Literary Elements
Setting: where and when
story takes place
 Location, weather,
time period
 Customs, dress,
character behavior
 Can reveal character
 Effects mood & tone
Plot: series of related events (story itself)
Learn outcome of conflict; moment of greatest
Climax: interest and intensity
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Event
Complications:
In trying to solve
problem, main
character faced
with more problems
Event
Event
Exposition/basic situation:
Opening of story when main characters
and conflict is introduced
Conflict:
Internal—man vs. self
(struggle within onself)
External:
Man vs. man
Man vs. nature/nonhuman
Man vs. group/society
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Time Elements:
Chronological:
order events unfold
in real time
Flashback:
interrupts flow to
present episode
from the past
Flash-forward:
jumping ahead in
time
Foreshadowing:
hints in story as to
what might happen
later (brings in
future)
Resolution:
Struggles over and we know
what is going to happen to
characters
Literary Elements
Characterization (pgs. 84-85 and 116-117)
Direct characterization: tells reader directly
what character is like or what motives are
 Indirect characterization: methods used to
reveal character to reader and allow for interpretation (speech, actions, appearance,
private thoughts, how other characters feel
about character)
 Conflict often reveals and effects character:
external vs. internal/antagonist (bad) vs.
protagonist (good).
 Motivation: what drives character (why do
they do what they do?)
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Narrator & Point of View (pgs. 148-149)
person who tells the story (3 types)
First-person POV (persona): character in
story who uses “I” to tell story. Limited to
this character
 Third-person limited POV: zooms in on
one character but told in third-person from
his/her POV (limited to this character)
 Omniscient (all-knowing) POV: not character in story (knows it all)
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Themes (pgs. 208-209)
Reveals central idea or insight about life
(generalization about life/human nature)
Not directly stated in story but is found in all genres
Universal theme: deals with experiences common to
all (good and evil, life and death, love and loss)
Should be stated in one sentence (same idea but
different words for each person)
To find theme think about: topic; character;
conflict; title; whole story
Stylistic Devices: methods and language used by the author to create
specific effects in story
Irony & Ambiguity
(pgs. 284-285)
 Ambiguity: readers
left to sort out conflicting consequences
or meaning
 Irony: difference between what we expect
to happen and what
actually happens
(verbal, situational,
dramatic)
Symbolism & Allegory
(pgs. 340-341)
 Symbolism: when object, person, animal, or
event stands for something more than itself
 Allegory: story in
which characters, settings, actions stand for
something beyond
themselves
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Figurative Language
(pg. 498)
Not to be take literally
Similes: comparing to
unlike things using like/
as/than
Metaphors: comparing to
unlike things NOT using
like/as/than
Personification: giving
human qualities to something that is not human
Tone & Mood
Tone: writer’s attitude
toward a subject
(disrespectful, tender,
stern, excited)
 Mood: the way reader
feels when reading
story (sad, fearful,
uneasy)
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Sensory Language
Imagery: language that
appeals to our senses
(touch, smell, sight,
hearing, taste)