Short Story Lit Terms

When readers or viewers are dropped into a dystopian world, they usually know that something is really wrong with this place before any of the the characters discover it. This is an example of . . .

• plot
• dramatic irony
• style
• theme

In Anthem, when Equality 7-2521 opens his story, he is in the tunnel writing about his life. He takes the reader back to the time when he lived in the Home of the Infants and the Home of Students. This is an example of . . .

• irony
• foreshadowing
• flashback
• tone
• personification

Because the narrator in Anthem knows and tells only his experiences in the story, the point of view or narrator is. . .

• first-person
• third-person limited
• third-person omniscient

a character's sudden flash of insight into a situation

• epiphany
• setting
• internal conflict
• external conflict
• antagonist

This involves a character facing a struggle within him/herself.

• internal conflict
• setting
• external conflict
• antagonist
• theme

time and place of the action in a story

• setting
• internal conflict
• external conflict
• antagonist
• theme

This involves a character in a struggle outside of him/herself: against other people, nature, technology.

• external conflict
• setting
• internal conflict
• antagonist
• theme

central message or insight into life revealed through an artistic work

• theme
• setting
• internal conflict
• external conflict
• antagonist

the character or force in conflict with the main character

• antagonist
• setting
• internal conflict
• external conflict
• theme

speaker or character who is telling a story

• narrator
• setting
• internal conflict
• external conflict
• antagonist