Keystone Literature

The portion of a story following the climax in which the conflict is resolved. The ___________ of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey is neatly summed up in the following sentence: “Henry and Catherine were married, the bells rang and everybody smiled.”

• resolution

• plot

• exposition

• theme

The part of a story where the plot becomes increasingly complicated. _____________ leads up to the climax, or turning point.

• rising action

• falling action

• exposition

• resolution

The time and place in which a story unfolds.

• theme

• plot

• setting

• stage

In its widest sense, dialogue is simply conversation between characters or speakers in a literary work; in its most restricted sense, it refers specifically to the speech of characters in a drama.

• dialogue

• language

• dramatic script

• dialect

An author’s choice of words, phrases, sentence structures and figurative language, which combine to help create meaning and tone.

• diction

• drama

• author's purpose

• draw conclusion

Traits that mark a work as imaginative or narrative discourse (e.g., plot, theme, symbol).

• elements of fiction

• elements of nonfiction

• drama

• figurative language

A narrative device, often used at the beginning of a work that provides necessary background information about the characters and their circumstances.

• exposition

• falling action

• climax

• rising action

The part of a literary plot that is characterized by diminishing tensions and the resolution of the plot’s conflicts and complications.

• falling action

• rising action

• climax

• exposition

Language that cannot be taken literally since it was written to create a special effect or feeling.

• figurative language

• informational text

• dramatic script

• irony

The “first person” or “personal” point of view relates events as they are perceived by a single character. The narrating character may offer opinions about the action and characters that differ from those of the author.

• first person

• second person

• third person (limited)

• third person (omniscient)