Literary Elements

A truth about life that is revealed in a story

• simile

• theme

• tone

• mood

The attitude of the writer or speaker

• setting

• mood

• refrain

• tone

a group of words whose collective meaning is quite different from their individual, literal meaning

• allegory

• idiom

• verse

• plot

the time and place of a story

• exposition

• plot

• setting

• climax

the atmosphere or feeling created by a work of literature

• mood

• imagery

• personification

• theme

the most exciting or intense part of the story for the protagonist; a turning point in the story

• irony

• plot

• exposition

• climax

a comparison that uses the words like or as

• verse

• simile

• metaphor

• tone

what happens is the opposite of what we expect would happen

• setting

• simile

• irony

• hyperbole

a single line of a poem

• refrain

• stanza

• exposition

• verse

what happens in a story; the chain of events that make up a story

• plot

• theme

• rising action

• theme