Literary Terms to Know for 9th Grade – Mr.

Pastore

1. Alliteration – this is like a tongue twister. Alliteration is when

there is a repetitive consonant sound at the beginning of a word
within a line of literature or poetry. For example, the repeating ‘D’
sound in “Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there
wondering, fearing; Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever
dared to dream before,” from “The Raven” shows alliteration.

2. Autobiography – a writer’s account of his or her life. Generally,

an autobiography focuses on the most significant events and people
in the writer’s life over a period of time. Richard Wright’s Black Boy
is an example of an autobiography. The excerpt “The Rights to the
Streets of Memphis” comes from Wright’s autobiography.

3. Characterization– The way a writer creates and develops

characters’ personalities. There are four basic methods an author
uses:
a. The writer may make direct comments about a
character’s personality or nature through the
voice of the narrator
b. The writer may describe the character’s
physical appearance
c. The writer may present the character’s own
thoughts, speech, and actions
d. The writer may present pertinent thoughts,
speech, and actions of other characters

There are different character types as well:

a. Flat Character – an undeveloped character
with very few character traits
b. Round Character – a character who exhibits a
variety of characteristics
c. Static Character – a character who does not
change throughout the course of the story.
d. Dynamic Character – a character who
changes due to the events of the story.

4. Narrative Poem– This type of literature tells a story or recounts

events. Like a short story or a novel, a narrative poem has the
following elements: plot, characters, setting, and theme. “The
Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe is an example of narrative poetry.
5. Setting – Setting is the time and place of the action of the
story. Some settings are described minimally; however, in “The
Scarlet Ibis” and “The Cask of Amontillado” settings are described in
detail and become major contributors to the stories’ overall effect
and meaning.

6. Mood – the feeling or atmosphere that a writer creates for the

reader. Descriptive words, and figurative language contribute to
the mood of a work, as do the sound and rhythm of the language
used. Poe creates a mood of dread in most of his stories through
careful word selection.

7. Foreshadow – when an author drops hints in their stories that

can clue the reader about what may happen later on in the story.

8. Personification – when an author of a story gives human

qualities to a non-human object. For example – The sun climbed
slowly over the mountain and into the sky.

9. Irony – the difference between appearance and reality.

a. Verbal irony – when someone says something, but they
really mean something else. Sarcasm.
b. Dramatic irony – when the audience or reader knows
something about what’s happening in a story, but the
character or characters do not know it.
c. Situational Irony – when you as a reader come to expect
something out of a story or situation, but you do not get it. In
fact, you get the opposite of what you expect.

10. Symbol – anything that stands for or represents

something else beyond what it actually is. For example, the bird in
the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” was clearly a symbol for the
narrator’s physically challenged brother, Doodle. Both the bird and
Doodle found difficulties in adapting to their unfamiliar
environments.

11. Flashback – when some of the events of a story are

related at a point in the narrative after later story events have
already been recounted. Flashbacks enable the storyteller to fill in
background information about characters and events. “A Christmas
Memory” serves as a complete flashback as the narrator recounts
earlier events as himself as a young boy growing up in Alabama.
12. Point-of-View – The vantage point or perspective from
which the events of a story seem to be observed and presented to
the reader. The first person point-of-view is when the story is told
by the character that experienced the event. Someone who was
not directly involved with the experience tells the third-person
point-of-view, but they have either limited (knowledge of only
one character’s thoughts) or omniscient (all-knowing to all
character’s thoughts) knowledge about what occurred.
13. Simile – when you make a comparison between two unlike
objects using the words like, as, resembles, or than. For example
– The turtle runs as slow as molasses. The boys trudged unwillingly
to school like snails on a stone.

14. Metaphor / Extended Metaphor – When a thing, idea,

or action is referred to by a word or expression normally denoting
another thing, idea, or action, to suggest some common quality
shared by the two. In other words, it’s when two unlike things are
compared to each other without the use of words such as like, as,
resembles, or than. An extended metaphor is a longer comparison,
such as the one found in Romeo and Juliet when Lady Capulet
compares Count Paris to a book, or when Romeo compares Juliet to
the sun.

15. Plot – A story’s plot is the sequence of events that make

up the story. In a typical plot, an exposition introduces the
characters and establishes the main conflict. Conflicts experienced
by the characters can be either internal (inside their minds) or
external (with someone or something other than themselves). In
the rising action, complications arise as the characters try to
resolve the main conflict. Eventually, the plot builds toward a
climax, the point of greatest interest or suspense. Essentially, this
is called the high mark, or peak, of the story. Small conflicts are
resolved in the falling action of plot. And finally, in the resolution
– the final stage of the plot – loose ends are tied up and the story is
brought to a close.
16. Allusion – An allusion is an indirect reference to a
famous person, place, event, or literary work. Shakespeare’s
characters often allude to Greek and Roman mythology in their
dialogue. For example, in the Hunger Games series, Katniss and
Peeta are referred to as the star-crossed lovers, which is an allusion
to Romeo and Juliet. In the opening prologue, the chorus says,
“From forth the fatal loins of these two foes, a pair of star-crossed
lovers take their life.” Edgar Allen Poe alludes to the Bust of Pallas,
or Athena in his poem “The Raven”.
17. Theme – a theme is an underlying message about life or
human nature that a writer wants the reader to understand.
Themes are often not stated but rather inferred. A theme may
imply how a person should live and it emerges through the actions
and experiences of the characters in a given work. A theme is
usually expressed as a complete thought, not just in one word. In
many of our short stories this year, a repeating theme was that
excessive pride in oneself can often be a destructive, and perhaps
even a deadly force in one’s life. Themes are meant to provide a
lesson for the reader on how to live one’s life.

18. Tone – Tone is the attitude a writer takes toward a

subject. Unlike mood, which is intended to shape the reader’s
emotional response, tone reflects the feelings of the writer. A writer
communicates tone through choice of words and details. Tone may
often be described by a single word, such as serious, humorous,
formal, informal, somber, sarcastic, playful, ironic, bitter, or
objective.

19. Hyperbole – Hyperbole is a figure of speech in which the

truth is exaggerated for emphasis or humorous effect. Juliet
expresses many hyperboles throughout Romeo and Juliet, as she
expresses her love for Romeo and what she would rather do than
marry Count Paris. They are also known as overstatements.

20. Understatement – a technique of creating emphasis by

saying less than is actually or literally true. It is the opposite of
hyperbole, or exaggeration. It is a form of verbal irony. When
Mercutio says that his fatal wound “Tis a scratch, tis a scratch,
man”, he is minimizing how serious a wound he actually has. It was
enough to take his life.
21. Pun – A pun is a joke that comes from a play on words. It
can make use of a word’s multiple meanings or of a word’s sound.
In Romeo and Juliet, characters punned in many scenes. It often, but
not always, serves as a humorous purpose.

22. Sonnet – A sonnet is a lyric poem of 14 lines, commonly

written in iambic pentameter (a metrical pattern of five feet, or
units, each which is made up of two syllables, the first unstressed
and the second stressed). The Shakespearean sonnet consists of
three quatrains (a four-line stanza in poetry) and a final couplet
(two lines that rhyme). The typical rhyme scheme of a sonnet is
abab cdcd efef gg.

23. Soliloquy – a speech in which a character speaks his or

her thoughts aloud. Generally, the character is on stage alone, not
speaking to other characters and perhaps not even consciously
addressing an audience. At the beginning of Act 2, Scene 3, of
Romeo and Juliet, Friar Laurence has a long soliloquy about the
benefits and evils of herbs.

24. Oxymoron – a special kind of concise paradox that brings

together two contradictory terms. In Romeo and Juliet, each of the
phrases “brawling love,” “loving hate,” “bright smoke,” and
“feather of lead” is an oxymoron used to express some of the
characters’ conflicting feelings and emotions.

25. Protagonist – the main character in a work of literature –

the character who is involved in the central conflict of the story. The
protagonist often display their dynamics after the central conflict
reaches a climax.

26. Antagonist – the principal character or force in opposition

to a protagonist. It is usually in the form of another character, but
can be a force of nature, a set of circumstances, some aspect of
society, or a force within the protagonist. In “The Most Dangerous
Game,” General Zaroff is the antagonist.

27. Figurative Language – language that communicates

meanings beyond the literal meanings of words. In figurative
language, words are often used to symbolize ideas and concepts
they would not otherwise be associated with. Idioms, similes,
metaphors, hyperboles, and personification are all examples of
figurative language.
28. Genre – The term genre refers to a category in which a
work of literature is classified. The major genres in literature are
fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama. Subgenres include short
story, novel, plays, and poems.

29. Rhyme Scheme – a pattern of end rhymes in lines of

poetry. A rhyme scheme is noted by assigning a letter of the
alphabet, beginning with a, to each line. End lines that rhyme are
given the same letter. Look at the sample below:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood a
And sorry I could not travel both b
And be one traveler, long I stood a
And looked down as far as I could a
To where it bent in the undergrowth
b

30. Sound Devices – Sound devices, or uses of words for their

auditory effect, can convey meaning and mood or unify a work.
Some common sound devices are alliteration (see #1),
onomatopoeia (words associated with sounds), repetition
(repeating of a sound, word, or phrase for emphasis), rhyme
(similar or identical sounds at the end of two or more words), and
rhythm (a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem).
These sound devices were in full effect when we examined Poe’s
poem “The Raven”. These are common techniques used by most
authors of fiction and poetry.