LITERARY TERMS

The series of events in a story.

Plot

The person or animal in a story.

Character

The major character; usually the 'good guy' or central character in a story.

Protagonist

The principal opponent of the main character.

Antagonist

The relationship of the narrator to the story.

Point of View

The narrator is a character in the story who reveals personal thoughts and feelings.

First Person

The narrator is an outsider who can report only what is seen and heard, without inner thoughts of characters.

Third-Person Objective

The narrator is an all-knowing outsider who can enter the minds of multiple characters.

Omniscient

The central struggle between opposing forces that creates the plot.

Conflict

The time and place in which a story takes place.

Setting

Characteristic language of a region.

Dialect

Conversation between two or more characters.

Dialogue

A technique used by the author to tell about an earlier event.

Flashback

A technique used by the author to hint that something is going to happen.

Foreshadowing

A feeling of growing tension created by the author.

Suspense

A figure of speech that involves a direct comparison between two unlike things, using 'like' or 'as'.

Simile

A figure of speech that involves an implied comparison between two unlike things without using 'like' or 'as'.

Metaphor