Literary Terms

Question 1

Flat Characters

Answer 1

A character whose personality traits can only be described in a few words

Question 2

Round Characters

Answer 2

A character whose personality traits are complex and have multiple aspects/sides (more like a real person)

Question 3

Static Characters

Answer 3

A character who is the same sort of person at the end of the story as at the beginning (doesn’t change throughout the story)

Question 4

Dynamic Characters

Answer 4

A character who undergoes a permanent change in moral qualities, personal habits, or outlook (a person that changes and evolves throughout the story)

Question 5

Stock Characters

Answer 5

A personified stereotype, one whose nature is familiar to us from prototypes in literature; A type of character in a narrative whom audiences recognize across many narratives

Question 6

Antagonists

Answer 6

The person/force that works against the protagonist

Question 7

Protagonists

Answer 7

The main character of a story; The central character; We care about him/her/them and follow his/her/their struggle with interest

Question 8

Symbol

Answer 8

An object or action that signifies something beyond its literal meaning

Question 9

Suspense

Answer 9

The quality in a story that makes the reader eager to discover what will happen next (feeling of being excited/on the edge of your seat);
Reader’s curiosity is combined with anxiety about the fate of a sympathetic character(mystery/ dilemma to create anxiety and curiosity)

Question 10

Setting

Answer 10

The place and time in which a story’s action takes place - time might include year, season, time of day;
The culture, ways of life, and shared beliefs of the characters (the atmosphere)

Question 11

Theme

Answer 11

A main idea or an underlying message of a literary work that may be state directly or indirectly; Theme comes from the subject; The universal truth - isn’t 1 single word

Question 12

Foreshadowing

Answer 12

An indication or suggestion of what might happen later in the text

Question 13

Conflicts

Answer 13

An important element of a story’s plot that involves a clash of ideas, desires, or wills; Often sets in motion the rising action of the plot

Question 14

Types of Conflicts

Answer 14

External and Internal Conflicts

Question 15

Person vs Person

Answer 15

External Conflict:
The main characters will be opposed by or will oppose the actions, reactions, motivations of another character or characters.

Question 16

Person vs Environment

Answer 16

External Conflict:
Nature serves as the obstacle for characters; A natural calamity such as a typhoon or tsunami

Question 17

Person vs Society

Answer 17

External Conflict:
These are conflicts where the main characters’ firm beliefs are against norms that the entire society as a whole endorses. It could be social evils or discrimination practiced by society that is opposed by a minority.

Question 18

Person vs Supernatural

Answer 18

External Conflict:
Conflict between the main characters fighting against an evil force that’s trying to harm them and others close to them, a supernatural creature, monster or entity that stands as an otherworldly obstacle for your protagonist in achieving their mission(not real)

Question 19

Person vs Self

Answer 19

Internal Conflict:
The protagonist’s emotional journey consists of overcoming their own internal struggles

Question 20

Point of View

Answer 20

Point of view is the mode of narration that an author employs to let the readers “hear” and “see” what takes place in a story or poem

Question 21

Irony

Answer 21

A situation or use of language involving some kind of discrepancy between what is expected and what actually happens; The expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect

Question 22

Alliteration

Answer 22

The repetition of initial consonant sounds in successive words; The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words

Question 23

Personification

Answer 23

Giving inanimate objects, animals or ideas human characteristics

Question 24

Metaphor

Answer 24

A comparison between two basically different things that have something in common; Do NOT contain the words like or as

Question 25

Simile

Answer 25

A comparison between two things that are actually unlike but have something in common; The comparison contains the words like or as

Question 26

Imagery

Answer 26

Vivid descriptions that create mental pictures for the reader

Question 27

Tone

Answer 27

An attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience; Generally conveyed through the author’s diction (choice of word); Examples of tones might be formal, informal, serious, comic, sarcastic, sad, cheerful, etc