Short Story Terms

Question 0

The opening section of a narrative or dramatic work In which the main character (or protagonist) is introduced, the setting is established, and necessary background information is presented.

Answer 0

Exposition

Question 1

The main events of a play, novel, movie, or similar work, devised and presented by the writer as an interrelated sequence

Answer 1

Plot

Question 2

The time and place in which the events of a literary work occur

The setting can often take on a significant symbolic meaning or help to establish a theme.

Answer 2

Setting

Question 3

The event in a story that sets up the conflict that will drive the plot

Answer 3

Initiating Event

Question 4

The part of the narrative or dramatic work when the conflict will be resolved

Answer 4

Climax

Question 5

The events in the plot that lead toward the climax

Answer 5

Rising Action

Question 6

The events that follow the climax and lead toward the resolution
There are typically fewer events that qualify as falling action than there are events that qualify as rising action.

Answer 6

Falling Action

Question 7

The final part of a narrative or dramatic work

Often involves reflection on the events that took place in the story

Answer 7

Resolution

Question 8

A conflict that takes place entirely within a character’s own mind. It is a struggle between opposing needs or desires or emotions within a single person.

Example: In James Hurst’s, “The Scarlet Ibis,” the young narrator struggles with an internal conflict—between love for his brother and hatred of his brother’s disabilities.

Man vs. Self - This type of conflict occurs when a character must overcome his own nature or make a choice between two or more paths.

Answer 8

Internal Conflict

Question 9

When a character struggles against an outside force
The outside force might be another character, or society as a whole, or something in nature.

Example: “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell is about the external conflict between the evil General Zaroff and the hunter, Rainsford.

Man vs. Man - This conflict occurs when one character (usually the protagonist) goes up against another (often the antagonist).

Man vs. Society - This type of conflict occurs when a character is at odds with the established norms, customs, and values of the world around him.

Man vs. Nature - This type of conflict occurs when a character must battle an animal or the forces of nature to survive

Man vs. Supernatural - This type of conflict occurs when a character is opposed by a god, demon, monster, spirit, apparition, or anything else otherworldly.

Man vs. Technology - This type of conflict occurs when a character is opposed by technological difficulties (e.g. computer failure).

Answer 9

External Conflict

Question 10

Telling us directly what the character’s personality is like: cruel, kind, sneaky, brave, and so on

Example: Jane was an intelligent, quick-witted woman.

Answer 10

Direct Characterization

Question 11

• Letting us hear the character speak
• Describing how the character looks and dresses
• Letting us listen to the character’s inner thoughts and feelings
• Revealing what other characters in the story think or say about the character
• Showing us what the character does—how he or she acts

Answer 11

Indirect Characterization

Question 12

A flat character has only one or two traits, and these can be described in a few words.

Answer 12

Flat

Question 13

A round character, like a real person, has many different character traits, which sometimes contradict one another.

Answer 13

Round

Question 14

A dynamic character changes as a result of the story’s events.

Answer 14

Dynamic

Question 15

A static character is one who does not change much in the course of a story.

Answer 15

Static

Question 16

One of the characters is telling the story, using the pronoun I.

Answer 16

First Person

Question 17

Writers using second person point of view write from the reader’s point of view using the pronoun you.

“You believe” “You think” “You saw”

Answer 17

Second Person

Question 18

the person telling the story knows everything there is to know about the characters and their problems. Think of this P.O.V. as “all-knowing

the narrator, who plays no part in the story, zooms in on the thoughts and feelings of just one character

Answer 18

Third Person Omniscient/ limited

Question 19

A figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared using a connective

Example: My dog is as smelly as dirty socks.

Answer 19

Simile

Question 20

A figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance

Example: The calm lake was a sheet of glass.

Answer 20

Metaphor

Question 21

The attribution of a personal nature or character to inanimate objects or abstract notions, especially as a rhetorical figure

Example: The comforting fire

Answer 21

Personification

Question 22

Exaggeration used to emphasize a point or evoke a response from the reader

Example: I died laughing.

Answer 22

Hyperbole

Question 23

A passing or casual reference; an incidental mention of something, either directly or by implication

Example – The following lyrics make reference to another song by Ozzy Osbourne, “Crazy Train”

Ever since I met you girl, you’ve been on my brain
I can’t think of nothin’ else but you all night and day
It’s like I’ve got a first class seat up on Ozzy’s train
It’s driving me insane
​-Dierks Bentley, “5-1-5-0”

Answer 23

Allusion

Question 24

A person, place, or thing that appears to have additional layers of meaning beyond its literal role in a literary work

Answer 24

Symbol

Question 25

Something that has become overly familiar or commonplace. This can be an expression, a theme, or really anything. Example: “They all lived happily ever after.”

Answer 25

Cliché

Question 26

The formation of mental images, figures, or likenesses of things, or of such images collectively Example: The gushing brook stole its way down the lush green mountains. The mountains were dotted with tiny flowers in a riot of colors and trees coming alive with gaily chirping birds.

Answer 26

Imagery

Question 27

When an author gives the reader one or more clues about an upcoming event before it happens Example: “He had no idea of the disastrous chain of events to follow.” In this sentence, while the protagonist is clueless about further developments, the reader learns that something disastrous and problematic is about to happen to him.

Answer 27

Foreshadowing

Question 28

A device in the narrative or a motion picture, novel, etc., by which an event or scene taking place before the present time in the narrative is inserted into the chronological structure of the work Example: It is common in movies for there to be a flashback that gives the viewer a look into the character’s previous stages in life (e.g.,when he or she was younger). This is done to help the viewer better understand the present situation.

Answer 28

Flashback

Question 29

When a writer or speaker says one thing but really means something completely different

Answer 29

Verbal Irony

Question 30

When there is contrast between what would seem appropriate and what really happens or when there is a contradiction between what we expect to happen and what really does take place

Answer 30

Situational Irony

Question 31

When the audience or the reader knows something important that a character in a play or story does not know

Answer 31

Dramatic Irony

Question 32

The attitude the author of a literary work appears to hold toward the work’s subject Tone is an effect resulting from multiple elements of an author’s style, including diction and syntax.

Answer 32

Time

Question 33

A unifying or dominant idea, motif, etc., as in a work of art Should be a statement, not just one word. Example: Love heals all.

Answer 33

Theme

Question 34

Conversation between two or more people.

Answer 34

Dialogue

Question 35

A special variety of language, typically provincial, rural, or socially distinct, that differs from the standard language (example: “ya’ll”).

Answer 35

Dialect

Question 36

The main character in a literary work | Example: Batman

Answer 36

Protagonist

Question 37

The person, thing, or force that opposes the protagonist in a literary work Example: Joker

Answer 37

Antagonist

Question 38

A class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form, content, or technique Examples: mystery, fantasy, horror, romance, science fiction, etc.

Answer 38

Genre

Question 39

The ordinary form of spoken or written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse.

Answer 39

Prose

Question 40

The associated meaning of a word or expression in addition to its explicit meaning.

Answer 40

Connotation

Question 41

The explicit meaning(s) of a word or expression, as distinguished from the ideas or meanings associated with it or suggested by it. Example: “They built a house.” In the above sentence, house is meant literally as in a building where a family lives. If the word "home" was used instead in the above sentence in place of "house", the meaning would not be so literal as there are many emotions associated with the word "home" beyond simply the structure where people live.

Answer 41

Denotation