LITERARY ELEMENTS

NARRATOR

The speaker in a literary

work of prose.
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POINT OF VIEW

The perspective of the story’s narrator. There are 3 different

classifications:
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Action: the events that take place in a literary work.

Conflict: the struggle between conflicting forces.

The conflict often provides the main action and
spotlights (=give emphasis to) the literary plot. It
can be internal or external (sometimes both).

Setting: time, place, and context in which the

literary work action takes place.

Character: a person, human or non-human in the

story. Character may also refer to a person’s traits
and personality.

Plot: an account of the literary work’s action (the main

events), as well as all other surrounding
circumstances that moves the story along.
Example
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TOPIC - THEME

The literary work’s underlying

meaning or general idea.
However, the theme is not the
topic of a story, it’s the
author’s opinion about it.
While the topic/subject of a
detective's story may be
crime or evil, the theme could
be “evil is always punished”.
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SYMBOLISM

It is the use of symbols to

signify ideas and qualities, by
giving them symbolic
meanings that are different
from their literal sense. Some
common examples are a
“dove” symbolizing “peace”,
or a “red rose” symbolizing
“love”.