Short Story Vocabulary

Anything that stands for or represents something else

The point of highest interest and suspense in a story

The feeling created in the reader by a literary work

A contradiction between what happens and what expected

The writer’s attitude toward his or her audience and subject

The main character in a literary work

A person or animal who takes part in the action of a literary work

A struggle that takes place inside the mind of a character

A central message, concern, or purpose in a literary work

The perspective from which a story is told

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

The feeling created in the reader by a literary work

A character or force in conflict with a main character

A feeling of anxious uncertainty about the outcome of events in a literary work

A scene within a story that interrupts the sequence of events to relate to an event in the past

The time and place of the action

Introduces the characters, setting, and basic situation

The sequence of events in a story

A struggle against some outside force

A struggle between opposing forces