The Literary Elements

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The Literary Elements
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Why Interpret?

• Never forget that an author begins with a blank
  page
• Everything put into the text makes a contribution
  to the authors vision/perspective

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Setting

• Includes WHERE a story takes place and WHEN a
  story takes place
• Can affect mood/tone

4
Plot

• Sequence of RELATED events that happen in the
  story
• Clearly build toward something ahead
• CONFLICT (a struggle of some kind) is the most
  important element in the plot
• Series of complications contribute to rising
  action

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Plot (cont.)

• Plot Diagram on board/paper
• Exposition
• Rising Action
• Character in series of complications under a
  larger conflict
• Climax
• Point where the character faces most significant
  obstacle and responds
• Falling Action
• Denouement/Resolution
• (unknotting)

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Conflict

• Person vs. Nature
• Person vs. Person
• Person vs. Self
• Person vs. Society

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Foreshadowing

• Hints in the text that clue us in to a
  significant plot event to come
• Violent storms indicate violence to come in plot

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Flashback

• Interruption that takes us back to a previous
  event or experience in the plot or characters
  life
• Shift from president in oval office to a scene
  from his high school experience

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Characterization

• How a writer reveals a characters personality
• Direct Characterization
• Author tells us what the character is like (e.g.
  deceitful, honest, evil, kind)
• Indirect Characterization
• Physical description
• Words thoughts
• Other characters thoughts comments
• Characters actions

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Characterization

• Dynamic vs. Static
• Change or not
• Round vs. Flat
• Complex personality w/different traits, or easily
  summed up personality?

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Characterization

• Examine the characters journey
• Evolve/Devolve?
• Grow or become diminished?
• Better off or worse off beginning to end?
• Much movement but same place?
• What contributed to shaping character?

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Symbolism

• When the author uses objects, events, or
  characters to represent THE BIG PICTURE
• Something in the story stands for something else
• - white hat/black hat
• In the Bible, seeds eaten by birds stand for
  those who hear and dont believe

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Allusion

• Reference to a well-known literary work or
  character
• Bob and Sarah sure are a couple of star-crossed
  lovers
• As Tiger Woods strolled through the crowd, it was
  like he was parting the white sea

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Irony

• Discrepancy between expectations reality
• Verbal Irony
• Situational Irony
• Dramatic Irony

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Verbal Irony

• Speaker says one thing but means another
• That Michael Jackson tattoo is really cool.
  Its still sort of subtle and understated even
  though it covers your whole back.

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Situational Irony

• What happens is the opposite of whats expected
• A woman is assaulted by a man, waits 35 years to
  get revenge, then falls in love with him the next
  time they meet

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Dramatic Irony

• Audience knows what the characters dont
• Character asks what punishment for her crime will
  be, thinking it will be a fine audience knows
  the punishment will be death

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Point of View

• The angle from which the story is told
• 1st person (I, we)
• More intimate w/narrator
• Tough to judge narrator?
• (Consider naïve unreliable narrator)
• 3rd person (he, she, they)
• limited (1 characters POV)
• or omniscient (all-knowing)

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Style

• How it is said influences what it means
• Diction (word choice) syntax (word arrangement)
  influence mood/tone
• Does it change the pace?
• Does it suggest something about characters?
• Hows it make the reader feel? Exhausted?
  Exhilarated?

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Theme

• The Authors vision
• Whats s/he saying about human nature, the way
  the world works, our relations to others?
• Its just one view its up for interpretation
• Death of the Author

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Some Themes

• Justice prevails
• Love conquers all
• Society will always overwhelm the individual
• Children often see more clearly than adults
• Theres no place for the artist in the jungle