Short Story Literary Terms

Plot: How the events unfold Terms Definition

Foreshadowing A hint to an event that will happen later in the story. Look at the details of the foreshadowing: tone, mood, description, and word choice.

Flashback An interruption of the story to an event that happened prior. Look for character motivation and identity to be revealed.

Frame Story A story within a story

Exposition The beginning of the story. Pay attention to setting, tone, description, and effect.

Narrative Hook How the narrator is hooking a reader into the story. Could be a sentence, a paragraph, or several pages.

Plot Continued Term Definition

Rising Action The events of the story that follow the exposition and lead to the Climax. Pay attention to how suspense is built.

Climax The highest point of crisis and where all the problems of the story unfold. Pay attention to how the things are unfolding and new details that emerge.

Falling Action The events after the climax that start to put everything together. Pay attention to how the things are unfolding and new details that emerge.

Resolution/Dénouement The ending of the story. Are things left to the unanswered or unresolved? Effect.

Plot Continued and Theme Term Definition

Complication A personal struggle that a character has that usually adds to the conflict. Therefore, complicating the situation.

Conflict A problem or struggle

Internal A struggle within oneself or nature

External Conflict A struggle with others, society, or nature

Subplot Events in the story that take place but do not seem to be the most important. How do they add to the story itself.

Theme Universal message of the story/poem. It should be something that all humans can related to. Support theme with significant quotes.

Stated Theme A theme that is directly stated by the author. NOTE: “One Art”

Implied Theme A theme that is implied or that the reader has to infer about. NOTE: “Mirror”

Character: a person who is responsible for the thoughts and actions of the story.

Term Definition

Character Trait Aspects of a person’s behavior and attitude that make up his/her personality. These are typically seen as descriptive adjectives. These typically reflect values/beliefs, positive and negatives attributes, actions, roles, and learned or acquired skills.

Direct characterization An author’s direct comments to show the character’s personality and traits. Ex.  “The patient boy and quiet girl were both at the game.

Indirect Characterization An author indirectly states a character’s personality and traits through the character’s actions, speech, appearance, setting, etc…

Character cont’dTerm Definition

Attitude (Literary term and aspect of indirect characterization).

A position taken that reflects a persons feelings, behaviors, and thinking.

Indirect Characterization: What do you know about a character’s feelings, behaviors, and thinking? What traits do they possess then.

Dialogue (Literary terms and aspect of indirect characterization)

Conversation between characters, this helps to move the action along but also reflects the character’s personality.

Indirect Characterization: Pay attention to tone and word choice. What does it say about the character traits and attitude? Is the dialogue reflective of nationality, social class, job, and education?

Character continued Term Definition

Name (Aspect of Indirect characterization)

Looking into the meaning of a character’s name can sometimes reflect the character themselves. However looking at whether a character has a name or not is also important.

Ms. Mallard’s name is not given until the end of the story, importance?

Mannerisms (Aspect of indirect characterization)

Ways of doing something or behaving. Can be linked to politeness and social class, but can also be linked to style and behavior.

Physical Appearance (Aspect of indirect characterization)

How a character descrption of face, body, and clothing can reflect a character personality and trait.

Character Types Term Definition

Protagonist The main character of the story.

Antagonist The opposition to the main character.

Foil The qualities of a character that contrast the qualities of another character. The object is to look at how the contrast highlights the qualities of each character and the theme.

Double (2) Another name for a doppelganger. Characters that share a dilemma but are opposites of each other. Ex. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Static A character that undergoes little or no change in the story. Does not develop/grow.

Dynamic A character that changes in personality or attitude.

Character Cont’d Term Definition

Round Characters that a similar to real people. They have depth and layers.

Flat Characters that can be described in a single sentence. They do not have layers.

Stereotype (Type of Flat character)

An oversimplified respresentation of a type of character. Usually based on gender, race, class, religious group, or occupation.

Stock (Type of Flat character) A character that appears repeatedly in a type of literature. For a full history look here. (DON’T OVERLOOK IT, IT IS IMPORTANT). http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms_S.html

Point of View: The angle and perspective in which the story is told.

Term Definition

Narrator The speaker of the story. This is who the author has created to tell the story.

You must question who the narrator is, how the narrator knows events of the story, and whether or not the reader knows more. Also, why is the story being told and why now?

Major The narrator is a participant in or a witness to the action of the story. This narrator is most likely a major character. This type of narrator can only share their experiences. Are they reliable then?

Minor This narrator is an witness to the events and is most likely a minor character. Once again, this narrator may only share their experiences. If the narrator is an observer, you must ask how the narrator knows the events.

Point of view continued Term Definition

Reliable Narrator This narrator knows all the events of the story and is very detailed. More importantly this narrator is objective, meaning their feelings are not getting in the way of telling an honest story. They are capable of distancing themselves from their personal beliefs and offering non-judgment.

Unreliable Narrator These narrators are the opposite of reliable narrators. Their credibility is called into question while telling the story. They tell an incomplete or inaccurate account of the story due to mental illness, sickness, age, or personal involvement. You know you are dealing with an unreliable narrator when events do not align.

Tone Conveys the story’s attitude and mood. It is the way the attitude of a character or a subject matter is conveyed. Tone can be informal or formal, playful, serious, jovial, pessimistic, etc. Look carefully at the way characters, incidents, setting, style, and word choice are used.

Point of View Cont’d Term Definition

First person The narrator is a character in the story and they are sharing their voice. Typically identified by using the pronoun “I.” This participant might be major or minor.

Third Person Most common type of narrator. This narrator appears outside of the story refers to characters with he, she, or they, or by name.

Third Person Omniscient

This narrator knows all. They can move in different times and at their own will. They can share all thoughts, feelings, motives, and actions of the story.

Third Person Limited This narrator is limited to the thoughts, feelings, and motives of one character or a limited number of characters.

Dramatic Third Person or Objective

The narrator reports on the speech and actions of the story but never shares the thoughts of the characters.

Setting: Establishes the time, place, and mood of the story. Term Definition

Time The way the story deals with time: chronological development, real-time narration, flashbacks, flash forwards, temporal progress (how long something lasts i.e. non-linear, fragmentation, or reverse chronology). Pay attention to the author’s time (time period), the narrative time (when the narrator is talking), plot time (how long the events take place), and time of reader engagement. Look at the details of setting and word choice to show all of this and how it points toward theme.

Place Setting can be context specific. For example Chicago 1900. Place is created by the author and is detailed in a way to describe the importance to the character and theme. For examples, the details of place will most likely connect to memories and feelings.

Setting cont’d Term Definition

Atmosphere Emotional feelings inspired by a work. To discover the atmosphere of a work pay attention to the word choice, dialogue, setting, and description. Atmosphere is also typically set in the very first sentence of the story, therefore pay special attention to that.

Mood The Atmosphere sets the mood. Mood is the feeling, emotional state, and qualities of the min. Once again pay attention to how word choice, dialogue, setting, and description highlight the mood. More importantly pay attention to how the mood changes and why. For example, if there is comic relief why is it necessary at that point. What does the change in mood show.