Literary Elements Notes
1. Setting: The time and location where a story takes place.
2. Plot: All the events in a story.
3. Conflict: Opposition between characters or forces
4. Theme: The main idea or underlying meaning of a literary work.
5. Motif: A recurring object or concept in a work of literature.
6. Exposition: The purpose of exposition is to provide some
background and inform the readers about the plot, character,
setting, and theme of the essay or story.
7. Rising Action: Follows the exposition and builds suspense,
leading up to the climax.
8. Climax: The point of highest tension or drama in a work of
literature.
9. Falling Action: The part of the plot after the climax that shows
the effects of the climax and leads to the resolution.
10. Resolution: The conclusion of the plot’s conflicts, where the
problem of the story is resolved or worked out.
11. Metaphor: A comparison of two unlike things without using “like”
or “as”
12. Simile: A comparison of two unlike things using “like” or “as”
13. Allusion: A reference to an event, place, literary work, or myth.
It is left to the reader to make the connection between the
allusion and the story.
14. Idiom: An expression whose meaning is not clear by knowing
the literal meaning of the words. For example: “Kick the
bucket” or “Let the cat out of the bag.”
15. Onomatopoeia: A word that imitates a sound. “Boom” or “Swish”
16. Alliteration: The repetition of a consonant sound in the first
syllable of a series of words.
17. Hyperbole: An exaggeration.
18. Personification: To give human qualities to a nonliving object or
idea.