Literary Terms

When someone says the opposite of what he/she really means, for example, sarcasm

A human struggle against nature, God, and/or society

A reference to a famous person, place, event in history, or a famous works of literature

A means by which authors present material that occurred earlier than the present tense

A conflict that involves a character against himself/herself

The repetition of vowel sounds

Time and location in which the story occurs

The repetition of initial consonant sounds

When the opposite happens from what is expected to happen

A statement that seems contrary to common sense yet may, in fact, be true

Point of view in which the narrator is a character in the story; often using the word I

Point of view in which the narrator knows thoughts and feelings of all characters

A combination of contradictory terms; for example, a jumbo shrimp

When the reader knows what is happening, but the characters do not

A poem that tells a story

A literary exaggeration

An object that represents something abstract

The feeling the reader gets from a literary work

The pattern of rhyme between lines of a poem or song

Point of view in which the narrator tells thoughts and feelings of only one character

Giving human qualities to something that is non-human

A comparison between two unlike things using the words like or as

Using words to create a picture in the reader's mind

Setting, characters, and conflict found at the beginning of the story

The message or main concept in a poem, play, short story, novel, or essay

The beginning, middle, and end of a story

A comparison between two unlike things, not using like or as

Hints and clues that lead to predicting what will happen next or later in the story

The character (or force) who opposes the main character of a story

A play on words

The central (main) character in a story; often the hero