New and Improved Literary Toolbox

THEME: a deep idea or issue about human nature explored in the story. The big idea or overall
meaning.

Thematic Statement—A statement about the story’s message. Answers the question, “What is
the author expressing about the overall theme topic?”

Motif- the repetition of any object, subject, idea, or concept that is noticed throughout the entire
body of literature. Often connected to the themes.

Symbolism -An object or action in a literary work that means more than itself, that stands for
something beyond itself, often connected to the themes. It is usually an object related to an
abstract concept.

SETTING: The time and place of a literary work that establishes its context.

Physical Setting—Time, place, physical surroundings.

Emotional Setting—Atmosphere, mood (as shown through thoughts/actions/dialogue of

characters).

Mood—The atmosphere that pervades a literary work with the intention of evoking a certain
emotion or feeling from the audience. Mood may be influenced by setting, voice, tone, and
theme.

Context—Anything beyond the specific words of a literary work that may be relevant to
understanding the meaning. Contexts may be economic, social, cultural, historical, literary,
biographical, etc. For example, the historical context of To Kill a Mockingbird is the Great
Depression.

PLOT: the sequence of events, what happens in the story

Pacing—The speed at which the story moves between exposition and action, or between cause
and effect.

Exposition—The parts of the story that set the stage and give readers background information.

Action—The moments where events actually happen in the story and drive the story forward.

Rising action/Complication—A set of conflicts and crises that lead up to the climax. Readers
are anticipating some kind of event or epiphany during this stage of the story.
Climax—The turning point of the plot- one marking a change in the protagonist’s affairs. The
climax represents the point of greatest tension and excitement in the work.

Falling action—In the plot of a story or play, the action following the climax of the work that
moves it towards its denouement or resolution.

Resolution/Denouement—The sorting out or unraveling of a plot at the end of a play, novel, or

story. See Plot.

Flashback (analepsis)—An interruption of a work's chronology to describe or present an

incident that occurred prior to the main time frame of a work's action. Writers use flashbacks to
complicate the sense of chronology in the plot of their works and to convey the richness of the
experience of human time.

Flashforward (prolepsis)– An interruption of a work’s chronological narration to describe or

present an incident that happened forward in time from the normal chronological steps of the
story. Writers use flashforward to move back and forth in time, complicating the chronology of
the pot, and convey the richness of the experience of human time.

Conflict—A struggle between opposing forces in a story or play, usually resolved by the end of
the work. The conflict may occur within a character as well as between characters. Or between a
character and some force- society, fate, nature, etc.

● Internal conflict: a struggle occurring within a character’s mind.

● External conflict: a physical struggle (ex. car chase, fight scene, race).

Complication—An intensification of the conflict in a story or play. Complication builds up,

accumulates, and develops the primary or central conflict in a literary work. See rising action.

Parallel Plot—The writer weaves two or more dramatic plots that are usually linked by a
common character and a similar theme.

Subplot—A subsidiary or subordinate plot in a play or story that coexists with the main plot.

Foreshadowing—Hints of what is to come in the action of a story.

NARRATOR: The voice and implied speaker of a fictional work, different than the author.
Point of View: The perspective from which the story is told. Shapes the meaning of the story.

1st Person—The narrator is a character or an observer (uses 1st person pronouns such as: I, me,
we, our, us, etc.)

3rd Person—Narrator is not a character in the story (uses 3rd person pronouns such as: they, he,
she, theirs, etc.)
 ○ 3rd person limited—The narrator knows only what the main character or characters
know.

○ Omniscient—Narrator knows everything about the characters

○ Limited Omniscient—The narrator to know some things about the characters but not
everything.

Reliable Narrator—Narrator is dependable. We trust their perspective as a reader.

Unreliable Narrator—Narrator who can’t be trusted. Either from ignorance or self-interest this
narrator speaks with a bias, makes mistakes, or even lies.

Biased Narration—When the narration only reveals one side of the story rather than multiple
viewpoints.

Allegory—A symbolic narrative in which the surface details imply a secondary meaning.
Allegory often takes the form of a story in which the characters represent moral qualities.

Pronouns-conscious use of pronouns (to address, include or exclude the audience)

● pronouns to address the audience - you

● pronouns to include the audience - we
● pronouns to exclude the audience or to distance the audience – our, they

CHARACTER: people (or things with human qualities) in a work. Characters may be major or
minor, static (unchanging) or dynamic (capable of change).

Characterization—The means by which writers present and reveal character. Although

techniques of characterization are complex, writers typically reveal characters through their
speech (dialogue or narration), dress, manner, thoughts, and actions.

Protagonist—The main character of a literary work around whom the events of the plot revolve
and with whom readers are intended to connect and identify with.

Antagonist—A character or force against which another character struggles.

Foil—A character who contrasts and parallels the main character in order to emphasize certain
qualities in the main character.

Hero—A character, in the face of danger and adversity or from a position of weakness, displays
courage and the will for self-sacrifice for some greater good of all humanity.
Anti-hero—A main character who, in some regards, is opposite to a hero. This character lacks
heroic qualities (such as courage, perseverance, intelligence, etc.). Sometimes, an anti-hero can
still be a sympathetic character.

Archetype-pattern in literature that is repeated across cultures and time. Ex: Basic hero quest

Epiphany-sudden strike/realization of knowledge or experience in character.

Motivation-why a character does something; the payoff.

LANGUAGE: the specific words and phrases chosen by the writer to tell the story. Adjectives
used to describe the language include minimal/simple, complex, slang/casual, and proper/formal.

Connotation—The emotional, social, and cultural associations called up by a word that goes
beyond its dictionary meaning. Life’s experiences shape our understanding and perceptions of
certain words. For example, jock and athlete have similar denotations, but jock typically has a
negative connotation (bully, unintelligent) and athlete has a positive connotation (strong,
motivated).

Denotation—The dictionary meaning of a word.

Dialogue—The conversation of characters in a literary work. In fiction, dialogue is typically

enclosed within quotation marks. In plays, characters' speech is preceded by their names.

Diction—The author’s/speaker’s selection of words to convey action, reveal character, imply

attitudes, identify themes, and suggest values.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE: Describing something by comparing it to something else. Often,

writers use something tangible/concrete to describe something intangible/abstract.

Simile—A comparison of two things using a connective word (usually “like” or “as”).

Metaphor—A figure of speech in which two seemingly unlike things are shown to have a
resemblance or create a new image. The similarities between objects may be implied rather than
directly stated. (For example, poet, Carl Sandburg, wrote, “Fog comes on little cat feet.”)

Hyperbole—A figure of speech involving extreme exaggeration to make a point.

Paradox-parts of statement seem to contradict but statement is actually correct. Ex: “He prayed
to a god he did not believe in.”

Oxymoron-type of paradox that combines opposite terms into a single unusual

expression-Delicious poison.
Image—A concrete representation of a sense, impression, a feeling, or an idea. Imagery refers to
the pattern of related details in a work. In some works, one image predominates either by
recurring throughout the work or by appearing at a critical point in the plot. Often writers use
multiple images throughout a work to suggest states of feeling and to convey implications of
thought and action.

Imagery—Language that causes people to imagine pictures in their mind.

Symbol/Symbolism—An object or action in a literary work that means more than itself, that
stands for something beyond itself.

Allusion—A brief reference in a literary work to a person, place, thing or passage in another
literary work, usually for the purpose of associating the tone or theme of the one work with the
other. (For instance, there are many biblical allusions in The Handmaid’s Tale and The Scarlet
Letter.)

Idiom-phrase with an accepted meaning that is different than the literal.

STYLE: The purposeful literary choices an author makes to distinguish his/her writing. The
author may choose to manipulate diction, figurative language, point of view, syntax, and tone to
create style.

Syntax—The grammatical order of words in a sentence or line of verse or dialogue. The

organization of words and phrases and clauses in sentences of prose, verse, and dialogue.

Tone/Voice- The implied attitude of a writer toward the subject and characters of a work.

Satire—A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and
follies.

Irony—A contrast or discrepancy between what is said and what is meant or between what
happens and what is expected to happen in life and in literature.

Verbal irony: characters say the opposite of what they mean.

Situational Irony: the opposite of what is expected occurs.
Dramatic irony: the audience knows something a character or characters do not.

Magical realism—A kind of modern fiction in which fabulous and fantastical events are
included in a narrative that otherwise maintains the reliable tone of objective, realistic report.
WRITING TERMINOLOGY:

Thesis—Controlling idea of the paper. The thesis statement is the writer’s main point
(explanatory) or claim (argument).

Claim—Position on the topic. Students should learn to include the claim in the thesis statement.
The claim must be debatable and require defense through evidence.

Counterclaim—Acknowledgement of alternate or opposing view.

Introduction—An opening paragraph to a piece of writing that introduces the writer’s topic,
thesis and intention of the text.

Topic Sentence—An assertion or defining statement of a paragraph. Topic sentences are

generally located near the top of each paragraph to preview the purpose or central idea of the
paragraph.

Textual Evidence—Specific details from a piece of text that can be used as support in a
student’s writing. Textual Evidence should be embedded (quoted) or closely paraphrased, then
the student should provide an explanation for its use as support.

Commentary—Student’s own interpretation, explanation or opinion. Commentary is used to

provide the reader with an elaboration of the student’s ideas.

Organization-

Cause/Effect-argue that the presentation of a cause will result in the noted effect.

Classification-identifies the subject as part of a whole.

Comparison-showing how subject is similar to something else.

Contrast-showing how subject is different to something else.

GRAMMAR TERMS:

Sentences may be classified by purpose:

Declarative – statement

Imperative-command

Interrogative –question
 Exclamatory-express strong emotion

Sentences may be classified by structure:

Complex-contains an independent clause and one or more subordinate (dependent)

clause

Compound-contains two independent clauses joined by a semicolon or coordinating

conjunction preceded by comma

Compound-complex-contains two or more independent clauses and one or more

subordinate clauses

Simple-contains one independent clause (can have compound subjects and/or verbs)

Rhetorical Strategies—There are three types of rhetorical appeals, or persuasive strategies, used
in arguments to support claims and respond to opposing arguments. A good argument will
generally use a combination of all three appeals to make its case.

Ethos (Ethics)—The appeal to ethics is based on the character, credibility, or reliability of the
writer. An ethical appeal makes use of what an audience values and believes to be good or true.
Ethos includes appeals to the conscience, ethics, morals, standards, values, principles.

Logos (Logic)—The appeal to logic relies on reason in a measured, organized manner. Some
logical appeals include citing statistics, research, financial costs, authority figures, historical
events, etc. Through Logos, a writer aims at a person's intellect. The idea is that if you are
logical, you will understand.

Pathos (Emotions)—The appeal to emotions relies on the author’s understanding of an

audience's needs, values, and emotional sensibilities. Pathos appeals to the heart, emotions,
sympathy, passions, sentimentality.

Rhetorical Devices—

Anadiplosis: repetition that occurs when the last word or terms in one sentence, clause, or phrase
is/are repeated at or very near the beginning of the next sentence, clause, or phrase

Anaphora: the repetition of a word/phrase at the beginning of successive clauses

Epiphora (also known as epistrophe):the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of a

successive clause

Hypophora: a question that is asked and answered

Parallelism: repeated sentence structure

Polysyndeton: unnecessary repetition of conjunctions in quick succession with no commas

Antithesis: figure of balance in which two contrasting ideas are intentionally juxtaposed, usually
through parallel structure; a contrasting of opposing ideas in adjacent phrases, clauses, or
sentences.

SOUND DEVICES: elements of literature and poetry that emphasize sound.

Alliteration—Repetition of the initial consonant sounds in nearby words.

Assonance—Repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words.

Consonance—Repetition of consonant sounds at the end or in the middle of words.

Onomatopoeia—A word that imitates the sound it represents.

Rhyme—Repetition of the same sound at the end of a word.

Rhythm—Recurrence of similar sounds in prose and poetry, creating a musical, gentle effect.