually short and musical.
• This broad category covers many poetic types
and styles, including haikus, sonnets, free verse
and many others.

92. Haikus
• The traditional Japanese haiku is an
unrhymed poem that contains exactly 17
syllables, arranged in 3 lines of 5, 7, 5
syllables each.
• However, when poems written in Japanese
are translated into another language, this
pattern is often lost.
• The purpose of a haiku is to capture a flash
of insight that occurs during a solitary
observation of nature.

93. Examples of Haikus
Since morning glories
hold my well-bucket hostage
I beg for water
- Chiyo-ni First autumn morning:
the mirror I stare into
shows my father’s face.
- Kijo Murakami

94. Sonnets
• Background of Sonnets
• Form invented in Italy.
• Most if not all of Shakespeare’s sonnets are
about love or a theme related to love.
• Sonnets are usually written in a series with each
sonnet a continuous subject to the next.
(Sequels in movies)

95. Sequence of Sonnets
• Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets and can be broken up by
the characters they address.
• The Fair Youth: Sonnets 1 – 126 are devoted to a young man of
extreme physical beauty. The first 17 sonnets urge the young man
to pass on his beauty to the next generation through children.
From sonnet 18 on, Shakespeare shifts his viewpoint and writes
how the poetry itself will immortalize the young man and allow his
beauty to carry on.
• The Dark Lady: Sonnets 127 – 154 talk about an irresistible
woman of questionable morals who captivates the young poet.
These sonnets speak of an affair between the speaker and her, but
her unfaithfulness has hurt the speaker.
• The Rival Poet: This character shows up during the fair youth
series. The poet sees the rival poet as someone trying to take his
own fame and the poems refer to his own anxiety and insecurity.

96. Structure of Sonnets
The traditional Elizabethan or
Shakespearean sonnet consists of fourteen
lines, made up of three quatrains (stanzas
of 4 lines each) and a final couplet (two line
stanza). Sonnets are usually written in
iambic pentameter. The quatrains
traditionally follow an abab rhyme scheme,
followed by a rhyming couplet.

97. Example
Sonnet 18
William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall Death brag thou wand'rest in his shade
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

98. Free Verse
• Free verse is poetry that has no fixed
pattern of meter, rhyme, line length, or
stanza arrangement.
• When writing free verse, a poet is free to
vary the poetic elements to emphasize an
idea or create a tone.
• In writing free verse, a poet may choose to
use repetition or similar grammatical
structures to emphasize and unify the ideas

99. Free Verse
• While the majority of popular poetry today is
written as free verse, the style itself is not new.
Walt Whitman, writing in the 1800’s, created free
verse poetry based on forms found in the King
James Bible.
• Modern free verse is concerned with the creation
of a brief, ideal image, not the refined ordered
(and artificial, according to some critics) patterns
that other forms of poetry encompass.

100. Example of Free Verse
The lunatic is carried at last to the asylum a confirmed case,
He will never sleep any more as he did it in the cot in his mother’s bedroom;
The dour printer with gray head and gaunt jaws works at his case,
He turns is quid of tobacco, his eyes blurred with the manuscript;
The malformed limbs are tied to the anatomist’s table,
What is removed drops horribly in the pail;
The quadroon girl is sold at the stand….the drunkard nods by the barroom
stove…
Excerpt from “Song of Myself” (section 15)
Walt Whitman