English 1302

10 ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE (FROM A TO Z)     1  ​PLOT​ (series of events which make-up a story)    A  5-POINT PLOT SEQUENCE: 

Exposition​: initial part of a story where readers are exposed to setting and characters.  Situation​: event in the story which kicks the action forward and begs for an outcome.  Complication​: difficulties faced by characters as they experience internal and external conflicts.  Climax​: watershed moment when it becomes apparent that major conflicts will be resolved.  Resolution​: (Denouement): tying up of the loose ends of the story. 

B  SUB-PLOTS: PLOTS BENEATH AND AROUND THE MAJOR PLOT.  Foreshadowing​: hints and clues of plot.  Flashback​: portion of a plot when a character relives a past experience.  Frame story​: plot which begins in the present, quickly goes to the past for story, then returns.  Episodic plot​: a large plot sequence that is made up of a series of minor plot sequences.  Plausibility​: likelihood that certain events within a plot can occur.  Soap Opera​: multiple stories told along the sequence and spaced to sustain continual interest. 

   2  ​POINT OF VIEW​ (eyes through which a story is told) 

C  First Person major​ (participant major): narrator is the major character in the story.  First Person minor​ (participant minor): narrator is a minor character in the story.  Third Person omniscient​ (non-participant omniscient): narrator is outside the story and capable of 

seeing into the heart,   mind and motivations of all characters.  Third Person limited​ (non-participant limited): narrator is outside the story and capable of seeing, at 

most, into  the heart, mind, and motivations of one character. Narrator is  objective if not omniscient. 

   3  ​SETTING​ (time and place of a story, both physical and psychological) 

D  Physical (external) Setting​: the time and place of a story, general and specific.  Psychological (internal) Setting​: mood, tone, and temper of story. 

E  Major Tempers​: ​Romanticism​: man is free to choose against moral, spiritual backdrops. If you make  good decisions, you will be rewarded. There is a God that is in control    ​Existentialism​: man is free to choose absent backdrops other than his own. If he feels it is right, then it is  right.    ​Naturalism​: man is largely trapped, a cog in the impersonal machinery. He has no real way of  changing his circumstances.    ​Realism​: eclectic view, but leaning toward the naturalistic position. Sometimes good things happen to  bad people, and sometimes bad things happen to good people. That is just the way it is. 

F  Other Tempers: Classicism​: Man is free, but appears to be trapped due to conflicting codes.      Transcendentalism​: Offshoot of romanticism, nature is a window to divine.      Nihilism​: Fallout of either extreme existentialism or naturalism. Life is horrible and painful. It  lacks meaning.    4  ​CONFLICT​ (nature of the problems faced) 

G  Four Universal Conflicts:  Person versus self   Person versus person  Person versus society    Person versus nature 

H  Other Conflicts​:   Person versus ​God/ Machine/ the Unknown     5  ​CHARACTERIZATION​ (nature, type, and development of characters) 

I  Protagonist: ​central figure in a story, character who absorbs brunt of the burden and conflicts.  Antagonist: ​Character (or force) opposing the protagonist. 

J  Stock: ​basic “fill-in” character used to make scenes realistic.  Flat:​ Character with some, but not extensive dimension and development.  Round:​ multi-sided, multi-dimensional, fully-developed character. 

K  Static: ​character whose basic values remain consistent from story’s start to finish.  Dynamic: ​character whose basic values undergo change from story’s start to finish. 

L  Coded Character​: code indicates a character who is self-aware for an internal pattern for the  behavior. Coded characters must be willing to exercise discipline and personal sacrifice in service to  the pattern. 

M  Character Traits: ​Physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, social? Fear or love? Virtues? Vices? Governing  tendencies? 

N  Character Trends​: Is the character moving toward love or fear; identity or disintegration; conformity or  non-conformity; self-mastery or solitude; contentment or disillusionment.  O  Character Purpose: ​what is the character trying to obtain, retain, regain, or explain?  P  Character and Forces:​ Is the character entrapped by outside forces? Is the character entrapped by 

inside forces? Is the character free with clear choices? Is the character free with murky  choices? 

Q  Method of development: ​events, actions, narrator’s analysis, personal dialogue, object of dialogue.     6  ​SYMBOL​ (when the concrete takes on abstract values) 

R  An object remains true to itself, but begins to take on connotations of meaning derived from the work.     7  ​THEME​ (Central insight in the work, the meaning beneath the plot, the life comment) 

S  Universal Themes: ​Love / Time / Commitment / Disillusionment / Self-Realization / Sacrifice / Suffering /  Justice /   Fear / Power / Courage / Survival / Beauty / Corruption / Faith / Innocence / Loss /  Redemption / Revenge / Freedom / Greed / Hate / Pride / Nature / Change  8  ​ALLUSION​ (reference in literature to literature or history) 

T  ​The two great sources of allusion in Western Literature are the Bible and Shakespeare.     9  ​STYLE​ (combination of words and elements that produce a unique personality) 

U  ​Writers choice and use of words.  V  ​Nature of the language employed: language of images, language of ideas, language of metaphor.  W  ​Writer’s palette is the blending of other elements, such as symbols, characterization, allusion, setting, 

etc.     10  ​IRONY​ (break in the natural logic with a story, a logical inconsistency) 

x  Verbal Irony:​ spoken inconsistencies.  Y  Dramatic Irony:​ inconsistencies between perception and reality-the audience knows what the 

characters do not.  Z  Situational Irony: ​circumstances work at cross-purposes to common sense