LITERARY ELEMENTS

  • Alliteration - "...sirloin scraps strung on strings. He is in a greasy-fingered sleep when the strings slither like white snakes off our bed, over the sill, out into the fields beyond." (Strays short story by Mark Richard)

"They had snarled themselves into a grunting,

groaning mass of goblins on the ground."

  • Antagonist - Voldermort in Harry potter

  • Caricature - exaggeration of a person's features.Just look in the editorials for some great examples.

  • Climax - the rising action when the events of the story all come together in creating tension for the characters

  • Dialogue - A reciprocal conversation 
    between two or more persons.

  • Direct Characterization - What element is used when a picture or imitation of a character's habits, physical appearance or mannerisms are exaggerated in some way?

  • Denouement - Derived from the Old French word denoer, "to untie" this action that takes place in a story after the climax. 

  • External Conflict - In Holes, Stanley Yeltnats is wrongly accused of stealing a pro baskectball player's shoes.

Breaking Free by Lou Ann Gaeddert is a good example of internal and external conflict.  Eleven year old Richard Baldwin, who is from Vermont, is sent to live with his biological uncle in upstate New York after his mother passes away.  Set in the mid-1800s, his internal conflict is he misses Vermont, he misses school, he misses his old life, and his values do not mesh with the values of his uncle!  His external conflict is about trying to maintain a level of sanity for himself by teaching his uncle's slaves to read and write while looking for a way to escape from what he believes is an unruly way to live.

  • Foreshadowing - Literary device in which 
    an author drops subtle hints about plot developments to 
    come later in the story.

  • Hyperbole

    I could sleep for a year; 
    This book weighs a ton;
    She was so mad, she could spit nails.

  • Internal Conflict - This creates the plot identified as:
    one vs. one or
    one vs. nature or
    one vs. society or
    one vs self.

The lead character, Ellen, is a 14-year old girl who sees school as something to do, not something to enjoy.  She comes from a well-off uptown New York City family where the mother is a busy interior designer and her father is always away on business but travels more than he cares to travel.  Ellen has an older brother, Link, who is very good friends with James.  The three of them are very close friends.  Ellen has a crush on James and is curious if James and Link are involved in a homosexual relationship.  She is torn between her admiration of Link and her admiration of James, and begins a quest to learn more about the culture of the gay community in an effort to understand herself, her brother, and his friend.  This builds to a frenzied pace as Link and James prepare to depart the safety of high school and enter the collegiate world while she faces remaining at home without her two buddies.
                                                My Heart Beat by Garret Weyr

  • Metaphor -"Fog haning like old coats between the trees." (Oranges poem by Gary Soto)

  • Mood/Tone - the overall feeling of a book: upbeat, somber, mysterious. The action in stories may follow the seasons, starting in winter when there is some kind of sadness, changing to more happy times to spring, celebratory events of summer. Look for these subtle mood swings within chapter books.

  • Onomatopoeia - sound imitates the word it describes. In graphic novels - whack, smack, kick, argh, sigh.

  • Personification -

    Authors use this element when giving animals, nonhuman being, or inanimate objects human characteristics.

The Cat & the Fiddle
Hey Diddle, Diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed
to see such sport,
and the dish ran away with the spoon.
(Mother Goose)

  • Point of View - It is the related experience of the narrator and not of the author. First person:

    Because Of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo, p.8: 
                        I had never before seen a dog smile, but that 
                           is what he did.

         Because Of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo, p. 9:  
*Third person: The dog went running over to the manager, 
                  wagging his tail and smiling.
*Passive voice in The No-Grain Diet by Dr. Joseph Mercola
                  p. 268: When one has low T3 levels, which are typical 
             with synthetic hormone use, the brain does not work properly.

  • Protagonist - Harry Potter

  • Simile - "I turned to the candies tiered like bleachers"

    (Oranges poem by Gary Soto)

  • Structure -

    The framework, organization, or design of a story.  It's how the story is built to attract and hold the attention of a reader/listener.  This contrasts with process, which is how the plot will change or evolve.

    Examples:

    I'm in Charge of Celebrations by Byrd Baylor

    This poem is written as if it were a book, but it is verse.  The topic is about celebrating the simple things observed in a desert landscape and lends itself well to the structure of poetry.

            The Legend of Lord Eight Deer retold by John M.D. PohlThis folktale is the 

            retelling of an ancient Aztec warrior who steps forward to save the kingdom from 

             invaders.  The structure of this story is the "hero's journey".

  • Themethe broad idea in a storyor a message or lesson conveyed by a work. Good versus evil in Harry Potter; or teen triumphs over adversity in Crusader; seeking one's identity in the Hero Twins.

  • Unity - If all the parts of the plot are integrated

    or closely connected, a story has this.

  • Prologue - Inventing Elliot is about a boy who goes to a new high school in hopes of not standing out and being bullied like in his last school setting. The book opens with a Prologue of an excerpt from his last school setting where he was bullied providing some backstory of his bullied existence:

Hello, Elliot, were you thiking we'd forgotten you?..You're a loser, Elliot, you know that?...You can't kill me, he said. I'm already dead.The first punch was right over his heart, and it didn't even hurt....But then came the second punch, in the side of his head, and a third, right right where the first one landed....Then  a thermonuclear blast obliterated the top of his head, and he was falling down. And, mercifully, he died.

  •  Epilogue

    In Island of the Blue Dolphins, after the story, the epilogue states that the story is based on a true account of a girl who was remained alone on an island off the California Coast for 15 years before being rescued to live out her remaining days in California in the 1800s. Ironically, she was never able to communicate with anyone since all her family members and tribe tragically died on a ship enroute to California.

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