LITERARY TERMS Madalyn Gathright 4/5/11 ELA-1

What are literary terms?  Literary terms are words that someone might find in reading that are used to help better understand a topic or question.

10 Terms

 An analogy is a comparison of two things.  EX: The little girl’s hair was like gold.

 A character is a person or animal around which the action in the story occurs, which may or may not be animated.  EX: A classic character is Mickey Mouse.

 A type of story an author would write about to amuse a reader.  EX: An entertaining story that would amuse a reader today is Twilight. If you’re Team Jacob.

 A flashback is returning to an earlier time is a story to make something become clearer in the present.  EX: When Alice was a baby, she fell off the top of the slide. So now, she won’t even step foot on a playground.

 To “read between the lines” and understand what the author really means.  EX: The little girl was crying about the kitten. You can infer that the little girl lost her kitten and is sad because of it.

 The actions or events in a story.  EX: The three little pigs built houses; The big bad wolf came to town; He was hungry; He ate 2 pigs; the other was safe inside his brick house.

 The perspective in which the story is written.  EX: The perspective of Alice and Wonderland is by a third person, or a separate person from the characters.

 The order in which events happen in a story.  EX: Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall; Humpty Dumpty had a great fall; All the Kings horses and all the kings men couldn’t put humpty together again.

 The time and place in which the story occurs.  EX: The time and place of Tom Sawyer is mid- summer in the 1900’s.

 The way the story in written.  The style of Twilight is a dramatic love story along with some mild humor.

 So, it’s good to have literary terms! Even though we don’t usually think so. They’re always present in our everyday life, especially in reading.