Literary Elements

Anything that stands for or represents something else

When something is described as though it were something else (without using “like” or “as”)

Necessary parts of literature –something a story cannot do without!

Using words or phrases that appeal to one or more of the five senses

The general atmosphere created by the author’s words

A sequence of events, the main events of a story

A tool used to make your writing stronger or more interesting

A literary work’s central message, concern, or purpose – the moral to the story

Repeating the same vowel sound in words close to each other in writing

Perspective from which a story is told

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

Writing or speech that is not meant to be taken literally

The use of words that imitate the sound associated with something, sound words

Written or spoken conversation between two or more people that propels the action

A concluding part added to a literary work that often foreshadows the future of the story

To narrate, to inform, to argue

Expressing the exact opposite of the literal meaning of what is being said, sarcasm

A scene that takes the story line back in time from the current point

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

An introductory part to a play, poem, or novel

A type of figurative language in which a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics

When an author describes a character and the character traits

The time and place a story occurs

A figure of speech using “like” or “as” to make a direct comparison between two unlike ideas

A division or type of literature. 

An exaggeration of truth

Showing similarities between two things that have a common relationship

Using several words that begin with the same or similar consonants

An indirect reference to a well-known person, place, event, or object in a literary work

When the reader or audience knows something that a character does not

Using a word over and over for effect in writing

The problem a character faces in a story