Literary Terms

Front

The environment or surrounding in which an event or story takes place.

Back

setting

Front

Actions, dialogue, and narrative description that reveal a sense of a character's personality to the reader.

Back

Characterization

Front

Where a writer/narrator gives an advance hint of what is going to happen later on in the story. Any event, action, dialogue or thought that gives a clue to what is going to happen.

Back

foreshadowing

Front

When an author interrupts the chronological sequence of a story by inserting past events. 

Back

flashback

Front

writing that uses like or as to compare two unlike things

Back

simile

Front

The moment in the story when the action reaches its greatest conflict.

Back

climax

Front

The perspective from which the story is told. Could be 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person.

Back

point of view

Front

The arrangements of events in a story

Back

plot

Front

writing that compares to unlike things but does not use like or as

Back

metaphor

Front

writing in which an inanimate object or an abstract idea is given human characteristics

Back

personification