Literary Elements, Techniques

and Terms
 Literary Devices and Terms
• A literary device is any tool used in literature to
help the reader understand the story and its
character(s).
• There are two types of literary devices used by
authors, literary elements and literary
techniques.
• Literary terms provide structure to the
literature. All literary elements are evident in
all literature that creates a story.
• Literary techniques are specific to each
author. Authors choose which of the
techniques to employ.
• Literary terms are not devices. They are
simply terms used to understand literature.
 Literary Elements
Literary elements are common literary
devices found in all literature.
• Point of view
• Setting
• Character/Characterization
• Theme
• Plot
• Conflict
 Point of View
Point of view is the vantage point from which a story is told.

First Person: The narrator is a character, often the main

character, of the story. This character reveals personal
thoughts and feelings but is unable to tell the feelings of
others unless he or she is told by another character. The
first person narrator refers to him or herself as “I.”
Third Person Objective: The narrator is an outsider, not a
character. The third person objective reports what is
happening (seen and heard), but cannot tell the reader what
characters are thinking.
Third Person Limited: The narrator is an outsider, not a
character. The third person limited reports what is
happening as well as the thoughts of one specific character.
Omniscient: This is the all-knowing narrator. The
omniscient point of view sees everything and hears
everything, and is able to see into the minds of multiple
characters.
 Exposition & Setting
• Exposition: The introductory material which gives
the setting, creates the tone, presents the characters,
and presents other facts necessary to understanding
the story.
• In other words, the exposition exposes you to all the
important background info.
• Setting generally provides the time and place of a
specific scene or chapter, the entire story, a play or a
narrative poem.
• Setting can also include the mood of the time period,
situation or event.
• Setting can also be the social, political, environmental
or emotional climate.
• Setting can also include the emotional state of a
character.
 Characters
• The term character refers to a person or an
animal in a story, play or other literary work.
• Major characters are almost always round,
or three dimensional. They have good and
bad qualities. Their goals, ambitions and
values change as a result of what happens to
him or her. A character who changes as a
result of the events of the story is referred to
as DYNAMIC.
 Types of Major Characters
• Protagonist: The main character in the
story. Usually the one who faces the
main conflict.
• Antagonist: The character or force that
opposes the protagonist.
• Foil: A foil is a character that contrasts
with another character (usually the
protagonist) in order to highlight various
features of the main character's
personality.
 Minor Characters
• Almost always flat or two-dimensional
characters.
• They are usually all good or all bad.
Such characters can be amusing in
their own right, but lack depth.
• Flat characters are sometimes called
STATIC characters because they
change very little or not at all through
the literary work.
 Characterization
• Characterization is the way a writer
reveals the personality of a
character.

• Characterization is how the author

develops and uses the characters to tell
a story.

• Characterization is often the most

important aspect of a story.
 Theme
• Theme is the main idea or underlying
meaning of a literary work.
• Theme is a main idea or strong message tied
to life.
• Theme threads itself through a story, chapter
or scene to make a point about life, society or
human nature.
• Theme is typically implied rather than blatant.
The reader has to think about it.
• Generally, there is one major theme in a piece
of literature. A major theme is one that the
author returns to time and again.
 Theme cont.
• There are four ways to express theme:
1. Feelings of the main character
2. Thoughts and conversations (*Look
for thoughts and phrases that are
repeated)
3. What the main character learns
4. Actions and events
 Conflict
• Conflict is a struggle between opposing
characters or opposing forces.
• Conflict is essential to the plot of a work of fiction.
• There are four general types of conflict in
literature:

 Man versus Man is the conflict of one person against

another person.
 Man versus Nature is the conflict a person encounters with
the forces of nature, and shows how insignificant one
person can be when compared to the cosmic scheme of
things.
 Man versus Society is the conflict of a person/people and
the views of society. Prejudice/Racism is a good example.
 Man versus Self is internal conflict. It is those conflicts an
individual has with his conscience.
 Plot
• All fiction is based on conflict and this
conflict is presented in a structured
format called PLOT.
• Plot is the sequence of events that
happen in a story.
• Plot has five basic points:
 Exposition is the beginning of the story.
 Rising action is when something starts to happen.
 Climax is the high point of the action.
 Falling action is the action following the climax, a cool down.
 Resolution (Denouement) is the conclusion of the action
when everything comes together.
 Climax

Rising action Falling action

Resolution

Exposition

Plot Map
 Literary Techniques

• Literary techniques are used to

produce a specific effect on the
reader.
• Authors often use a variety of
techniques throughout a piece of
literature.
Literary Terms
 Allegory:
A story in which the
characters represent
abstract qualities or ideas.
For example, in
westerns, the sheriff
represents the good, and
the outlaw represents evil.
 Alliteration:
The repetition of first
consonants in a group of
words as in “Peter Piper
Picked a Peck of Pickled
Peppers.”
 Allusion:
A reference to something or
someone often literary. For
instance, if you were trying to
instill confidence in a friend
and said, “Use the force,” that
would be an allusion to Stars
Wars. The verb form of
allusion is to allude.
 Anecdote:
A very short humorous or
entertaining incident, often from
personal experiences
 Antagonist:
A major character who
opposes the protagonist in a
story or play.
Protagonist:
The main character of a
novel, play, or story.
 •Archetype:
A character who represents a certain
type of person. For example, Daniel
Boone is an archetype of the early
American frontiersman.
It is a symbol or pattern recognized by all cultures
 Green: growth, sensation, hope, fertility; in negative contexts may be associated with
death and decay.
 Blue: usually positive, associated with truth, religious feeling, security, spiritual purity
( the color of the Great Mother or Holy Mother). 
 Black (darkness): chaos, mystery, the unknown; death; primal wisdom, the unconscious;
evil; melancholy.
 White: In its positive aspects, light, purity, innocence, and timelessness.

In its negative aspects, death, terror, the supernatural, and the blinding truth of mystery.
 Assonance:
The repetition of vowel
sounds as in “Days wane
away.”
 Atmosphere:
The overall feeling of a work,
which is related to tone and
mood.
 Blank verse:
Unrhymed lines of poetry
usually in iambic pentameter.
Plenty of modern poetry is
written in blank verse.
 Characterization:
The means by which an
author establishes character.
An author may directly
describe the appearance and
personality of character or
show it through action or
dialogue.
 Direct and Indirect
Characterization:
- The writer tells what a character is
like by means of direct comment.
- A writer shows what a character is
like by (1)giving a physical description
(2) relating character’s actions and
words (3) revealing the character’s
thoughts and feelings (4) making clear
what others ib the story think about the
character.
 Dynamic character—a
character which changes
during the course of a story or
novel

Static character—a character

who remains primarily the
same during the course of a
story or novel
 Round character—a well developed
character who demonstrates varied
and sometimes contradictory traits
Flat character—a two-dimensional
and relatively uncomplicated character
who does not change throughout a
story or novel
Stock Character—a special kind of
flat character who is instantly
recognizable (stereotypical)
 Cliche:
An expression that has
become trite from excessive
use.
 Climax:
The point at which the action
in a story or play reaches its
emotional peak.
 Conflict:
The elements that create a plot.
Traditionally, every plot is build
from the most basic elements of
a conflict and an eventual
resolution. The conflict can be
internal (within one character) or
external (among or between
characters, society, and/or
nature).
 Contrast:
To explain how two things
differ. To compare and
contrast is to explain how two
things are alike and how they
are different.
 Couplets:
A pair of rhyming lines in a
poem often set off from the
rest of the poem.
Shakespeare’s sonnets all
end in couplets.
 Denouement:
The resolution of the conflict in a
plot after the climax. It also
refers to the resolution of the
action in a story or play after the
principal drama is resolved—in
other words, tying up the loose
ends or wrapping up a story.
 Dialogue:
The conversation of characters.
The use of dialogue can add to to
the realistic quality of a story.
 Dramatic Monologue:
A poem with a fictional
narrator addressed to
someone who identity the
audience knows, but who
does not say anything.
 Elegy:
A poem mourning the dead.
 End rhyme:
Rhyming words that are at
the ends of their respective
lines—what we typically
think of as normal rhyme.
 Epic:
A long poem narrating the
adventures of a heroic figure
—for example, Homer’s The
Odyssey.
 Exaggeration:
Overstatement or
overemphasis, often with
comic effect.
 Exposition:
The part of a story giving
background information.
 Fable:
A story that illustrates a
moral often using animals as
the character—for example,
The Tortoise and the Hare.
 Fiction:
A narrative that is invented
or imagined. A work of fiction
may be based on true
events, but the final product
has been shaped and
reformed by the writer.
 Fantasy:
A form of fiction that deals
with unreal or fantastic
things.
 Figurative Language:
Language that does not mean
exactly what it says. For
example, you can call
someone who is very angry
“steaming.” Unless steam
was actually coming out of
your ears, you were using
figurative language.
First Person Point of View:
The point of view of writing
which the narrator refers to
himself as “I.”
 Flashback:
An interruption in a narrative
to relate an action that has
already occured.
 Foreshadowing:
A technique in which an
author gives clues about
something that will happen
later in the story.
 Free Verse:
Poetry with no set
meter (rhythm) or
rhyme scheme.
 Genre:
A kind of style usually art or
literature. Some literary genres
are mysteries, westerns, and
romances.
 Hyperbole:
A huge exaggeration. For
example, “Dan’s the funniest
guy on the planet!” or “That
baseball card is worth a zillion
dollars!” All the perfumes of
Arabia could not sweeten this
little hand." (from Macbeth by
William Shakespeare)
 Iambic pentameter:
Ten-syllable lines in which
every other syllable is
stressed. For example: “With
eyes like stars upon the brave
night air.”
 Imagery:
The use of description that helps
the reader imagine how
something looks, sounds, feels,
smells, or taste. Most of the
time, it refers to appearance.
For example, “The young bird’s
white, feathered wings flutter as
he made his way across the
nighttime sky.”
 Incongruity:
A technique of pairing opposites
to create unexpected contrast.
 Internal rhyme:
A rhyme that occurs within
one line such as “He’s King of
the Swing.”
 Irony:
Language that conveys a
certain ideas by saying just he
opposite.
Dramatic Irony:
The reader knows something
that a character in the story
does not know.
 Verbal Irony:
A writer or character says one
thing and means something
entirely different.

Irony of Situation:
There is a contrast between what
is expected and what actually
happens.
 Jargon:
A specialized vocabulary
used by those of a particular
trade or profession.
Literal Language:
Language that means
exactly what it says.
 Lyric:
A type of poetry that
expresses the poet’s
emotions. It often tells some
sort of brief story, engaging
the reading in the experience.
 Metaphor:
A comparison that doesn’t
use “like” or “as”—such as
“He’s a rock” or “I am an
island.”
 Meter:
The pattern of stressed and
unstressed syllables in the
lines of a poem.
 Monologue:
A long speech by one
character in a play or story.
 Mood / Atmosphere :
The emotional atmosphere of
a given piece of writing. For
example, The Mood or
Atmosphere might be scary,
happy, sad, romantic, nostalgic,
or exciting.
 Motif:
A theme or pattern that
recurs in a work.
 Myth:
A legend that embodies the
beliefs of people and offers
some explanation for natural
and social phenomena.
 Onomatopoeia:
The use of words that sound
like what they mean such as
“buzz.”
 Parable:
A short, simple tale that
illustrates a moral or spiritual
lesson.
 Paradox:
A seeming contradiction.
For example, “It was the best

of times. It was the worst of

times.”
 Parody:
A humorous, exaggerated
imitation of another work.
 Personification:
Giving inanimate object
human characteristics. For
example, “The flames reached
for the child hovering in the
corner.”
 Plot:
The action in the story.
 Prose:
Writing organized into
sentences and paragraphs. In
other words, normal writing—
not poetry.
 Pun:
The use of a word in a way
that plays on its different
meanings. For example,
“Noticing the bunch of
bananas, the hungry gorilla
went ape.
 Quatrain:
A four-line stanza.
 Resolution:
The final part of a story that
makes clear the outcome of
the conflict.
 Revelation:
A dramatic moment that
reveals something important
to a character.
 Rhetorical Question:
A question not meant to be
answered such as “Why can’t
we just get along?”
 Sarcasm:
Language that conveys a
certain idea by saying just he
opposite such as if it’s raining
outside and you say, “My
what a beautiful day.”
 Satire:
A work that makes fun of
something or someone.
Forceful Satire: employing a
bitter or sarcastic tone
Genial Satire: makes use of
humorous or light-hearted
tone
 Sensory imagery:
Imagery that has to do with
something you can see, hear,
taste, smell, or feel. For
example, “The stinging, salty
air drenched his face.”
 Simile:
A comparison that uses
“like” or “as” For example,
“I’m as hungry as a wolf,” or
“My love is like a rose.”
 Soliloquy:
A monologue in which a
character expresses his or
her thoughts to the audience
and does not intend the other
characters to hear them.
 Sonnet:
A fourteen-line poem written
iambic pentameter. Different
kinds of sonnets have
different rhyme schemes.
 Stanza:
A section of poetry separated
from the sections before and
after it; a verse “paragraph.”
 Subplot:
A line of action
secondary to the main story.
 Symbolism:
The use of one things to
represent another. For
example, a dove is a symbol
of peace.
 Tall Tale:
A narrative relating
superhuman feats or
comically exggarated and
improbable events.
 Theme:
The central idea of a work.
 Tone:
The author’s attitude toward
his or her subject. For
example, a tone could be
pessimistic, optimistic, or
angry.
 Verisimilitude:
The appearance of reality in
fiction.
 Voice:
The narrative point of view
whether it’s in the first,
second, or third person.