Stalking the
Elusive
Metaphor
!
A Dictionary of Literary
Terms for Grades 5-8
PREFACE
Specialized areas of activity or interest – such as sports and computer programming –
have their own vocabularies. A baseball fan or player knows the meanings of strike, line
drive, and squeeze play. If you talk to a hacker about formatting, user-friendly software, or
debugging, he will know just what you mean. In the same way, the study of literature
has its own language: words which will help you to understand what you read and to
talk about what you understand.
Stalking the Elusive Metaphor defines often-used literary terms which may not be
familiar to you yet. Words defined are in BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS; words in bold
lower case letters that you find within definitions are themselves defined in their
proper alphabetical order. As you use this dictionary, keep in mind that literary
terminology is a kind of shorthand. Knowing these words and their meanings will help
you to express your ideas and feelings about books.
ADVENTURE: a story that has lots of physical action and movement. Heroes in
adventures often find themselves in dangerous situations, which are exciting and
suspenseful for the reader. Kidnapped (Robert Louis Stevenson) and The Incredible
Journey (Sheila Burnford) are adventures.
ALLITERATION: putting together two or more words which start with the same
sound. Poets often use alliteration, but novelists use it, too, as in this example from
Incident at Hawk’s Hill (Allan W. Eckert): “Her shoulders shook with silent sobbing.”
ANECDOTE: a short account of something interesting or funny that has happened in
the past. In a letter to Boyd Henshaw (Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary), Leigh
Botts relates an anecdote about himself, Mr. Fridley, and the U.S. flag.
BIOGRAPHY: all novels are fiction; all biographies are nonfiction. The biographer
writes the history of a person’s life, using factual information from letters, diaries,
documents, and eyewitness accounts. Cheaper by the Dozen (Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. and
Ernestine Gilbreth Carey) is a biography of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, written by two of
their children who witnessed their actions and conversations. Justin Morgan Had a Horse
(Marguerite Henry) and Carry On, Mr. Bowditch (Jean Lee Latham) – although they deal
with real people and events – are not biographies because they report incidents and
conversations, which have no factual basis (see historical fiction). An
AUTOBRIOGRAPHY is the author’s account of her or his own life.
CHARACTER TRAIT: anything about a character that shows us his or her personality,
temperament, and behavior. Sometimes an omniscient narrator tells us directly what a
character is like: “Peggy was not really cruel” (The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes).
Sometimes characters describe others’ traits: Danny says that his Aunt Goldie is “a
flake” whom the tornado leaves “spacey” and “shakey and confused” (Night of the
Twisters by Ivy Ruckman). Sometimes characters show us what they are like by their
own words, thoughts, and actions: in Shiloh (Phyllis Reynolds Naylor), Marty’s firstperson narration reveals his own courage, feelings about right and wrong, and
maturity.
CONFLICT: in many stories the plot is based on a competition between or the
opposition of two characters or forces. Usually a conflict is one of the following kinds:
within a character (Ned, in One-Eyed Cat by Paula Fox, battles his own conscience);
between two characters (Tom and Injun Joe in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark
Twain); between a character and society (Kit and the people of Wethersfield in The
Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare); or between a character and nature
(Hatchet by Gary Paulson). A story may have more than one kind of conflict: Miyax
(Julie of the Wolves by Jean George) battles her fears, the wolf Jello, her changing society,
and the frozen Alaskan wilderness.
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DEUS EX MACHINA: a Latin phrase which, literally translated, means a god from a
machine. This plot device comes from ancient Greek drama: a “god” would be lowered,
using a crane-like machine, onto the stage where he would solve a problem in the play
and allow the drama to end. Over time, dues ex machina has come to mean any sudden,
unlikely event used by an author to solve a problem and end his story. The plane’s tail
that suddenly reappears in the lake in Hatchet (Gary Paulsen) is a dues ex machina: it
leads directly to Brian’s rescue.
DIALECT: also called colloquial speech, a dialect is a regional language; a way of
speaking that is different (in pronunciation, grammar, and/or vocabulary) from the
standard language of the culture. In the United States – despite the influences of
television and radio – we still have regional dialects. If an author decides on a setting
in which her characters would normally speak a dialect, she may choose to reproduce
this way of speaking as she writes their conversations. Irene Hunt in Across Five Aprils
gives us the “sound” of colloquial southern Illinois speech in the 1860’s by having her
characters say such things as “kin” instead of can, “fer” (for), “tykes” (children), and “air
a-sayin’” (are saying).
DRAMATIC ILLUSION: also called “the willing suspension of disbelief.” The
“worlds” of movies, plays, TV shows, and novels are fictional (not real) places. Yet we
allow ourselves to assume for a time that they are real (we suspend our disbelief) in
order to enter these worlds, to enjoy the stories. The better the dramatic illusion created
by an author, the easier it is for us to suspend disbelief. For example, we believe what
happens to Jess and Leslie in Bridge to Terabithia because Katherine Paterson creates a
world and people that we recognize easily: they are real to us. In The Indian in the
Cupboard, Lynne Reid Banks places a fantastic event – toys which come alive – into a
believable context: Omri, his family, his friend Patrick, and their world seem very real.
Essentially, we believe that Little Bear comes to life because we believe in Omri.
EPISODE: a part of a story that is a story by itself; it is an incident that is complete and
makes sense on its own. An EPISODIC NOVEL is made up of loosely connected
episodes. All Creatures Great and Small (James Herriot) is an episodic novel; in fact, some
of its episodes have been published as stories in magazines and even as separate books.
Other examples of episodic novels are Stuart Little (E. B. White), Ben and Me (Robert
Lawson), Philip Hall likes me. I recon maybe. (Bette Greene).
FANTASY: a literary work (novel, short story, play, etc.) which is set in an unreal
(imaginary) world and/or concerns unreal (fantastic) characters. Although fantasies
are fun to read, many of them make serious comments about real life. Some popular
fantasies are A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L’Engle) which warns us about the dangers
of mindless conformity and The Castle in the Attic (Elizabeth Winthrop) which teaches
that true friendship is unselfish.
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FICTION: anything that is not real, that is made up or imaginary. Written works
generally are classified as either fiction or nonfiction. Works of fiction (usually referred
to as LITERATURE) include novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Types of
NONFICTION are histories, essays, journalistic reports, and your science textbook – all
of which are factual.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE: writers use figures of speech – comparisons of things
which are not at all alike – in order to say much more than the literal meanings of the
words they are using. Jessie Bollier (The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox) compares a person
to a “stick notched with pious sayings,” and so says much more about the man than
would be possible in a longer, literal description. Because figures of speech are
incongruous (a person is not a stick), they capture our attention and create pictures in
our minds. (Can’t you just see a tall, thin, stiff, expressionless man giving out platitudes
at regular intervals?). Two well-known and often-used types of figurative language are
metaphors and similies.
FLASHBACK: an interruption in the chronological plot sequence of a novel, play,
movie, etc. which shows an earlier event. Much of Chapter 1 of It’s Like This, Cat (Emily
Neville) is a flashback, as is John Longridge’s remembrance of how the animals come to
live with him (The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford). The entire middle section of
Jean George’s Julie of the Wolves is a flashback.
FOIL: a contrast; foils are characters who set off (highlight, call attention to) each other
because their traits are opposites. Claudia and Jamie Kincaid (From the Mixed-Up Files of
Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Donigsburg) are foils: Claudia is imaginative, daring,
and a spendthrift; Jamie is careful, conservative, and a bit of a tightwad.
FORESHADOWING: hints about what is to come. Authors use this plot device to
create SUSPENSE – to excite our expectation and anticipation so that we become more
involved in the story. Foreshadowing can be very obvious, as in Harriet the Spy (Louise
Fitzhugh): we just know that Harriet will lose her notebook because the narrator has
told us many times that she is careless and that bad things will happen to her if it falls
into the wrong hands. Foreshadowing can also be subtle: in Where the Red Fern Grows
(Wilson Rawls), there are no obvious hints that Old Dan and Little Ann will die.
However, Billy’s deep attachment to his dogs and the dangers that they do survive
cause us to feel anxious about their welfare.
FRAME STORY: a story within a story. A Family Apart (Joan Lowery Nixon) begins
and ends with Jennifer and Jeff – in the present day – spending the summer with their
Grandmother Briley in Missouri. As Grandma begins to tell the children about what
happened to her great grandmother, Frances Mary Kelly, in 1860, the setting and point
of view change to 1860 and Frances. When Frances’ story ends, we return to the
present. So the story of Frances and her brothers and sister is “framed” by the story of
Jennifer, Jeff, and their grandmother. This isn’t a flashback because almost the entire
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novel takes place in the past. Another frame story which you may know very well is
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum). The story of Dorothy in Kansas
“frames” the story of her adventures in the Land of Oz.
GENRE: a type or category of literature. Novels, poems, dramas, and short stories are
genres of fiction. We can also classify a novel, poem, etc. according to its type or genre:
for example, a novel might be historical, romantic, or realistic fiction, an adventure, a
fantasy, or one of several other genres.
HERO/HEROINE: when used to describe characters in classical works such as The
Odyssey or Shakespeare’s dramas, these terms have very specific meanings. In talking
about modern fiction, however, we often call a main character who has traits that we
admire a “hero” or “heroine” (also see protagonist).
HISTORICAL FICTION: stories which are based on real times, places, events, and/or
people but are – in part – imaginary. Johnny Tremain (Esther Forbes) is set in colonial
Boston in the days before the American Revolution, and some of the characters in the
novel (Paul Revere, for example) are historical figures. Johnny and his role in the
events of the time; however, are fictional. Number the Stars (Lois Lowry), set in Germanoccupied Denmark during World War II, is also historical fiction; in fact, in an
Afterword to the story, Ms. Lowry gives an excellent definition of this genre.
HUMOR: something that makes us laugh. In Bunnicula, Deborah and James Howe
combine humorous characters, situations, and language to create a wonderfully funny
story about a dog, a cat, and a vampire bunny. The main characters, Harold the dog
and Chester the cat, are amusing because they are such opposites (foils). Harold, the
narrator, is easy-going, thinks mainly of food, and doesn’t quite “get” what’s happening
most of the time. Chester, on the other hand, is a high-strung sort who reads a lot and
has a very active imagination. The situation is comic because Chester is convinced that
the rabbit, Bunnicula, is a vampire, and he goes to extremes to save his family from this
“dangerous” new pet. In both their characterizations and descriptions of the situations,
the Howes are using HYPERBOLE – exaggeration – to create comedy. Chester’s
overwrought reaction when he discovers a white zucchini (“Today vegetables,
tomorrow the world!”) is pure hyperbole. The Howes also use SLAPSTICK – broad,
physical comedy – in their situations, as when Chester lands in the middle of a bowl of
salad. Much of the funny language in Bunnicula is based on misunderstandings that
result in PUNS (plays on words that sound alike but mean different things). Having
read that a vampire can be destroyed with a sharp stake, Chester tries to do away with
Bunnicula by covering the bunny with a defrosted sirloin and then pounding on the
steak.
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IMAGERY: language which describes sensory experiences: sight, sound, smell, touch,
and taste. The following excerpt from Captains Courageous (Rudyard Kipling) is filled
with imagery:
The oilskins had a peculiarly thick flavour of their own which made a sort of
background to the smells of fried fish, burnt grease, paint, pepper, and stale
tobacco (smell and taste); but these, again, were all hooped together by one
encircling smell of ship and salt water. Harvey saw with disgust that there were
no sheets on his bed-place. He was lying on a piece of dingy ticking full of
lumps and nubbles (sight and touch). Then, too, the boat’s motion was not that
of a steamer. She was neither sliding nor rolling, but rather wriggling herself
about in a silly, aimless way, like a colt at the end of a halter. Water-noises ran
by close to his ear, and beams creaked and whined about him (sound).
Did you notice the simile comparing the boat to a young horse? Images and figurative
language both create mental pictures and emotions.
LITERARY DEVICES: an author’s tools. The artist who creates your portrait may
choose from among any number of surfaces (canvas, wood, papers of many kinds) and
media (oils, watercolors, pastels, charcoal). Her choices of these tools depend on her
talents and preferences and on the image of the finished work that she “sees” in her
mind. In a similar sense, an author selects and uses devices (point of view, figurative
language, imagery, onomatopoeia, symbols, tone, alliteration) to write the story that is
in his mind.
METAPHOR: a figure of speech that compares two things which are alike in only one
way. While similes make direct comparisons using like or as (the snow was like a
shawl), a metaphor implies a comparison by saying that one thing is another (“a shawl
of snow” from Cat Walk by Mary Stolz). Although similies are more common and
easier to locate than metaphors (like and as are like trail markers when you’re hunting
similes), careful trackers often flush metaphors camouflaged within other figurative
language or literal descriptions: “bathed in waves of warmth” (A Wrinkle in Time by
Madeleine L’Engle); “a ladder built out of lies” (One-Eyed Cat by Paula Fox); “the poetry
of the trees” (Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson). When a writer creates a
metaphor (“The sea became a wildcat” from Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry)
and then continues her metaphorical comparison (the sea “slapped” and “rolled” and
“clawed” the ship; it “hissed and spat”), we call this device an EXTENDED
METAPHOR.
MOOD: the “feeling” or atmosphere of a story. Think about walking into someone’s
house for the first time: how does the place “feel” to you? Is it friendly, open, cheerful?
Is it cold, stiff, somehow forbidding? Are there odors that you recognize: perfume,
disinfectant, cookies baking? What do you hear: music playing, water running, people
talking, total silence? Just as we create moods in our homes by what we put into them
and by our styles of living, an author creates a mood for a fictional world by placing
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objects into it and describing them in a certain style. Virginia Hamilton quickly creates
a mood of mystery and foreboding in The House of Dies Drear by describing Thomas’
dream, the bleak and gloomy weather, and the history and appearance of the house to
which the family is moving. As you might expect, the mood of a story can have
foreshadowing effects.
MOTIF: a particular word, phrase, or object that we encounter again and again in one
story; or an idea or situation that we find again and again in many stories. The sea in
Sarah, Plain and Tall (Patricia MacLachlan) is a motif: Sarah talks about the sea,
compares the rolling prairie to the sea and the hay mound to a sand dune, lets the
children “hear” the sea in a conch shell, and gives them the sea in colored pencils – blue,
gray, and green. By referring again and again to the sea, Ms. MacLachlan keeps us
aware of how different the Witting’s land is from Maine and how much Sarah misses
her home. Some motifs (ideas or situations) that recur in fiction written for young
people are the obstacles kids encounter in their relationships with brothers and sisters
(Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary; Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume)
with parents (Journey by Patricia MacLachlan; Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers), and with
other kids (Nothing’s Fair in Fifth Grade by Barthe De Clements; The Cybil War by Betsy
Byars).
NARRATIVE: a tale or story. Novels, short stories, and some poems are narratives.
The NARRATOR is the “voice” which tells the tale or story. Elizabeth is the narrator of
Jennifer, Hecate, MacBeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth (E. L. Konigsburg); she tells
us the entire story in her own words. For more information about narrators, read the
definitions of persona and point of view.
NOVEL: a long, fictional narrative. There are no hard-and-fast rules about the number
of pages and/or words that divide the novel from the NOVELLA (short novel) and the
novella from the short story. All of the fictional narratives named in this dictionary are
long enough to be classified as novels, except for Sarah, Plain and Tall (Patricia
MacLachlan), Stone Fox (John Reynolds Gardiner), and Bunnicula (Deborah and James
Howe), which are novellas.
ONOMATOPOEIA: refers to words which imitate the sounds they denote (stand for).
In The Trumpet of the Swan (E. B. White), the old cob encourages Louis to speak, telling
him to “beep” and to “burble,” and the narrator of A Day No Pigs Would Die (Robert
Newton Peck) describes a hawk landing with a “whump.” The words beep, burble, and
whump are onomatopoetic: when we say them, they sound like the sounds they
represent.
PERSONA: the speaker, the narrator or “voice” that tells a story. Persona is the Latin
word for mask, and an author creates a persona to mask his or her own personality. A
persona may, for example, be a character in the story: Ramon Salazar, the protagonist
of The Black Pearl (Scott O’Dell), is a first-person narrator who tells us the entire story in
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his own words. Scott O’Dell certainly wrote the novel, but it is Ramon – O’Dell’s
created voice – who talks to us. Third-person narrators are also personae. Don’t
confuse the attitudes expressed by third-person narrators with the personal attitudes of
the authors: they may be different.
One of the best-known literary personae is Mark Twain. Samuel Clemens wrote novels,
such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, under an assumed name and in an assumed
omniscient narrative voice which he called Mark Twain. Although the author, Sam
Clemens, and his created voice, Mark Twain, are alike in some ways, they are not
identical. Lots of books and articles (for example, Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain by Justin
Kaplan) have been written about the similarities and differences of this author and his
persona.
PERSONIFICATION: a type of figurative language, which attributes human
characteristics, feelings, and actions to things which are not human. If you have read
Charlotte’s Web (E. B. White), The Mouse and the Motorcycle (Beverly Cleary), or Mrs.
Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (Robert O’Brien), you are familiar with personified animals:
Wilbur, Ralph, Mrs. Frisby, and the other animals in these stories act and think like
people do. In addition to giving human qualities to animals, authors personify ideas:
“only silence answered his knock” (The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare);
inanimate objects: “an old . . ., tired boat” (Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson);
plants: “sunflowers turned bright faces” (Blue Willow by Doris Gates); and the weather:
“rains here were lively, friendly” (Dragonwings by Laurence Yep).
PLOT: not just the happenings or incidents in a story but the way that the author
arranges them. In most stories, there are three elements (parts) of a plot: the RISING
ACTION which includes the EXPOSITION (sets the scene, introduces characters, gives
us any important information about what has happened before the story begins) and
the COMPLICATION (also called the conflict); the CLIMAX which occurs when the
complication reaches a crisis, when tension is at its highest and has come to a turning
point; the FALLING ACTION which explains how the complication is resolved and
ties up any loose ends.
The Midnight Fox (Betsy Byars) has what we call a traditional plot structure: it follows the
usual pattern. (Exposition) Tom, a city boy with many fears (including animals and
high places), must spend his summer on Aunt Millie’s and Uncle Fred’s farm.
(Complication) He feels out of place and lonely until he becomes fascinated with
watching a wild fox. Uncle Fred; however, decides to kill the fox because she is stealing
Aunt Millie’s poultry, and he captures the fox’s cub and uses it to set a trap. (Climax)
During a storm late that night, Tom climbs down the tree near his second floor bedroom
window and frees the cub. (Falling Action) Uncle Fred and Aunt Millie are not at all
upset by Tom’s action, and when his visit is over, he regrets leaving the farm. We
realize that Tom is now a little happier and a little less afraid.
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POETIC JUSTICE: a plot device in which a character gets what he deserves; the good
person is rewarded and the guilty person is punished. In Soup (Robert Newton Peck),
Robert is punished when Soup breaks a church window, but Soup gets his
comeuppance (his just deserts) when he is punished for the window that Mrs. Stetson
breaks. You are more likely to run across poetic justice in fantasies and romantic fiction
than in realistic fiction because, in the real world, things seldom work out so nicely.
POINT OF VIEW: the point (the eye and mind) from which a story is told; the voice
narrating the tale. There are two types of points of view: first-person and third-person.
The most common kind of first-person point of view is the FIRST-PERSON
PARTICIPANT: a narrator who is a character and has an active role in the story he is
telling. Superfudge (Judy Blume), Bunnicula (Deborah and James Howe), About the B’nai
Bagels (E. L. Konigsburg), and Jacob Have I Loved (Katherine Paterson) are all stories told
by first-person participant narrators. A more unusual kind of first-person point of view
is the FIRST-PERSON OBSERVER: a narrator who is a character but who has little or
no role in the story she is telling. There are ten chapters in From the Mixed-up Files of
Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (E. L. Konigsburg), and, for the first eight of those chapters,
Mrs. Frankweiler is the first-person observer of the adventures of Claudia and Jamie
Kincaid. It is only when the children arrive at her house that Mrs. Frankweiler’s point
of view changes to that of a first-person participant.
Third-person points of view are usually described as omniscient or limited. A THIRDPERSON OMNISCIENT narrator is a voice – rather than a character – that tells us the
inner thoughts and feelings of all of the characters in a story (omniscient means allknowing). Anne of Green Gables (L. M. Montgomery) is told from a third-person
omniscient point of view, as are King of the Wind (Marguerite Henry) and The Planet of
Junior Brown (Virginia Hamilton). A THIRD-PERSON LIMITED point of view is also a
voice rather than a character, but this narrator tells us what is going on in the mind of
only one character (or a very few characters) in a story. Examples of novels told from a
third-person limited point of view include Sounder (William H. Armstrong), Dicey’s
Song (Cynthia Voigt), and The Great Gilly Hopkins (Katherine Paterson).
PROTAGONIST: in a plot with a conflict, the heroine/hero/main character who is in
some way opposed. If the protagonist is opposed by another person (rather than
herself, society, or nature) that opposing character is called an ANTAGONIST. In Light
in the Forest (Conrad Richter), True Son is the protagonist and Uncle Wilse is an
antagonist; in Where the Red Fern Grows (Wilson Rawls), Billy is the protagonist and
Rubin and Rainie Pritchard are antagonists; in The Slave Dancer (Paula Fox), Jessie is the
protagonist and Captain Cawthorne is an antagonist.
REALISTIC FICTION: stories which deal with people, places, and events that are
familiar to us, that are like our own everyday experiences and circumstances. Judy
Blume, Beverly Cleary, Betsy Byars, and Katherine Paterson are four well-known
authors of realistic fiction. It is easy to imagine that we know Peter and Fudge Hatcher
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(Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Superfudge), Beezus and Ramona Quimby (Beezus
and Ramona, et al.), Sara Godfrey (The Summer of the Swans), and Jesse Aarons (Bridge to
Terabithia) because their character traits are not unusual; they think and talk and act in
ways that we recognize. The places where these characters live are like places that we
know, and the things that happen to them could happen to us.
ROMANTIC FICTION: stories which deal with people that are larger-than-life (more
heroic, good-looking, evil, or hideous than “real” people), exotic places (castles,
deserted islands, mysterious forests), and events that are highly imaginative or
downright improbable. Robert Lewis Stevenson’s classic, Treasure Island, is a romantic
adventure that has been popular with young readers for more than a century. A
modern example of romantic fiction is Avi’s The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.
SATIRE: a literary work that ridicules (makes fun of) peoples’ ideas or ways of doing
things. Authors of satires often use HYPERBOLE (exaggeration) to make us laugh at
their targets. By treating the conflict between the peddlers and the truckers in The
Pushcart War as a real war – and, therefore, as a subject for “serious” analysis – Jean
Merrill satirizes big business, politics, and many of the conditions of modern urban life.
SETTING: the time and place in which a story occurs. The setting of Island of the Blue
Dolphins (Scott O’Dell) is an island off of the California coast in the early 1800’s; of A
Day No Pigs Would Die (Robert Newton Peck), a Vermont farm in the 1920’s; of A
Gathering of Days (Joan W. Blos), a New Hampshire farm in the early 1830’s; and of
Slake’s Limbo (Felice Holman), the New York City subway in the 1970’s.
SIMILE: a kind of figurative language that directly compares two things that are unlike
in most ways but are similar in one way. Usually, the comparison in a simile is made
by using the connecting words like or as: “snow that rests like a blanket” (Stone Fox by
John Reynolds Gardiner); “snow whipped down like driven shot” (Lost in the Barrens by
Farley Mowat); “masts as thick as a pine forest” (By the Great Horn Spoon! by Sid
Fleischman); “slumber gathered him forthwith, as a swath of barley is folded into the
arms of the reaping-machine” (The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame).
STYLE: the way that an author says something, the language and devices that he uses.
Think for a moment about handwriting – your own and your classmates’. All of you
use the same set of letters, and you all were taught a set of rules for forming those
letters. Yet, all of you write differently; in fact, a person’s handwriting is as unique as
her fingerprints. An author’s style is unique, too. Two authors may write about the
same thing, but the results will be different – even though they are using the same
language and are following all of the rules of grammar, usage, spelling, and
punctuation. An author’s style actually is made up of all of the literary elements and
devices defined in this dictionary; if the author chooses not to use a particular element
or device (figurative language, for example) that, too, is a part of her style. And an
author’s style is important because it affects how we read and respond to her story.
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Let’s take a look at the style of a very popular author, Beverly Cleary. You’ve probably
read at least one of her books, and maybe you’ve even written a book report on a
Beverly Cleary novel. (Did you say that you liked it, that it was “interesting,” and then
did you have trouble finding anything else to say?). Ms. Cleary writes for a particular
audience: grade school kids. Two of the main reasons for her popularity – why so
many young people “like” her books and find them “interesting” – are that she knows
what her audience likes and she likes her audience. Her plots (the funny, sad, and
worrisome things that happen to kids) and her themes (family and friends are the most
important things of all; a mistake is only a mistake, not the end of the world) appeal to
the interests, beliefs, and concerns of many young people. Her tone is respectful and
affectionate: she does not portray her young characters – with whom her readers
identify – as foolish or insignificant. They are good, worthy people (or personified
animals like Ralph Mouse) who sometimes do funny things.
Ms. Cleary’s style also appeals to her audience because her stories move along at a
rapid pace. Most kids want to know what happens next; they are less interested in long
descriptions and more interested in action. So Ms. Cleary doesn’t spend much time on
exposition or flashbacks. Instead, she gets us involved quickly by presenting
characters and settings that are realistic: her people and places are well-known to us, so
it is easy “to get into” her stories (see dramatic illusion). Also, she doesn’t use much
imagery or figurative language: her familiar words, short sentences, and bits of
conversation allow us to concentrate on the action of the story. Many Beverly Cleary
novels are episodic: we get complication and a climax in each chapter, as well as a
main complication that builds to a climax at the end of the story. Readers who enjoy
fast-paced, plot-oriented novels are sure to enjoy Ms. Cleary’s style.
SYMBOL: something that stands for something else. Your country’s flag is a symbol:
it signifies (is a sign of) the nation, but it is much more. The flag represents a common
group of ideas, attitudes, circumstances, and events, and it also represents something
unique to each individual. An author creates and uses a symbol to involve us
personally in his work. The pearl that Ramon Salazar finds (The Black Pearl by Scott
O’Dell) is a real object, but it means different things to Ramon, his father, his mother,
Luzon, Father Gallardo, and the Sevillano. Because each of us is different, the pearl can
mean something different to each person who reads The Black Pearl. Mr. O’Dell cannot
know how each of us will react to his symbol, but he creates and uses the symbol so that
we will react – so that we will participate in the world of his novel.
THEME: the central idea or the “message” of a story or novel. Don’t confuse theme
and plot: a theme is an underlying idea, not a series of events. Often you can discover
the theme of a novel by first ignoring the events of the plot and asking yourself about
what’s going on in the mind(s) of the main character(s). If we think about what’s going
on in Kit Tyler’s mind (The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare), at least
two things are obvious: she’s lonely and she thinks Wethersfield and its people are
strange. Second, ask yourself if there is a common problem or idea that ties the events
of the plot together. Kit’s adventures are a series of conflicts with people she doesn’t
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understand and who don’t understand her. It is possible, then, that a theme of The
Witch of Blackbird Pond is the hurtful results of intolerance; that Ms. Speare is showing us
what can happen when we distrust others simply because their ways are different from
our own. There are three important points to remember about theme: (1) a novel may
have more than one theme, (2) not everybody will agree on the theme of a novel, and
(3) your idea about a novel’s theme is as good as anyone else’s – as long as you can
support your idea with evidence from the novel.
TONE: the author’s attitude toward her subject and audience. Think of the different
ways that you might say, “Yes, Mother.” Depending on your tone of voice when you
say these two words, your mother might be very pleased or very angry or something in
between. The attitude of a speaker sometimes says more than actual words, and the
same is true of authors and their writings – although it’s usually easier to identify a
speaker’s attitude than it is a writer’s. The next time that you read a story that you
really like or really dislike, give some thought to the author’s tone. Does the author
seem to be talking to you and to understand you? Does he try to involve you in the
story, to make you laugh or cry or sympathize? Does the author seem to like the
characters she has created? Tone has a big effect on how we feel about what we’re
reading, even when we don’t recognize it consciously.
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