ELA Midterm

Literary Terms

Climax

The most exciting part of the story.

Setting

The time and place of the action of a literary work.

Conflict

A struggle between two opposing forces.

Imagery

A vivid description that appeals to one or more of the five senses.

Foreshadowing

Clues that suggest or predict what will happen later on in the story.

Verbal Irony

When a speaker says something contradictory to what they/she/he intends to say.

Dramatic Irony

A speech or a situation in a text that is understood by the audience/reader, but not understood by the characters.

Situational Irony

When something takes place that is different or the opposite of what is expected to happen.

Tone

The writer’s attitude towards his/her/their subject.

Mood

The feeling created in the reader by a literary work.

Theme

The central idea of a literary work.

Allusion

A reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art.

Symbol

Anything that stands for or represents something else.

Alliteration

The repetition of initial consonant sounds (not a vowel).

Onomatopoeia

The use of words that imitate sound.

Personification

A non-human subject given human characteristics.

Characterization

The ways in which the author develops a character in a work of fiction through mental, psychological, and physical traits.

Character

A person, animal, being, creature, or thing in a story.

Metaphor

Two things are compared without the use of “like” or “as”.

Simile

Two things are compared with the use of “like” or “as”.

First Person POV

A character tells the story, and the reader knows only what this character feels and sees, usually in the "I, me, my, we, us”.

Second Person POV

The narrator uses the second person pronoun “you” to tell the story.

Third Person Omniscient

A voice outside of the work tells the story and the reader can tell what any character thinks or feels.

Third Person Limited

A voice outside of the work tells the story and the reader can tell one or a few characters think or feel.

Plot

The sequence of events, or what happens, in a story.

Flashback

A scene that unfolded in the past that interrupts the chronological sequence, or “present” line of the story.

Protagonist

The main character in a literary work.

Antagonist

The character in conflict with the main character.