7th Grade Literary Terms

Fiction

Fiction

Prose writing that tells about imaginary characters and events.Short stories and novels are examples of this type of writing. Some writers base their writing on actual events and people, adding invented characters, dialogue, settings, and plot. Other writers rely on imagination alone.

Novel

A long work of fiction - It contains such elements as characters, plot, conflict and setting. The writer (novelist) develops these elements. In addition to a main plot, it may contain one or more subplots, or independent, related stories. It may also have several themes.

Novella

A work of fiction that is longer than a short story but shorter than a novel.

Short Story

A brief work of fiction. Like a novel, it presents a sequence of events, or plot. The plot usually deals with a central conflict faced by a main character, or protagonist. The events usually communicate a message about life or human nature. This message, or central idea, is the story’s theme.

Plot

Sequence of events in which each event results from a previous one and causes the next. In most novels, dramas, short stories, and narrative poems, it involves both characters and central conflict.

Exposition

Introduces the setting (the time and place of the story), the characters, and the basic situation ( conflict is often introduced at the end of this part of the plot.

Rising Action

Events that increase the tension.

Climax

The turning point in the story. It is the high point in the action of the plot. It is the moment of greatest tension when the outcome of the plot hangs in the balance.

Falling Action

Is the part of a story when the conflict lessens; events that follow the climax.

Resolution

Is the story’s conclusion; final outcome is achieved; loose end are tied up

Character

A person or an animal that takes part int he action of a literary work. The main, or major, one is the most important one in a story, poem or play. A rumor one is who takes part in the action but is not the focus of attention.

Setting

The time and place of the action. It includes all the details place and time - the year, the time of day, even the weather

Theme

Central message, concern, or purpose in a literary work. It can usually be expressed as a generalization, or a general statement, about human beings or about life. It is not a summary its plot.

Point of View

The perspective, or vantage point, from which a story is told. It is either a narrator outside the story or a character in the story.

Conflict

A struggle between opposing forces. It is one of the most important elements of stories, novels, and plays because it causes the action. There are two types: external and internal.

Flashback

A scene within a story that interrupts the sequence of events to relate events that occurred in the past.

Foreshadowing

The author’s use of clues to hint at what might happen later in the story

External Conflict

One in which a character struggles against some kind of outside force, such as another person. Another one may occur between a character and some force in nature.

Internal Conflict

It takes place within the mind of a character. The character struggles to make a decision, take an action, or overcome a feeling.

First-Person Point of View

Told by a character who uses the first-person pronoun “I”.

Third-Person Point of View

There are two kinds, limited and omniscient. They are called “third person” because the narrator used third-person pronouns such as he or she to refer to characters.

Omniscient Point of View

In stories told from this point of view, the narrator knows and tells about what EACH character feels and thinks.

Limited Point of View

In stories told from this point of view, the narrator relates the inner thoughts and feelings of only ONE character, and everything is viewed from this character’s perspective

Dialect

The form of a language spoken by the people in a particular region or group. They differ in pronunciation, grammar, and word choice. The use for it gives a short story a more authentic feel and helps a character’s words sound more realistic.

Dialogue

A conversation between the characters. In poems, novels, and short stories, it is usually set off by quotation marks to indicate a speaker’s exact words.

Protagonist

The main character in a literary work. It is often a person but sometimes it can be an animal.

Antagonist

This is a character or a force in conflict with a main character.

Alliteration

The repetition of initial consonant sounds.Writers use this device to draw attention to certain words, ideas, to imitate sounds, and to create musical effects.

Tone

The writer’s attitude toward his or her audience and subject. It can often be described by a single adjective, such as formal, or informal, serious or playful, bitter, or ironic.

Mood

The feeling created in the read by a literary work or passage. It is also known as atmosphere.

Figurative Language

Is a writing or speech that is not to meant to be taken literally. The many types are know as figures of speech. Common figures of speech include metaphor, personification, and simile. Writers use these techniques to state ideas in vivid and imaginative ways.

Hyberbole

A form of figurative language that uses exaggeration for effect.

Imagery

A technique of writing with images.

Images

Words or phrases that appeal to come to one or more of the five senses. Writers use these to describe how their subjects look, sound, feel, taste and smell.

Metaphor

A figure of speech in which something is described as though it were something else. It works by pointing out a similarity between two unlike things.

Motive

A reason that explains or partially explains a character’s thoughts, feelings, actions, or speech. Writers try to make their characters, thoughts, feelings, actions, or speech as clear as possible.

Narrative

A story. Novels and short stories are fictional examples. Biographies and autobiographies are nonfiction examples.

Onomatopoeia

The use of words to imitate sounds. Crash, buzz, screech, hiss, neigh, jingle, and cluck are examples.

Personification

Figurative language in which a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics.

Repetition

The use, more than once, of any element of language - a sound, word, phrase, clause, or sentence.

Simile

A figure of speech that uses like or as to make a direct comparison between to unlike ideas. Everyday speech contains these such as, “ pale as a ghost,” “good as gold,” “spread like wildfire,” and “clever as a fox.”

Symbol

Anything that stands for or represents something else. These are common in everyday in like. A dove with an olive branch in its beak means peace. A blindfolded woman holding a balanced scale stands for justice.

Universal Theme

A message about life that is expressed regularly in many different cultures and time periods. Folk tales, epics, and romances often contain these like the importance of courage, the power of love, or the danger of greed.