Elements%20of%20Literature

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Elements of Literature

• Developed by Carolyn DuBos

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Introduction

• This PowerPoint presentation will help you
  identify the more common elements of literature
  that youll see in this class and future English
  courses
• This information is based on the content from
  Elements of Literature Holt, Rinehart and
  Winston Fourth Course text.

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Topics of Discussion

• Literary Elements
• Identified by term
• EOL reference and page number
• Definition discussion and development
• Examples to be provided by students

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Plot

• What is this?
• Provide an example
• The Storys Framework, Leggett, p. 32
• Plot is the framework of a story. The plot begins
  with a basic situation establishes a conflict or
  conflicts, which may be external or internal
  develops complications and then moves to a
  climax and resolution.

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Setting

• What is this?
• Provide an example
• Putting Us There, Leggett, p. 50
• Setting is the time and place in which the events
  of a short story, play, novel, or narrative poem
  occur.

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Character

• What is this?
• Provide an example
• The Actors in a Story, Leggett, p. 110
• Character The actors in a story (5 types)
• Round characters are complex and
  multidimensional, like real people.
• Flat characters are one dimensional and
  superficial they can be described in a single
  sentence.
• Dynamic characters change in an important way
  because of the storys action.
• Static characters do not change much or at all
  during a story.
• Stock characters are predictable stereotypes of
  people.
• Motivation of Round Characters Motivation is
  the underlying force(s) that causes a character
  to act a certain way.

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Theme

• What is this?
• Provide an example
• The Storys Meaning and Roots, Legget, p. 182
• The theme of a story is its main idea or insight
  into life.

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Irony and Satire

• What is this?
• Provide an example
• The Might of the Word, Legget, p. 194
• Irony is the contrast or discrepancy between
  expectation reality (3).
• Verbal irony occurs when a speaker says one thing
  and means the opposite.
• Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows
  something a character does not.
• Situational irony occurs when what happens in a
  story is the opposite of what is expected.

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Point of View

• What is this?
• Provide an example
• The Storys Voice, Legget, p. 262
• Point of view is the vantage point from which a
  writer tells a story.
• First-person point of view. The main character of
  the story tells us everything he knows, but we
  know more than he does.
• Others?

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Symbols

• What is this?
• Provide an example
• Signs of Something More, Legget, p. 306
• A symbol is a person, place, thing, or event that
  stands both for itself and for something beyond
  itself, often an abstract idea.

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Autobiography

• What is this?
• Provide an example
• Written Memory, Burroway, p. 353
• An autobiography is the story of a writers own
  life.

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Essays and History

• What is this?
• Provide an example
• Thoughts and Reports, Cohen, p. 416
• Essays can be objective or subjective
  frequently, they are a combination of both.
  Writing that is objective is primarily concerned
  with reporting facts that can be proved.
  Subjective writing, on the other hand, employs
  personal feelings and judgments.
• Subjective writing The writer presents opinions,
  feelings, and responses to a situation, as well
  as facts.
• Objective writing The writer presents only
  facts, unbiased observations, and descriptions.

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Persuasion

• What is this?
• Provide an example
• See It My Way, Cohen, p. 468
• Persuasion is an act of influencing the mind,
  emotions, and will of others in an effort to
  cause them to do or believe something.
• What is the author attempting to persuade the
  reader to believe?
• What appeals to logic are used, such as facts and
  statistics, reasons, or expert testimony?
• What emotional appeals are employed, such as
  loaded words, bandwagon appeal, or testimonials?
• What fallacies does the selection contain, such
  as hasty generalizations, circular reasoning,
  either/or reasoning, or false cause and effect?
• How persuasive is the selection?

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Figurative Language

• What is this?
• Provide an example
• Language of the Imagination, Brinnan, 506
• A figure of speech, or figurative language, is a
  word or expression not meant to be understood on
  a literal level and may involve comparisons
  between unlike things.
• Simile makes a comparison between two unlike
  things, using an explicit word such as like, as,
  resembles, or than
• Metaphor refers to one thing as if it were
  another unlike thing without the use of like, as,
  resembles, or than. Metaphors are either
  Directcompares two things with a verb, such as
  is OR Impliedsuggests the comparison with a
  verb other than is
• Personification a special kind of implied
  metaphor in which an inanimate thing or quality
  is referred to as if it were animate

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Imagery

• What is this?
• Provide an example
• Seeing With Our Minds, Brinnan, p. 548
• Imagery is language that appeals to the senses of
  sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.

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The Sounds of Poetry

• What is this?
• Provide an example
• Rhythm and Meter, Brinnan, p. 558
• Meter is the regular pattern of stressed and
  unstressed syllables in poetry.
• A metrical foot consists of one stressed ( )
  syllable and one or more unstressed (È)
  syllables.
• iamb as in hello anapest as in
  introduce
• trochee as in counter dactyl as in
  cheeseburger
• The designation of a poems meter includes the
  type of metrical foot and the number of feet in
  each line Dimeter means two feet per line
  trimeter, three tetrameter, four and
  pentameter, five. Thus, a poems meter may be
  trochaic tetrameter.

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Sound Effects

• What is this?
• Provide an example
• Rhyme, Alliteration, Onomatopoeia, Brinnan, p.
  588
• Sound effects are created by writers using
  devices such as rhyme, alliteration,
  onomatopoeia.
• Rhyme the repetition of accented vowel sounds
  and all sounds following them in words that are
  close together in a poem, either at the ends of
  lines or within a line
• Alliteration the repetition of the same or
  similar consonant sounds in words that are close
  together
• Onomatopoeia use of a word whose sound suggests
  or imitates its meaning

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The End

• Congratulations on completing this literary
  elements activity! You should now be ready for
  the assessment!