Honors English Final Review Notes

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering literary terms, plot elements, character types, poetry devices, and research formatting from the provided lecture notes.

Parable

A short tale that illustrates a truth that appeals to all people of all cultures.

Juxtaposition

Placing two dissimilar things side by side.

Exposition

The part of the plot that introduces the setting and the main characters.

Inciting Incident

The event that begins the central conflict.

Climax

The highest paint of intensity in a work of literature.

Resolution

The part of the plot that resolves the central conflict.

Denouement

The part of the plot that ties up loose ends.

Symbol

An object, idea, or character that represents something else.

Irony

A contrast between an expected outcome and the actual outcome.

Provincialism

The way of life or mode of thought characteristic of provinces, especially when regarded as narrow-minded.

Stated Cause

The obvious cause of an event.

Implied Cause

A cause that is not stated and must be inferred by the reader.

Prejudice

An attitude of closed-mindedness that causes a person to pre-judge another person negatively without any knowledge of who that person really is.

Stereotyping

The act of generalizing a person's character by labeling him according to an accepted opinion of that person's race, religion, background, etc.

Bildungsroman

A novel that explores the growth and maturity of the main character (also known as a coming-of-age novel).

Dynamic Character

A character who undergoes a change and is different by the end of the novel.

Static Character

A character who remains essentialy the same because they don't change or don't appear in a novel long enough to see them change.

Diction

What words mean (Word Choice).

Onomatopoeia

The use of words to suggest the sound they make, such as "The pizza sizzled as it cooked."

Alliteration

The repetition of beginning consonant Sounds.

Internal Rhyme

The presence of rhyming words within the same line of poetry.

Assonance

The repetition of vowel sounds.

Repetition

The repeated use of words, phrases, clauses, or sentences.

Parallelism

The repetition of similarly structured lines.

Dystopian Fiction

A genre of literature that presents a futuristic world in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, technological, or totalitarian control.

Protagonist

The main character in a work of literature who often overcomes a weakness and achieves a new understanding by the end of the novel.

Foil

Characters who provoke or challenge the protagonist.

Antagonist

A character who complicates or creates a barrier to keep the protagonist from successfully overcoming his or her weakness.

Allusion

A reference, within a work of literature, to another literary work, a song, mythology, the Bible, or even a real event.

Thesis Statement

One sentence in your introductory paragraph that states the argument you will make or the opinion you will prove.

Long quotation

A quote that takes up $4$ or more lines.

Paraphrase

A restatement in your own words.

Summary

A brief recounting of the main points of all or part of an article.

Minimalism

Writing that uses the fewest details and barest essentials possible, using few words and focusing on surface description.

Humor

The quality that makes something laughable or amusing.

Characterization

The act of creating and developing a character.

Direct Characterization

When we are told directly what a character's personality traits are.

Indirect Characterization

When we learn about a character through what he says and does and through how other characters react to him.

Dialect

The speech patterns of a particular geographic location.

Verisimillitude

The appearance of truth or reality in a work of literature.

Groundlings

Poor, uneducated theater-goers.

The Pit

The place in the theater where the groundlings stood.

Chorus

One or more actors who preview or sum up the action of the play.

Sonnet

A $14$-line lyric poem written in iambic pentameter that contains a specific rhyme Scheme.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech that combines contradictory terms.

Monologue

A lengthy speech in which a character addresses other characters.

Turning Point

A point of great tension that changes the play's direction and determines its outcome.

Dramatic Irony

A contrast between what a character thinks and what the audience knows is true.

Tragedy

A work of literature in which the central character experiences a great misfortune or downfall.

Tragic Hero

A noble character whose downfall is caused by a weakness in his or her character and by fate.

Tragic Flaw

A character weakness that causes the tragic hero's downfall.

Fragment

A group of words that does not express a complete thought, usually because it does not contain both a subject and a verb.

Run-on

Two or more sentences incorrectly punctuated as one.

Hero

A person or ficticious character who embodies the values of his or her culture

Soliloquy

a dramatic literary device where a character speaks their innermost thoughts, feelings, and motivations aloud while alone—or acting as if alone—on stage

Aside

a dramatic device where a character briefly speaks their inner thoughts or commentary directly to the audience