Literary Terms & Rhetorical Devices

Sophomore EnglishYou Got a Friend in Me Unit

Of Mice and Men

Plot Diagram an organizational tool focusing on a pyramid

or triangular shape› used to map the events in a story› allows readers and writers to visualize the key

features of stories.  The basic triangle-shaped plot structure,

representing the beginning, middle, and end of a story, was described by Aristotle.

Gustav Freytag modified Aristotle's system by adding a rising action and a falling action to the structure.

Exposition

Basic Situation

The start of the story› The situation

before the action begins

Rising Action

Series of conflicts and crises in

the story that lead to the climax

Climax

Turning point

Most intense moment› Mentally› In action

Falling Action

All of the action which follows the

climax

Denouement

Resolution

The conclusion› Tying together of

all the threads

Character a person or animal in

a narrative work of art 

› novel› play› film

guides readers through stories, helping

them to understand plots and ponder themes

Foils

a character who contrasts with another

character (usually the protagonist) in order to highlight particular qualities of the other character

Characterization

the process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character

May be revealed› Directly› Indirectly

Direct Characterization

tells the audience what the personality of the character is.

› “The patient boy and quiet girl

were both well-mannered and did not disobey their mother.”

Indirect Characterization

shows things that reveal the

personality of a character

› STEAL

S speechT thoughtsE effect on othersA actionsL looks

-- Jim was very unlike any other businessman. He made sure that all his clients got what they had paid for.

Allegory characters or events in a

story, poem, or picture represent or symbolize ideas and concepts

a message is communicated by means of symbolic 

figures, actions or symbolic representation

Parable

a brief, succinct story, in prose or verse, that illustrates a moral or religious lesson.

IS an allegory, but not all allegories are parables.

Proverb a simple and concrete

saying popularly known and repeated

› which expresses a truth, based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity

› often metaphorical

a simple, memorable way of expressing common

wisdom

Image a word or phrase in a

literary text that appeals directly to the reader's taste, touch, hearing, sight, or smell.

any vivid or picturesque phrase that

evokes a particular sensation in the reader's mind.

Symbol

a word or object that stands for another word

or object

Motif any recurring

element that has symbolic significance in a story

abstract idea discussed by a certain work through a repetition of ideas, structures or meaningful elements

Theme author’s message the general

underlying truths behind the

story› Moral› Teaching› View about life

Foreshadowing an author hints certain

plot developments that perhaps will come to be later in the story

can be subtle, like storm clouds on the horizon suggesting that danger is coming, or more direct, such as Romeo and Juliet talking about wanting to die rather than live without each other

Flashback

an interjected scene that takes

the narrative back in time

from the current point

a memory

Setting

includes the historical moment in time

and geographic location in which a story takes

place, and helps initiate the main backdrop and mood for a story

time and place

Banned Book one that has been

censored by an authority—a government, a library, or a

school system. has been banned is

actually removed from a library or school system.

Novella

a written, fictional, prose narrative normally longer than a short story but shorter than a novel

Poetry

an imaginative awareness of experience

expressed through meaning, sound, and rhythmic language choices so as to evoke

an emotional response

Free Verse

an open form of poetry that

does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern

Blank Verse

Type of poetry any verse

comprised of unrhymed lines all in the same meter

unrhymed iambic pentameter

Iambic Pentameter a commonly used

metrical line in traditional verse and verse drama› Shakespeare’s favorite

rhythm of pairing ten syllables for each

line into five pairs one unstressed syllable

followed by one stressed

Apostrophe a figure of speech in which

someone absent or dead or something nonhuman is addressed as if it were alive and present and was able to reply› Busy old fool, unruly sun, Why dost thou thus, Through windows, and through curtains call on us?--John Donne

Vernacular

The standard native language of a country or locality

The everyday language spoken by a

people as distinguished from the literary language