Prose Fiction

• Allusion: a literary reference to a familiar person, place, thing or event
• Antagonist: the person or force working against the protagonist, or hero, of the work
• Dynamic character: an imaginary person that undergoes substantial internal changes as a result of one or more plot developments
• Character foil: someone who serves as a contrast or challenge to another character
• Static character: an imaginary person that does not undergo any substantial internal changes as a result of the story's major plot
• Direct characterization: the author directly states what the character is like to create someone believable
• Indirect characterization: methods the author uses to create believable characters, including describing appearance, revealing through words, actions, thoughts, feelings, and how other characters respond
• External conflict: a problem, antagonism, or struggle between a character and an outside force, driving the plot forward
• Internal conflict: a problem, antagonism, or struggle within an individual character, usually regarding behavior or actions
• Flashback: returning to an earlier time to clarify something in the present
• Dramatic irony: using a word or phrase to mean the opposite of its literal meaning, where the reader knows more than the character
• Situational irony: using a word or phrase to mean the opposite of its literal meaning, where there is a great difference between action and result
• Verbal irony: using a word or phrase to mean the opposite of its literal meaning, where the opposite is said from what is intended
• Motif: an often-repeated term, image, or idea in literature that develops into a larger theme
• Narrator: the person telling the story
• Plot: the sequence of events in a story, building from exposition to resolution
• Point of View: the vantage point from which the story is told, first person or third person
• Protagonist: the main character or hero of the story
• Setting: the time, place, and atmosphere/mood in which the action takes place
• Symbol: a person, place, thing, or event used to represent something else
• Theme: the statement about life that the writer is trying to convey in a piece of literature