SOL Literary Terms

Review 1

archetype

• Definition: basic storytelling pattern; a perfect example of a group or type

• Example: In Native American literature, Coyote is an archetype of the trickster.

Archetype of Character• Archetypical characters:• --hero/heroine—Batman; Jesus; Huck Finn • − rugged individualist—Daniel Boone; Indiana Jones • − trickster—Coyote from Native American literature • − innocent--Cinderella • − faithful companion—Robin; Lassie; Tonto • − outsider/outcast—Hester Prynne from Scarlet Letter ; Shrek • − villain—Satan; The Joker; Abigail in The Crucible • − caretaker/mentor—Fairy Godmother; Obi Wan Kenobi; Jim from

Huckleberry Finn; Calpurnia from To Kill a Mockingbird • − Earth mother—Aataensic from “The Sky Tree” • − misfit—Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer; Scout Finch • − rebel—Katniss in Hunger Games • − lonely orphan looking for a home—Annie; Huck Finn

Archetype by Theme

• --the American Dream: Ben Franklin; Abraham Lincoln• --loss of innocence: Mary from “Lamb to the Slaughter” • − coming of age: Jerry in “Through the Tunnel,”

Sleeping Beauty • − relationship with nature—Emerson, Thoreau • − relationship with society • − relationship with science • − alienation and isolation—Wall-E • − survival of the fittest—”The Most Dangerous Game,”

The Hunger Games • − disillusionment—The Great Gatsby • − rebellion and protest—Julius Caesar; Hunger Games

protagonist

• Main character

• May be either a hero or an “anti-hero”

• Hero: John Proctor

• Anti-hero: Tom Walker

Antagonist

• The main character in conflict with the protagonist

• Examples: “Old Scratch” to Tom Walker; The Penguin to Batman;

• REMEMBER: Antagonists are often villains, but they don’t have to be….

Narrator

• The one telling the story

Point of View

• The vantage point from which the story is told

• Main types: first person; third person limited; third person omniscient

First Person

• The narrator is “I”

• Everything the reader knows is limited to this one character’s point of view

• Examples: Huckleberry Finn; “By the Waters of Babylon”

Third Person Omniscient

• The narrator knows multiple characters’ thoughts and feelings

• This point of view gives the reader the widest vantage point

• Example: “The Storyteller”

Third Person Limited

• The narrator is “he” or “she”

• Again, the reader is limited to this one character’s point of view

• Examples: “Contents of the Dead Man’s Pockets,” “The Pedestrian”

Setting

• Time and Place

• Often, the time of a story is as or more important than the place

• Example: In “The Pedestrian,” it’s important that the action takes place in the future

Plot

• Series of events making up a storyline

exposition

rising action

initiating event

climax

falling action

resolution

exposition

• The “backstory”

• In Cinderella, the main character’s mean stepmother and stepsisters mistreat her, turning her into a servant

Initiating event

• The event in the narrative that “hooks” the reader

• In Cinderella, an invitation to the ball comes, but Cindy is told that she can’t go….

Rising Action

• The events leading up to the climax

In Cinderella:• The Fairy Godmother comes to give Cindy a

makeover• Cindy goes to the ball• The prince falls for her• Cindy must rush out at midnight• She leaves the glass slipper behind

Climax

• The point of highest interest

• The shoe fits!!!! Yay!!!!

Falling action/Resolution

• How the story ends….

theme

• The main idea, lesson, moral, or basic human truth….

• Example: In “The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant,” one theme is that we shouldn’t change or hide who we really are just so others will like us

motif

• In literature, a motif is a theme, idea, or image that recurs within a text or across multiple texts.

• Example: In Macbeth, the motif of blood as a sign of guilt appears throughout….