English Finals Flashcards
Plot
The large controlling frame of a story or play, including the pattern of events and the relationship among events.
Theme
A focal idea that controls the piece of writing and provides its central insight.
Personification
A figure of speech that endows ideas, abstractions, or inanimate objects with human form.
Point of view
The perspective of the narrator of the story. The perspective may be recent or reminiscent.
Characterization
Direct characterization employs explicit exposition, illustrated by the action of the story; we are told what the character is like. Indirect characterization requires the reader to infer the a character’s attributes based only on dialogue and action; we are shown what the character is like.
Tone
The author’s attitude toward the audience or the subject, implied or related directly through authorial voice.
Similie
A similarity between two essentially unlike things that is directly expressed
Metaphor
An implied comparison in which two unlike things are linked by a surprising similarity. Either thing or both may be unstated.
Foreshadowing
Preparation for later events in the plot, achieved by establishing mood or atmosphere or revealing a fundamental and decisive character trait. Physical objects or facts may also intimate or suggest later action.
Irony
A recognition of incongruities in event, situation, or structure in which reality differs from appearance.
Imagery
A literal and concrete representation of a sensory experience or an object that can be known by the senses.
Apostrophe
A rhetorical device in which an absent or imaginary person or abstraction is directly addressed as through present.
Allusion
A brief reference to a commonly known historical or literary figure, event, or object.
Setting
The background of the action, it is of various importance in works of literature. Setting may include the geographical location, the daily manner of living, the epoch or season or time of day, the atmosphere, and the general environment, including religious, mental, moral, social, or emotional conditions and their symbolic meaning.
