Literary Terms for Short Story Test

The angle from which the story is told; it is dependent on the narrator

The time and place in which a story takes place

A message about life or human nature that an author expresses through a literary work

"Mr. Graves [...] dropped all the papers but those onto the ground, where the breeze caught them and lifted them off."

Mr. Graves...dropped all the papers but those onto the ground, where the breeze caught them and lifted them off.

A feeling of growing tension or excitement felt by the reader

"It rained in buckets until the sun finally peaked through the clouds."

narrator is a removed voice (not a character)

narrator knows the protagonist's thoughts/feelings

Words that a character speaks aloud

comparison of two unlike things without using the words like or as

comparison of unlike things using the words like or as

Hints the author provides that suggest future events in the story

"Chocolate was my Kryptonite"

The process by which an author creates or develops a character's qualities.

“Though his father was fat and merely owned a candy and nut shop, Harry Tillian liked his father.”

A twist/contrast between what is expected (what the reader is led to think) and what then happens

Words and phrases that appeal to the reader's five senses (sensory details that help put the reader in the story)

Giving human qualities to nonhuman animals, things, or ideas

narrator knows all characters' thoughts/feelings

The feeling created for a reader upon finishing the story

The events in a story

“Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example"

“Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult”

A reference to an out-of-context famous person, place, event or work of literature that appears in a literary work

When the narrator is a character

narrator knows no thoughts/feelings

Bill Gates uses an Apple computer.