Literal language

When people use literal language, they mean what they say.  They do not use figures of speech to use language in a special way.  Imagery often (but not always) relies on literal language.  For example, "The sky was streaked with lines of orange, purple and gold" is an example of literal language.  However, "The sky looked like oil on water" is an example of figurative language, because the sunset is being compared to oil on water.

Figure of speech/ figurative language

Figurative language refers to using language in non-literal ways.  Authors often use language so that they don't literally mean what they say.  For example, if someone says, my English teacher is a pig, s/he does not mean that a porcine creature is leading the class.  S/he is actually comparing the teacher to emphasize certain qualities that both possess (sloppiness, fatness, obnoxiousness).  Figures of speech are specific literary devices that often compare (i.e., metaphors), associate (i.e., metonymy), or appeal to they eye or ear (rhyme).  

Imagery

Imagery refers to language that appeals to the senses.  Visual images appeal to sight (the door was a deep, chocolate brown color and reminded me of a Hershey bar).  Auditory images appeal to hearing (from Hardy's "Meeting at Night" "the quick sharp scratch / And blue spurt of a lighted match").  Olfactory images appeal to smell (when he opened the can of Skoal it evoked the sickly sweet smell of a dumpster).  Gustatory images refer to taste (I awoke with the bitter stale taste of day-old coffee in my mouth). Tactile images appeal to touch (the heat from the fire scorched my forehead like a desert sun).

Metaphor

A metaphor is a type of figurative language that compares two dissimilar things.  For example, my teacher is a pig is an example of a metaphor because it is comparing two dissimilar things, generally to make a point about the teacher—s/he might be sloppy, overweight, etc.  Similes and personifications are both types of metaphors. 

Simile

A simile is a type of metaphor that is a comparison of two different things using like or as.  For example, My Honda is like a cheetah would be a simile because it compares two different things to emphasize a particular quality (probably speed), but My Honda is like a Toyota would not be a simile because Hondas and Toyotas are too similar—they are both cars.

Symbol

A symbol is an object, action, or event in a narrative that is significant in its own right but that also represents something else (a train might be an important mode of transportation in a story, but it might also symbolize the disadvantages of progress with the pollution it creates).

Plot

Plot refers to the order of events in the story and should not be confused with action.  Plot considers the events and how the author organizes or structures them.  Action refers to the events as they occur chronologically, not in the way the author ordered them.  Action refers to what happens in the story.  Plot refers to how the author structures what happens in order to create interest or unity.

Exposition

Exposition is the background information necessary to follow the narrative.

Complication

Complications are often called the “rising action” of the story.  They are the events that intensify or lead up to the turning point in the story.

Climax

A climax is the high point of a story.  It is the moment at which the conflict reaches a peak and that may lead to a resolution.

Denouement

Denouement is a French word referring to the falling action or resolution of a story. This part of the plot happens at the end of the story and involves a tying up of loose ends.

Conflict

Conflict is a struggle between opposing forces in a narrative.  Conflicts are usually resolved by the end of the story.  Narratives may include external conflicts between people, conflicts between people and external forces (nature, society, etc.), or internal conflicts between a person and her/his own problems or limitations (a character flaw or weakness).

Character

Characters are the imaginary people who populate narratives.  Traits of characters are usually revealed through two main methods: direct characterization--when narrators spell out the traits of a character through narration (he was a lazy slob); and indirect characterization--when characters traits are revealed through their actions (the author shows the character sitting around all day drinking beer and watching TV in her underwear to illustrate her laziness).  See page 62 of Diyanni for a more explicit breakdown of techniques of characterization.

Setting

Setting refers to the place, location, and time of a story; setting can have symbolic significance or be used to reinforce a character’s attitude or state of mind.

Point of View

Point of view refers to the narrative perspective from which the author chooses to deliver the action of the story.  Authors may choose an objective point of view by which they reveal action and dialogue without commentary or interpretation of events, or authors may choose a subjective point of view by which they create a narrator who does comment on or interpret the events.

First-person point of view

This technique presents the action from the perspective of a narrator who generally participates in and/or comments on the action.  Stories from this perspective often present a discrepancy between what may have “actually” happened and the way a character perceives the action. 

Third-person omniscient point of view

This technique presents the action from an “all-knowing” perspective.  Typically, the narrator is objective but is able to present all characters’ thoughts and feelings

Third person limited point of view

This technique presents the action from a vantage point where the narrator may only have knowledge of one or two characters’ perspectives and not have total omniscience.

Theme

A theme is a central idea in a work that can be abstracted through the action and images.  You should state a theme as a generalization (a broad statement or principle), and it should have a subject and a predicate.  A theme is not what a story is “about” but what a story “represents.”

Tone

Tone refers to an author's attitude towards her/his subject.  A piece might have a sincere, religious, comic, ironic, elevated, emotional, sentimental, etc. type of tone.  Tuning into the tone is critical in order to understand the main points a poet seems to make.  For example, if you don't understand when a poet is being ironic, you might get the complete opposite meaning of a poem that a poet intends. 

Irony

Irony involves a discrepancy between one thing and another, and usually occurs in one of three ways: verbal irony--a discrepancy between what is said and meant (if I say “I like your shoes,” but you can tell I really don’t); situational irony refers to a discrepancy between what happens and what one would expect to happen (if a fire station burns to the ground); dramatic irony refers to a discrepancy between what characters know and what readers know (this kind of irony is more prevalent in drama and might occur if the audience has learned that Louie is the murderer, and the hero arrives to collaborate with Louie to solve the crime, but the hero doesn’t know that Louie is the murderer).