Literary Terms and Elements

Your Gateway to Passing

Criterion Reference Tests

CRT’s

Why do I need to know these

terms? Because these are the basic building blocks of

literature

Because you will be asked to identify these concepts in literature

Because they help breakdown literature into basic elements, which helps you better understand literature

Because when you write a Literary Analysis these are the concepts you are expected to discusss

Narrator

The voice that tells the reader the story .

Point of View

The perspective from which the narrator tells

the story

1st Person

When the narrator is a character in the story

2nd Person

When the narrator addresses the reader as

“You”

3rd Person

When the narrator tells the story as an

observer, not a participant

Omniscient

When the narrator knows all the thoughts,

history, and perspectives of the characters

and events in the story.

It is telling the story from “God’s

perspective.”

Limited

When the narrator has limited information

concerning the thoughts, history and

perspectives of the characters and events in

the story.

Plot

Plot- the series of events in a story

Hint: Every story has a plot. Every story

has a beginning, middle and end, even if

they do not follow in chronological order.

Structure of a story

Basic situation- Setting and Characters

Inciting incident- the events that lead to the conflict

Conflict- the problem in the story

Climax- the point at which the conflict becomes most intense

Resolution- how the conflict in the story ends

Tone

Tone- is the general feeling an author

creates in an entire work or passage. Tone

is described using words that express

emotion.

Theme

Theme- is the meaning of a story as it

relates to some aspect of the human

condition

Hint- the theme of a story is not the moral.

It is not telling what we should do or how we

should act. It is a discussion about the

author’s point of view concerning the nature

of humans and the experiences they have

Conflict

Conflict- the problem in the story that the main character is trying to overcome

Hint- without conflict in the story there can be no story

Hint- the theme of the story can usually be found in understanding the nature of the conflict in a story

There are three types of conflict

Man vs. Man

Man vs. Man- a struggle in which the main

character comes into conflict with another

character or a group of people. So, it can be

man vs. man individual (single) or man vs. a

group of people (collective). It includes the

idea of man vs. society

Hint- most often a good guy vs. bad conflict i

.e. kung fu movies and soap operas

Man vs. Himself

Man vs. Self- this is internal conflict. It

occurs when a character struggles with

decisions or beliefs.

Man vs. Environment

Man vs. Environment- a struggle between

the main character and the external world.

It is not restricted to “the great outdoors.”

Nature in this sense is the external world.

So it could include urban environments.

Types of Characters

Dynamic

Static

Protagonist

Protagonist- the character in the story who

is involved in or drives the action in a story.

The protagonist is the character that we

should strive to identify with. We as the

readers hope that their best interest will be

achieved

Antagonist

Antagonist- the character who works against

the success of the protagonist. Sometimes

inner conflict can be the source of the

antagonist in a character.

Dynamic Character

Dynamic character- characters who drive

the action and change from one perspective

to another throughout the story.

Protagonists are usually dynamic. When

they are not the ending is usually tragic

Static character

Static characters- do not change throughout

the story. They may be complex, but they

remain essentially unchanged.

Symbol

An object that represents a concept or

emotion relevant to the theme of a story

Hint: usually an object that continues to

appear or be referenced in a story. It is

mentioned repeatedly.

Irony

There are three kinds of irony: dramatic,

situational and verbal. The characteristic

they have in common is a sense of

contradiction between apparent meaning

and actual meaning.

Dramatic Irony

When the audience knows the truth of the

situation, but it is unknown to the characters.

Example: In horror movies, we know the

bad guy is hiding in the closet, before the

main character foolishly goes to investigate

the noise in the closet

Situational Irony

When the meaning of the situation is the

opposite of what we would normally expect.

Example: When Jack Sparrow is stranded

on the desert island with no food or water,

but he does have a thousand year supply of

rum. He has abundance, but it is an

abundance that does not really help him

survive.

Verbal Irony

When the meaning of the words in the

context of the situation has the opposite

meaning of what we would expect.

Example: When Arnold says I’ll be back, we

do not expect that means he is going to

drive his car through the wall. Ordinarily the

phrase simply means I will return.