Literary Terms

Allegory

A story in which people, things, and actions represent generalizations about life, often with a moral or message.

Analyze

The use of reasoning to interpret and examine ideas or issues of a specific topic.

Allegory

A story in which people, things, and actions represent generalizations about life, often with a moral or message.

Analyze

The use of reasoning to interpret and examine ideas or issues of a specific topic.

Anaphora

Repetition of a word or expression at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or verses.

Antagonist

The most prominent character who opposes the protagonist; often a villain seeking to hinder the hero/heroine.

Archetypes

A character type, pattern, or model of an action or image that recurs consistently enough in literature to be considered universal.

Assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds.

Characterization

The creation of a character’s appearance and personality.

Dramatic irony

Occurs when the reader or audience knows something important that the character does not.

Dynamic Character

A character who changes.

Flat Character

A character who can be described in one or two traits.

Hyperbole

An extreme exaggeration for the sake of emphasis.

Motif

An often-repeated idea or theme in a piece of literature.

Onomatopoeia

Words whose sounds are suggestive of their meanings.

Parallelism

Repetition of words, phrases, or clauses that have the same grammatical structure or state a similar idea.

Persona

A character assumed by an author.

Personification

A literary device in which nonhuman things are given human qualities and characteristics.

Protagonist

The central character in a story who initiates or drives the action.

Round Character

A character that is complex and well-developed.

Simile

The comparison of two unlike things using 'like' or 'as'.

Situational Irony

An outcome that turns out to be very different from what was expected.

Static Character

A character who remains unchanged or little changed throughout the course of a story.

Summarizing

Taking larger pieces of text and reducing them to their bare essentials or most important points in your own words.

Theme

The central idea or insight about human life that is revealed in a literary work.

Verbal Irony

When a character says one thing but means the opposite (sarcasm).

Works Cited

The page/section of an essay that lists all of the sources referenced in the text.