Genre
Plot
Setting
Theme
Characters
Protagonist
Antagonist
Motivation
Characterization
7th Grade Lit Terms
A category or type of literature – Prose, Poetry and Drama
The sequence of events in a literary work. (the action or events in a story)
The time and place of the action.
The central message or insight the author wants us to learn. The moral of the
story.
A person, animal or creature who takes part in the action.
The main character in the story who usually experiences conflicts.
The character that opposes the main character.
The driving force behind a character’s actions or thoughts
The techniques an author uses to develop the personality of a character.
Direct – the author makes direct statements about the character’s personality
Indirect – the author reveals the character’s personality through the thoughts of the
character and what others think and say about that character
Round – a character who is well developed
Flat – a character who is one-sided
Internal Conflict
Exposition
Initiating Event
Dynamic – characters who change
Static – characters that do not change
A struggle between opposing forces.
individual vs. individual
individual vs. nature
individual vs. society
individual vs. supernatural
individual vs. technology
A struggle inside a character.
The introduction of the setting, characters and plot of a story.
The introduction to the central conflict in the story.
Rising Action
Climax
Falling Action
Resolution
Dialogue
Sequential events leading up to the climax.
The turning point in the story where the problem is at its worse.
Sequential events that tie up loose ends and begin to resolve the conflict.
The new norm. What happens in the end.
The words spoken by characters in a literary work.
Flashback
The action that interrupts to show an event that happened at an earlier time
which is necessary to better understanding.
The use of hints or clues to suggest what will happen later in literature.
The vantage point from which the story is told. First person – the story is told by
a character. Third person – the story is told by a narrator who is not a character
in the story. Third person omniscient – the narrator tells the story through all
the characters’ feelings and thoughts. Third person limited omniscient – the
narrator tells the story through only one character’s feelings and thoughts.
The conflict between expectation and reality; between what is said and what is
meant; between what appears to be true and what really is true.
The attitude a writer takes towards a subject or character.
The feeling created in the reader by a literary work.
Repetition of final consonant sounds
Repetition of vowel sounds
External Conflict
Foreshadowing
Point of View
Irony
Tone
Mood
Consonance
Assonance