Freshmen Literary Terms

Liesel criticizing Hitler in public

The force or character against the protagonist

Universal idea or lesson about life; understood by most cultures

The time period and setting is authentic; the story is fictional.

The force or character against the protagonist

A repeated idea. (In The Book Thief, light and darkness.)

Hints that the author gives of things that are to come in the story.

A brief story or a brief description

Reference to a well-known person, event, place, literary work or work of art.

Giving inanimate objects human characteristics

Opposing forces

A contrast between what appears to be real and what is actually real.

Repeating an idea for effect.

A genre: the protagonist is developing physically and mentally.

Where and when a story takes place

The author's attitude toward a character or idea

A character who has one or true traits; audiences don't learn much about this sort of character.

Rudy vs. Death

When readers learn about a character from the character's actions or other characters' interactions with that character.

Anything that stands for or represents something else

Who tells the story

Conclusion of the story

The feeling that a reader experience where the reader is unsure of the next point.

Atmosphere or feeling we get from the story

A description that appeals to one's five senses

The introduction of setting, character, and basic situation in a story

The main character in a story who we want to win

A comparison between two things using like or as

In a story, the highest or most intense point in the development

Comparison of two things without using like or as.