LITERARY TERMS PART 1 Definitions

Protagonist • The main character; the hero of the story

Antagonist • Works against the main character; the bad guy in the story

Point of View• the perspective or vantage point from which the story is told

First Person Point of View• used when the narrator of a story is a character in the story and refers to

himself or herself with the first-person pronoun “I”

Third Person Limited Point of View• used when the narrator of a story relates the inner thoughts and feelings of

one character and everything is viewed from this character’s perspective

Third Person Omniscient Point of View

• used when the narrator of a story knows and tells what each character feels and thinks

Story Elements- Plot• Events that move or carry the story to its conclusion.

•Exposition-the part of the plot (story events) that introduces the characters, the setting, and the basic situation/conflict

• The 3 bears live

in a small house in

the forest.

• A little girl named

Goldilocks is

walking in the forest.

Setting-when and where a story takes place

Conflict- the problem a character needs to overcome

Rising Action-the events that lead up to the climax

• The bears go for

a walk.

• Goldilocks tastes

each bowl and eats

all of Baby Bear’s

because it is just

right.

Climax-the high point or turning point in a literary work

• The Bear family

returns home from

their walk.

Falling Action-the events that follow the climax

• The bears find

Goldilocks and

everything that

she has done.

Resolution-the part of the plot where the story/conflict ends

• Goldilocks and

Baby Bear

become friends.

Theme• a central message or insight into life revealed by a literary work

Dreams do come true.Homelessness.Racial prejudice.

Symbolism• anything that stands for or represents something else (may be a person,

object, place, or event)

Simile• a figure of speech that makes a direct comparison using either like or as

Metaphor• a comparison of two unlike things

Personification• a figure of speech in which a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics

Idiom• An expression whose meaning

cannot be understood from knowing the meanings of the words that make it up

• Example: It’s raining cats and dogs• Doesn’t literally mean it raining cats

and dogs, its just an expression to show that it was raining really hard.

Allusion• A reference in literature to

something relatively well-known within a culture.

• Ex. In “Wonder,” Julian makes a reference to August as Darth Sidious, insinuating that August must like the character because he resembles him.