1. Definitions and Examples
Literary Terms
Definitions and Examples

2. Alliteration
the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words
Ex. tongue twisters
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers…
Ex. Papoose’s “Alphabetical Slaughter”
“Maneuvers made miraculously, microphone majesty/Music messiah mastered money makin' mathematically”

3. Allusion
a reference to a well-known character, place, or situation from history or from music, art, or another work of literature.
Ex. Langston Hughes’ “I, Too, Sing America” (references Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing”)
Ex. Lil’ Wayne’s “Dr. Carter”
“And you ain’t Vince Young so don’t clash with the Titan” (reference sports and movies)

4. Antagonist
a person or force that opposes the protagonist, or central character, in a story or drama; often the “bad guy”
Ex. In Arthurian legend,
Malagant is the antagonist
to King Arthur
Ex. The Dark Knight: The
Joker is the antagonist to
Batman

5. Atmosphere
the physical qualities that contribute to the mood of the literary work, such as time, place, and weather
Ex. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”
“Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;/ and each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor”
Ex. haunted houses in scary movies

6. Autobiography the story of a person’s life written by that person
auto = self; bio = life; graphy=writing
Ex. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano
Ex. Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama

7. Biography
an account of someone’s life written by someone other than the subject
Ex. John Adams by David McCullough
Ex. Malcolm X: By Any
Means Necessary by
Walter Dean Myers

8. Character
a person portrayed in a literary piece of work

9. Direct Characterization
explicit statements about a character
Ex. description of Ivan in Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game”
“The first thing Rainsford’s eyes discerned was the largest man Rainsford had ever seen—a gigantic creature, solidly made and black-bearded to the waist.”
Ex. Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’”
“Just a small town girl, livin’ in a lonely world/She took a midnight train going anywhere/Just a city boy, born and raised in south Detriot/He took a midnight train going anywhere”

10. Indirect Characterization
the author’s use of a character’s speech, thoughts, and actions and through what other characters think and say about a character to describe that character
Ex. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil”
“ ‘Our parson has gone mad!’ cried Goodman Gray, following him across the threshold.”
Ex. Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
theme song
“In west Philadelphia born and
raised/On the playground was
where I spent most of my days”

11. Dialect
a variation of a language spoken within a particular region or class
Ex. Evan Hunter’s “The Last Spin”
“This is how the club said we should settle it. Without a big street diddlebop, you dig?”
Ex. Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail
- Madea: “Ella, c’mon! Where you at?”
- Ella: “Right now?”
- Madea: “Ride or die, fool! Ride or
die!”

12. Foreshadowing
an author’s use of clues to prepare readers for events that will happen later in the story
Ex. Louise Edrich’s “The Leap”
“In the town square a replica tent pole, cracked and splintered, now stands cast in concrete. It commemorates the disaster that put our town smack on the front page of the Boston and New York tabloids.”
Ex. the music in scary movies

13. Hyperbole (“hi-per-buh-l-ee”)
a figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express emotion, to make a point, or to evoke humor
Ex. Langston Hughes’s “Thank You, Ma’am”
“She was a large woman with a large purse that had everything in it but hammer and nails.”
I was scared to death!

14. Imagery “A host, of golden daffodils; “Rise up this mornin’,
the “word pictures” that writers create to evoke an emotional response
Ex. William Wordsworth’s “Daffodils”
“A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way”
Ex. Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds”
“Rise up this mornin’,
Smiled with the risin’ sun,
Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep”

15. Irony a contrast or discrepancy between appearance and reality
Ex. William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
- Romeo kills himself thinking that Juliet is
dead, but the audience knows she’s
really just under the effects of a sleeping potion.
Ex. the “fake out” in scary movies

16. Metaphor a figure of speech that compares two seemingly unlike things
Ex. William Shakespeare’s As You Like It
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players”
Ex. Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back”
“So your girlfriend rolls a Honda, playin’ workout tapes by Fonda, But Fonda don’t got a motor in the back of her Honda…”

17. Onomatopoeia
the use of a word or phrase that imitates or suggests the sound that it describes
Ex. James Baldwin’s “The Rockpile”
“She heard, behind her, his scrambling movement as he left the easy chair, the scrape and jangle of the lunchbox as he picked it up…”
Ex. Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass”
“Boy, you got my heartbeat running away,
beating like a drum and it’s coming your way,
can’t you hear that boom, badoom, boom
boom, badoom, boom, bass?”

18. Personification
a figure of speech in which an animal, an object, a force of nature, or an idea is given human characteristics
Ex. Homer’s The Odyssey
“When the young Dawn
with fingertips of rose lit
up the world…”
Ex. Disney movies
Beauty and the Beast

19. Plot
the sequence of events in a short story, novel, or drama

20. Point of View
the standpoint from which a story is told

21. First-Person Point of View
 the narrator is a character in the story and uses the words “I” and “me”
Ex.