Literary Elements

Literary Elements Note Card Student Project

Note Card Order • Diction • Details • Style • Imagery • Figurative Language • Syntax • Connotation • Metaphor • Denotation • Tone • Extended Metaphor • Implied Metaphor • Metonymy

Note Card Order Cont. • Paradox • Apostrophe • Oxymoron • Personification • Pun • Synedoche • Assonance • Simile • Sound Devices • Consonance • Alliteration • Meter • Onomatopoeia

Note Card Order Cont. • Rhyme • Rhyme Scheme • Iambic Rhythm • Archetype • Archetypal Setting • Archetypal Character • Heroic Journey (an Archetype) • Characters • Protagonist • Antagonist • Flat Character • Round Character • Static Character • Dynamic Character

Note Cards Cont. • Plot • Freytag’s Pyramid • Exposition • Inciting Incident • Rising Action • Climax • Falling Action • Denouement • Conflict • Man vs. Man • Man vs. Self • Man vs. Nature • Man vs. Society • Man vs. Machine

Note Cards Cont. • Man vs. Supernatural • Epiphany • Foil • Stock • Dialect • Euphemism • Idiom • Mood • Flashback • Foreshadow • Suspense • Point of View • Omniscient Point of View • Limited Point of View

Note Cards cont. • Rhetorical Shift • Setting • Theme • Allusion • Antithesis • Argumentation/Persuasive • Narrative Writing • Expository Writing • Descriptive Writing • Analysis (Analytical) Writing • Induction • Deduction • Emotional • Ethical

Note Cards Cont. • Logical • Classification • Comparison • Contrast • Characterization • Direct Characterization • Indirect Characterization • Hyperbole • Irony • Dramatic Irony • Situational Irony • Verbal Irony • Sarcasm • Motif

Note Cards Cont. • Satire • Symbolism • Understatement • Literary Forms • Catharsis • Hamartia • Hubris • Recognition • Reversal • Parts of Speech • Noun • Pronoun • Verb • Adjective

Note Cards Cont. • Adverb • Preposition • Interjection • Conjunction • Grammar Terms • Declarative Sentence • Imperative Sentence • Interrogative Sentence • Exclamatory Sentence • Antithetical Sentence • Balanced Sentence • Simple Sentence • Compound Sentence • Complex Sentence • Compound-Complex Sentence

Note Cards Cont. • Loose/Cumulative Sentence • Periodic Sentence • Syntax Techniques • Juxtaposition • Natural Sentence Order • Asyndeton • Ellipsis • Parallel Structure • Polysyndeton • Repetition • Anadiplosis • Anaphora • Epanalepsis • Epistrophe

Note Cards Cont. • Antimetabole • Inverted Sentence Order • Rhetorical Question • Rhetorical Fragment • Synesthesia

Style • The way a person writes. (The way they arrange their words, sentences, and etc.) • EXAMPLES: Prelutsky always rhymes every 2nd and 4th line.

Diction • Effective and Unique Word Choice • EXAMPLES: • “about the rims” • “garments black as pitch” • “hurtles by”

Imagery • Words used to create images by appealing to our five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell • Examples: • “twisted toes” sight • “piercing screech” sound • “queen of doom” touch • “bitter sweet” taste • “unbathed bodies” smell

Details • Specific and descriptive information • Examples: • “The grass is green.” This describes what specific color the grass is. • “ten twisted toes” This describes how many toes and what they specifically look like.

Figurative Language • Also called Figures of Speech • Describes one thing in terms of something else • Stating a comparison of two unlike things and the meaning is still understood • Examples: • It’s raining cats and dogs. Metaphor • It’s raining like cats and dogs. Simile • The chair tripped the boy. Personification

Syntax • Sentence Structure • The way sentences are arranged and formed. • The way they are put together grammatically. • Examples: • The clean clothes are in the box. • In the box are the clean clothes. • The clothes, in the box, are clean. (Each sentence above has the same meaning, but each sentence is arranged different, and the focus of the sentence shifts with each variation.)

Denotation • The dictionary definition of a word • What the word means • Example: • Chair- something made to sit in.

Connotation • The feelings/emotions associated with a word. • The feelings and attitude of a word. • Examples: • She is mad. (not as severe as angry) • She is angry. (not as severe as infuriated) • She is infuriated. (really, really, mad) • All 3 words mean “upset”, but each are at a different level of upset.

Tone • The author’s attitude toward what he has written • The way the author feels about the subject • Example: • In the poem “The Witch”, Jack Prelutsky despises the witch.

Metaphor • A comparison of 2 unlike things not using like or as • Stating/implying that a thing is something it is not, but the meaning is understood • Examples: • He touched her liquid hair. • She is a bookworm. • He is a beast.

Extended Metaphor • It is a comparison of two unlike things that continues for several lines or sentences. • A metaphor that continues more than one line. • Example: Bronte describes Bertha by comparing her to parts of animals for many sentences. He does this by drawing out the animal comparison to make sure that the reader understands that he really thinks that she behaves as an animal.

Implied Metaphor • A comparison that is not directly stated, but the two things being compared are understood. • Example: • It’s raining cats and dogs. • It does not directly state that rain drops are cats and dogs, but we know that raindrops are being compared to cats and dogs.

Apostrophe • Form of personification in which the absent, dead, or inanimate are spoke to as if alive and present. • Examples: • “Where for art thou Romeo?” • “You stupid book!”

Metonymy • a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept. (Meaning is clearly understood.) • Examples: • The White House has called a press conference. (White House=president) • We’re not letting a skirt into our all-boys club. (skirt= girl)

Oxymoron • Form of paradox that combines a pair of opposite terms into a single unusual expression. • Example: • After fighting with my boyfriend, our good-bye was bittersweet. • When it gets to that last mile, your muscles hurt so good.

Paradox • Occurs when the elements of a statement contradict each other; it appears illogical, but it actually makes sense even if it may sound or seem absurd. • Examples: • “I see,” said the blind man. • All progress depends on the unreasonable man. • What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

Personification • Type of metaphor that gives inanimate objects or abstract ideas human characteristics • Giving human qualities to things not human • Example: • The trees speak to me. • The dog told a story with its sad eyes. • The waves were reaching for our boat’s sail.

Pun • A play on words that are similar in sound but have sharply different meaning. • Example: • JANE EYRE: Eyre is pronounced err, air, or heir…which plays on who her character really is…in the novel she makes mistakes, has her head in the clouds, and inherits a fortune. • Is that beetle bugging you?

Simile • Comparison of 2 different things or ideas using the words like or as • Example: • Life is like a box of chocolates. • She is as graceful as a swan.

Synedoche • Form of metaphor where a part is used to signify the whole thing (the special for the general or the general for the special, as in ten sail for ten ships.) • Examples • All hands on deck. (hands= members of the crew) • Canada played U.S. in the Olympic Hockey Finals. (Canada=Canadian team; US=American team)

Sound Devices • Stylistic techniques that show meaning through sound • Examples: rhyme, assonance, consonance, and alliteration

Assonance • Repetition of vowel sounds in a series of words • Example: • “The Witch”: doom and broom

Consonance • Repetition of consonant sound in the middle or at the end of words • Example: • Rain descends I lay my head on the cold drenched ground

Alliteration • Repetition of beginning consonant sounds in words close to each other • Example: • Carl climbed the cart carefully.

Meter • The patterned arrangement of syllables by the stress and length of each syllable • Example: …

Onomatopoeia • Words that mimic the sounds they describe • Example: hiss, buzz, bang, moo

Rhyme • Repetition of sounds in 2 or more words or phrases that are located close to each other • Example: “The Witch” • Line 2 “pitch” • Line 4 “witch”

Rhyme Scheme • The pattern of end rhymes in a poem • Example: • a flight • b pitch • c broom • b witch

Iambic Rhythm • The natural rhythm of the English Language • Creates a smooth flowing feel • Stress-unstress alternating pattern similar to a heartbeat

Archetype • A character, action or situation that is a pattern of human life occurring over and over again in literature • Example: • On a quest • Good versus evil • Damsel in distress

Archetypal Setting • A repetitive setting repeated throughout literature • Example: • The desert: symbolizes spiritual sterility and barrenness because it lacks personal comforts and the necessities of life

Archetypal Character • Repetition of a type of character in literature that contains a universal human experience. • Example: • “the hag” • “the naïve young man”

Heroic Journey • Beginning as an underdog, but still able to overcome all odds and become victorious • Example: Cinderella, Odysseus

Characters • People or animals who are part of a literary work • Example: • The Wolf in Little Red Riding Hood • Little Red Riding Hood • The Witch in the poem “The Witch”

Protagonist • The central character of a drama, novel, short story, or narrative poem • Example: Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood

Antagonist • The opponent of the protagonist • Example: • Evil Step Mother, The Wolf

Flat Character • Emphasizing a single important trait of a character • Not a well-developed character. (In film, similar to a movie extra.) • Example:

Round Character • Well developed character. • Focus is on several aspects of the character, not just one thing • Example:

Literary Elements