Literary Concepts

• A literary theme is the main idea or underlying meaning a writer explores in a novel, short story, or other literary work.
• The theme of a story can be conveyed using characters, setting, dialogue, plot, or a combination of all of these elements.
• They're some of the best bad guys out there!
• If you ever forget what an antagonist is, just think of your favorite Disney villains.
• There can be multiple antagonists in a story, though usually there's one major character, animal, or object that continues to impede the protagonist's progress.
• An antagonist is the character, animal, or object that continues to impede the protagonist's progress.
• In simpler stories, the theme may be a moral or message: “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
• In more complex stories, the central theme is typically a more open-ended exploration of some fundamental aspect of society or humanity.
• The best literary themes explore human nature on a universal level.
• Multiple books may share the same central idea.
• The theme of good versus evil stretches beyond even Biblical times.
• A story about good triumphing over evil may pit two characters directly against each other, as in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, or a main character against society at large, as in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.
• The theme of good versus evil may be explored through the external actions and dialogue of the characters, or via their internal struggle to do the right thing when faced with temptation.
• Love is one of the most universal themes in literature, as in life.
• Moraga uses English and Spanish throughout the play to help readers understand her characters and their culture better.
• All literature has a plot of some kind, with most long-form literature following a pretty typical plot structure, also known as a plot arc.
• Exposition is the very beginning of a story, where authors introduce the major characters and settings to the reader.
• Rising Action is the part of the story where the progress of the story is discussed due to the conflicts faced by the protagonist.
• The plot of a work is defined as the sequence of events that occur from the first line to the last.
• Falling Action is everything that happens after the book's climax but before the resolution, where writers tie up any loose ends and start bringing the book's action to a close.
• The Climax of the plot is the part of the story where the characters finally have to face and solve the major conflict.
• The elements of a plot arc include Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Resolution/Denouement.
• The Resolution/Denouement is the conclusion of a story, where the final outcome is discussed.
• Moraga's play, "La Cara de la Seda" ("The Face of the Silk"), addresses the plight of Hispanic migrant workers in the United States.
• Love can be a force for good that inspires people to sacrifice themselves for others, or a toxic force that drives people to madness or violence.
• Forbidden love stories often find star-crossed lovers hurtling towards a tragic fate, examples include Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare and Atonement by Ian McEwan.
• Conflict is a central struggle that motivates the characters and leads to a work's climax, and it can be both explicit and implicit.
• The protagonist of a work is its main character, the plot circles around this person or object, and they are central to solving the conflict of the story.
• If you ever forget what an antagonist is, just think of your favorite Disney villains.
• Third person omniscient is a point of view where the narrator uses third-person pronouns but can tell readers what's happening with all characters at all times.
• The narrator is the person who's telling the story, and all literature has a narrator, even if that narrator isn't named or an active part of the plot.
• A piece of literature needs at least one character, which can be a person, an object, or an animal, and there are many different character types (and archetypes).
• For the most part, protagonists are the characters that you remember long after the book is over, like Katniss Everdeen, David Copperfield, Sherlock Holmes, and Hester Prynne.
• There can be multiple antagonists in a story, though usually there's one major character, animal, or object that continues to impede the protagonist's progress.
• The narrator helps make sense of the plot for the reader and is responsible for explaining, describing, and dramatically revealing plot points to the audience.
• The antagonist of a work is the character that opposes the protagonist in some way, causing the conflict of the story.
• Protagonists are often heroic, but they don't have to be: many stories focus on the struggles of average people, too.
• Stories about the love between parents and children or siblings often explore the costs or challenges of family loyalty, examples include The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner and My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult.
• First person point of view is told by one of the characters of the story from their perspective, using first-person pronouns like "I," "you," and "my."
• The Tortoise won the race.