Important Literary Terms

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Important Literary Terms

• For
• Keystone Preparation

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Inference Generalization

• Making an inference involves drawing a specific
  conclusion based on what a specific part of the
  text says or implies
• Making a generalization involves drawing a
  broad conclusion about a topic from either a part
  of or the whole text

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Inference Generalization - Examples

• But at that moment I glanced round at the crowd
  that had followed me. It was an immense crowd,
  two thousand at the least and growing every
  minute. It blocked the road for a long distance
  on either side. I looked at the sea of yellow
  faces above the garish clothes faces all happy
  and excited over this bit of fun, all certain
  that the elephant was going to be shot. They
  were watching me as they would watch a conjurer
  about to perform a trick. They did not like me,
  but with the magical rifle in my hands I was
  momentarily worth watching. And suddenly I
  realized that I would have to shoot the elephant
  after all.
• -George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant
• We can infer that the narrator feels
  _________________ about shooting the elephant
• a) excited b) hesitant c) scared d) sorrowful

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Authors Purpose

• Why did the author write this particular piece?
  What was the author intending to do?
• Inform
• Teach
• Entertain
• Persuade or convince

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Bias

• The presence of a positive or negative approach
  toward a topic
• Ask yourself is the authors opinion about the
  subject obvious? Is it positive or negative in
  one way or another?

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Dialect

• A variety of language that is different from the
  standard in terms of pronunciation, grammar, or
  vocabulary
• This is usually specific to a geographical
  region, ethnicity, social organization, or
  socioeconomic status

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Dialect - Example

• The neighbor had put her head through the window
  to speak with my mother. It was then noon. All
  you hear what happen to Foster? Why the house
  wash away clean clean clean, groundsel,
  everything gone clean. They put Miss Foster and
  the children in the guard house, and you know how
  many children Miss Foster got?
• -George Lamming, In the Castle of My Skin

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Diction

• An authors choice of words, phrases, sentence
  structures, and figurative language (simile,
  personification, imagery, etc) all of which
  help create meaning and tone

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Tone

• The attitude or feelings of the author towards
  the audience, characters, subject, or the overall
  piece of text

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Tone - Example

• The way a crow Shook down on meThe dust of
  snowFrom a hemlock tree
• Has given my heartA change of moodAnd saved
  some partOf a day I had rued.
• -Robert Frost, Dust of Snow
• The authors tone in this poem is
• a) mournful b) hopeful c) angry d) joyful

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Mood

• The dominant emotions a reader experiences from a
  work created through dialogue and literary
  elements
• The mood might be different than the subject
  matter

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Mood - Example

• The Red Death had long devastated the country.
  No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so
  hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal --the
  redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp
  pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse
  bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The
  scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon
  the face of the victim, were the pest ban which
  shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy
  of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure,
  progress and termination of the disease, were the
  incidents of half an hour.
• -Edgar Allen Poe, The Masque of the Red Death
• The mood of this paragraph can BEST be described
  as
• a) mysterious b) frightful c) excited d) calm

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Imagery

• Descriptive or figurative language in a literary
  work
• The use of language to create sensory impressions
  (5 senses)

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Imagery - Example

• The room looked over the garden and other
  gardens the sun had gone in as the clouds
  sharpened and lowered, the trees and rank lawns
  seem already to smoke with dark.
• Now, and then for it felt, from not seeing him
  at this intense moment, as though she had never
  seen him at all she verified his presence for
  these few moments longer buy putting out a hand,
  which he each time pressed, without very much
  kindness, and painfully, on to one of the breast
  buttons of his uniform. The cut of the button on
  the palm of her hand was, principally what she
  was to carry away.
• -Elizabeth Bowen, The Demon Lover

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Interpretation

• If a question asks you to interpret something, it
  is asking you to give reasons through an
  explanation
• You will need to provide specific examples to
  support your interpretation

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Point of View

• 1st person the direct view of one character
  will use words like I, we, us, etc
• 3rd person limited the direct view of one
  character will use words like he, she, or the
  characters name
• 3rd person omniscient the views of multiple
  characters are expressed from an outside
  perspective

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Point of View - Examples

• Which is which?
• I could picture it. I have a habit of imagining
  the conversations between my friends. We went out
  to the Cafe Napolitain to have an aperitif and
  watch the evening crowd on the Boulevard.
• Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
• His eyes were fixed upon Della and there was an
  expression in them that she could not read, and
  it terrified her. It was not anger, nor
  surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of
  the sentiments that she had been prepared for.
  He simply stared at her fixedly with that
  peculiar expression on his face.
• O. Henry, The Gift of the Magi
• He ran straight into the water and began
  swimming. He was a good swimmer.
• Doris Lessing, Through the Tunnel

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Theme

• A topic of discussion or work a major idea broad
  enough to cover the entire scope of a literary
  work.
• A theme may be stated or implied.
• Clues to the theme may be found in the prominent
  and/or recurring ideas in a work.

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Text Organization

• The authors method of structuring a text the
  way a text is structured from beginning to end
• In literary works, the structure could include
• Flashback
• Foreshadowing
• sequence
• Question-answer
• Cause-effect

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Text Structure

• Drama a play includes stage directions and
  dialogue
• Novel/short story/article a work that is written
  in regular prose
• Poem uses stanzas, rhyme, meter, and figurative
  language