Lit Terms #2 Flashcards
a one-dimensional character, often revealing a single personal quality and staying the same throughout the story.
Flat character
a person, animal, thing, or natural force appearing in a lit work
Character
a fully developed character who is complex, revealing several sides to his/her personality and growing and changing as the story progresses.
Round character
a character who opposes the main character or who is against the main character.
Antagonist
the main character in the story.
Protagonist
the time and place in which events in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem occur.
Setting
the sequence of events or actions in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem.
Plot
the vantage point from which a narrative is told.
Point of view
the story is told by one of the characters in his or her own words—use of first person pronouns
First person
What is this an example of
Updike‟s “The Lucid Eye in Silver Town,” is narrated by an adult who recalls an incident from his youth:
“The first time I visited New York City, I was thirteen and went with my father. I went to meet my Uncle Quin and to buy a book about Vermeer.”
First person
the narrator is not a character in the story at all but is telling about the characters in the story—use of third person pronouns.
Third person
narrator focuses on only one character.
Third person limited
What is this an example of
Eudora Welty‟s “A Worn Path” focuses on Phoenix Jackson.
Third person limited
narrator focuses on all the characters
Third person omniscient
What is this an example of
Stephen Crane‟s “The Open Boat.”
Third person omniscient
The general idea or insight about life that a writer wishes to convey in a lit work.
Theme
a terse, pointed statement expressing some wise or clever observation about life.
Aphorism
What is this an example of
“He that lives upon hope will die fasting.” ~Ben Franklin
Aphorism
a book of months and days for one year with weather predictions, a wide variety of miscellaneous info, and proverbs.
Almanac
What is this an example of
Poor Richard’s Almanac ~Ben Franklin
Almanac
a short, often biblical, saying that expresses a basic truth.
Proverb
What is this an example of
“The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord.” ~Proverbs 9:10
Proverb
an inscription on a tombstone or a short poem written in memory of someone who has died.
Epitaph
What is this an example of
“Lucinda Matlock”
. . . I spun, I wove, I kept the house, I nursed the sick,
I made the garden, and for holiday
Rambled over the fields where sang the larks . . . It takes life to love Life.
~Edgar Lee Masters, Spoon River Anthology
Epitaph
