Plot Diagram*

Exposition - essential background information (characters and setting) at the beginning of

a literary work.
Rising Action - development of conflict and complications in a literary work.
Climax / Turning Point - the moment at which there is the greatest change.
Falling Action - results or effects of the climax of a literary work.
Resolution / Denouement - end of a literary work when loose ends are tied up and
questions are answered.
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Literary Devices

Allegory - a symbolic story that, on the surface, shows one idea, but also has another
secondary meaning. Characters are often depicted symbolically, such as in George Orwell’s
Animal Farm.

Alliteration: repetition of the initial consonant sounds of words:

“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”

Allusion: an unexplained reference to something well-known that exists outside the

literary work.

Anaphora: “a particular kind of repetition in which the same word or group of words is
repeated at the beginnings of two or more successive clauses or lines” (“Anaphora”).

Antagonist: character that is the source of conflict in a literary work.

Aphorism: a concise expression of a general truth.

Archetypal Criticism - emphasizes ideal or universal recurring characters, images, &

motifs or patterns that can be found in the literature of differing cultures, but that also
share a common interpretation. Some examples include:
characters: great mother, hero, prodigal son, trickster, wise old man, etc.;
images: sun, tree, water, etc., or specific settings (gardens, deserts, etc.);
motifs or patterns: creation stories, initiation, journeys, quests, voyages to the
underworld, etc.

[T]he movie “The Breakfast Club” [sic] features characters that are far more
stereotypical than archetypal. This movie features five representations of “t
ypical” teenagers such as a dumb jock, conceited rich girl, skinny nerd,
misunderstood rebel, and disaffected slacker that are forced to spend time
together. These representations include what may appear to be archetypes in that
they are identifiable by the audience. However, they function much more as
stereotypes in the sense that their characterization is oversimplified and primarily
negative. The characters assume their given stereotypical roles rather than display
the complex characterization generally demonstrated by archetypes.

Archetype: a perfect example of; prototype; recurring symbol / motif / idea in literature.

Aside: a dramatic device in which a character makes a short speech intended for the
audience but not heard by the other characters on stage.

Assonance: repetition of vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds:

“Anna’s apples,” “the pond is long gone.”

Atmosphere: “a dominant feeling in a story… different from the setting which describes
the physical environment.” An example from “Like a Winding Sheet” by Ann Petry shows
how details of the factory help create a sense of irritation (Marcus 298):
The machines had started full blast. The whirr and the grinding made the building
shake, made it impossible to hear conversations. The men and women at the
machines talked to each other but looking at them from just a little distance away,

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they appeared to be simply moving their lips because you couldn’t hear what they
were saying.

Characterization: the manner in which an author develops characters and their

personalities:
Round [or dynamic] characters are fully formed, complex people who may act
unpredictably and who in the course of the story struggle and change, finally
achieving a greater self-knowledge. Flat [or static] characters, in contrast, are
one-dimensional, predictable people who do not change or in any way increase their
self-awareness by the end of the story (Marcus 299).

Colloquial: “informal or conversational language” (Marcus 299), such as how the characters
communicate in “The Kugelmass Episode” by Woody Allen.

Conflict: struggle between two or more opposing forces (person vs. person; nature; society;
self; fate / God.

Connotation: the non-literal implications or suggestions in a word. “Mother” by Grace Paley

and “Powder” by Tobias Wolff challenge the traditional perceptions of parents.

Cultural Criticism: emphasizes an examination of ethnicity, religious beliefs, social class,

etc., and the position of marginalized individuals who are not part of the dominant culture.

Dark Humor: a combination of comedy and horror.

Dialect: “a variety of speech different from the standard language of the culture. It
usually corresponds to such differences among population groups as geographical location,
social class, or age” (Marcus 300). Writers often use this technique as a way to develop
more authentic characters, such as how the characters speak in “Like a Winding Sheet” by
Ann Petry (Marcus 300).

Dialogue: direct speech between characters.

Diction: word choice to create a specific effect.

Drama: a story that is portrayed through action and dialogue.

Dramatic Monologue: “A speaker addresses a silent or absent listener in a moment of high

intensity or deep emotion, as if engaged in private conversation. The speaker proceeds
without interruption or argument, and the effect on the reader is that of hearing just one
side of a conversation. This technique...focus[es] on the feelings, personality, and
motivations of the speaker” (“Dramatic Monologue”).

Epigraph: a short bit of writing set at the beginning of a work or at one of its divisions to
suggest a theme.

Epiphany: when “a character experiences an unexpected flash of understanding about the

true nature of a person or situation, deeply altering his or her perception of that individual
or event” (Marcus 302). In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, Mrs. Mallard
experiences an epiphany when she understands that she will be free to do as she pleases,
which had been previously unimaginable, after learning about her husband’s death.

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Fable: “a fable is a short story, often with animals in it...to illustrate a moral...usually
stated clearly at the end” (Marcus 302).

Feminist Criticism: emphasizes relationships among genders, and reflects some of the
following characteristics:
- A pervasively patriarchal society conveys the notion of male dominance
through the images of women in its texts.
- Many literary texts lack complex female figures and deem the female
reader as an outsider, or require her to assume male values in terms
of perception, feelings, and actions.
- Issues of gender are central to artistic expression.
- Fictional portrayals of female characters often reflect and create
stereotypical social and political attitudes toward women.
- Texts authored by women may have different viewpoints than texts
authored by men (“Feminist Criticism”).

Fiction: an imagined story not entirely based on fact.

Figurative Language: language that represents one thing in terms of something dissimilar
(non-literal language). Includes hyperbole, metaphor, personification, simile, symbol, etc. ).
Literal Language, in contrast, refers to the exact (literal) meanings of words.

Flashback: the method of returning to an earlier point in time for the purpose of making
the present clearer.

Foreshadowing: hint about what is to come.

Frame Story: a story embedded within another story.

Free Verse: “poetry without a fixed pattern of meter and rhyme” (“Free Verse”).

Genre: type or category.

Historical Criticism: emphasizes the historical circumstances (individual & societal) of a

text, including related artifacts (diaries, films, letters, paintings, etc.), & how those
circumstances compare in relation to present circumstances.

Humor: “exaggerated situations, snappy lines, sarcasm, and parody (comical imitation)”
(Marcus 303), which often includes colloquial language use, dark humor (a combination of
horror and comedy), irony and word play.

Hyperbole: extreme exaggeration to add meaning.

Imagery: language that appeals to the five senses, such as may be seen in the following
example from “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker:
A dress down to the ground, in this weather. A dress so loud it hurts
my eyes. There are yellows and oranges enough to throw back the light
of the sun. I feel my whole face warming from the heat waves it throws out.
Earrings gold, too, and banging down to her shoulders. Bracelets dangling and making
noises when she moves her arm to shake the folds of her dress out of her armpits.
The dress is loose and flows and as she walks closer, I like it.

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Inference: “suggesting rather than explaining a theme or detail.” When the protagonist
takes out her fur at the beginning of “Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield, the description
indicates that it has not been worn in quite a while (Marcus 304).

Irony: “a rhetorical device, literary technique, or event in which what on the surface
appears to be the case or to be expected differs radically from what is actually the case”
(“Irony”). There are three different types:
Dramatic: when the reader or audience knows something a character does not;
Situational: when there is a disparity between what is expected and what actually
occurs;
Verbal: when the speaker says one thing but means the opposite.

Literal Language: see Figurative Language.

Marxist Criticism: based on the ideas of Karl Marx, a German philosopher; emphasizes
economic & political struggles among classes. Consider:
- What classes, or socioeconomic statuses, are represented in the text?
- Are all the segments of society accounted for, or does the text exclude a
particular class?
- Does class restrict or empower the characters in the text? (Writing Commons).

Metaphor: “an implied comparison in which one element is described in terms of another to
create a connection” (Marcus 305): In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, the
protagonist is described as “drinking in the very elixir of life.”

Monologue: a dramatic device in which a character speaks their thoughts to others.

Mood: see atmosphere.

Moral: an intended message or lesson learned, such as “slow and steady wins the race”
from Aesop’s “The Hare and the Tortoise” fable.

Motif: a recurring feature of a literary work that is related to the theme.

Myth: traditional or cultural stories that explain events or phenomena.

Narrator: a character who reveals information about the plot of a story.

Non-Fiction: a factually accurate story.

Novel: a lengthier story with well-developed characters, setting and plot.

Onomatopoeia: use of a word whose sound imitates its meaning: “hiss,” “boom,” the sounds
animals make, etc.

Oxymoron: phrase that consists of two words that are contradictory: “living dead,” “jumbo
shrimp,” “act naturally,” etc.

Parody: work of art that imitates, often through humor, another work of art.

Personification: figure of speech in which non-human things are given human

characteristics.
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Plot: the sequence of events.

Point of view: the vantage point or perspective from which a literary work is told:
1st person - the narrator is a character in the story (use of ‘I’);
2nd person - the narrator directly addresses the reader (use of ‘you’);
3rd person - the narrator is outside the story (use of ‘he’ ‘she’ ‘they’).

Polysyndeton: “repetition of conjunctions in close proximity” (“Polysyndeton”).

Protagonist: the main character.

Proverb: a short saying charged with meaning and relating a general truth.

Reader-Response Criticism: “focuses on a reader’s active engagement with a...text. The

reader’s response to any text is shaded by the reader’s own experiences, social ethics,
moral values, and general views of the world” (“Reader-Response Criticism”). The diagram
below emphasizes how the reader, the reading situation, and the text go together to make
meaning.

Repetition: recurring images, phrases, sounds or words that help develop the mood or
theme of a story (Marcus 307).

Rhyme: repetition of similar or identical sounds: look/crook or buy/fly.

Rhyme Scheme: pattern of rhyme at the end of lines of poetry [denoted using letters, as
in ABAB CDCD EE].

Romanticism: pattern of rhyme at the end of lines of poetry [denoted using letters, as in
ABAB CDCD EE].

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Satire: “the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's
stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical
issues” (“Satire”).

Setting: the time and place of a literary work, which may “include the society being
depicted, as well as its values” (Marcus 307).

Short Story: a briefer story with less developed characters, setting, and plot.

Simile: a direct comparison of dissimilar objects, usually using like or as: “I wandered
lonely as a cloud.”

Soliloquy: a dramatic device in which a character is alone and speaks their thoughts aloud.

Speaker: voice in a poem; the character that is speaking.

Stanza: group of lines forming a unit in a poem.

Stereotype: standardized, conventional ideas about characters, plots and settings.

Suspense: technique that keeps the reader guessing what will happen next.

Symbol / Symbolism: one thing (object, person, place) used to represent something else.

Synecdoche: defined as “a figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole (such as
fifty sail for fifty ships), the whole for a part (such as society for high society), the
species for the genus (such as cutthroat for assassin), the genus for the species (such as a
creature for a man), or the name of the material for the thing made (such as boards for
stage)” (“Synecdoche”).
One example from Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is the
use of an allusion to migrant workers from the islands of the Bahamas and to their
nickname, “Saws,” which alludes to the musical saws used in Caribbean music.

Syntax: how words are arranged.

Theme: the underlying main idea. Theme differs from the subject in that it involves a
statement or opinion about the main idea.

Thesis: “the main argument or point of view of a composition” (“Thesis”).

Tone: the author’s attitude toward the subject.

Transformation: a dramatic change in appearance, form, nature, process, etc.

Trope: “a common convention in a particular medium. It refers to anything that gets used
often enough to be recognized.” Ex. a child wearing a cape is pretending to be a superhero
(“Trope”).

Vignette: “a short scene that captures a single moment or a defining detail about a
character, idea, or other element of the story” (“Vignette”).

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Works Cited
“Anaphora.” SpringBoard English Language Arts Grade 9: Unit 4: Exploring Poetic
Voices. The College Board, 2018. Print.
“Archetype.” Literary Devices. Literary Devices, literarydevices.net/archetype/.
Accessed 30 Sep. 2021.
Birch, Ryan. “Plotdiagram.jpg.” Around the World in 80 Days. N.d. JPEG File.
4 Aug. 2016.
“Dramatic Monologue.” California Collections. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publishing Company, 2017.
“Feminist Criticism.” SpringBoard English Textual Power Senior English: Unit
2: The Collective Perspective. The College Board, 2011. Print.
“Free Verse.” SpringBoard English Language Arts Grade 9: Unit
4: Exploring Poetic Voices. The College Board, 2018. Print.
“Irony.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony. Accessed 3 Oct. 2021.
Marcus, Sybil. Explanation of Literary Terms. A World of Fiction: Twenty
Timeless Short Stories. By Marcus. 2nd ed. New York: Pearson
Longman, 2006. Print.
“Polysyndeton.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster,
merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polysyndeton. Accessed 29 Aug. 2020.
“Reader-Response Criticism.” SpringBoard English Textual Power Senior
English: Unit 2: The Collective Perspective. The College Board, 2011.
Print.
“Satire.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press,
www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/171207#:~:text=a.,of%20social%2
0or%20political%20commentary. Accessed 6 Nov. 2022.
“Synecdoche.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster,
merriam-webster.com/dictionary/synecdoche. Accessed 13 May 2021.
“Thesis.” Literary Terms, literaryterms.net/thesis/. Accessed 14 Mar. 2022.
“Trope.”
“Vignette.” Literary Terms, literaryterms.net/vignette/. Accessed 6 Oct. 2020.

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