Middle School Literary Terms

A series of events that builds from the conflict. It begins with the inciting force and ends with the climax.

• Falling Action

• Rising Action

• Conflict

• Resolution

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

• Conflict

• Exposition

• Resolution

• Setting

The attitude of the author or narrator in a piece of writing.

• Mood

• Tone

• Simile

• Metaphor

The conflict in the story between a character and an OUTSIDE force such as nature, technology, or another character.

• Internal Conflict

• Metaphor

• Simile

• External Conflict

The conflict of a story where a character struggles with something INSIDE themselves.

• External Conflict

• Tone

• Internal Conflict

• Mood

Perspective from which the story is told.

• Foreshadowing

• Point of View

• Plot

• Setting

Narrator only gives insight into the thoughts and feelings of ONE character in a story, uses pronouns such as "she" "they", narrator not a character in the story

• First Person Point of View

• Second Person Point of View

• Third Person Omniscient ("all knowing") Point of View

• Third Person Limited Point of View

How the writer assigns traits and features to a character

• Mood

• Tone

• Characterization

• Plot

A major category or type of literature such as fiction, nonfiction, fantasy, mystery, or historical fiction.

• Mood

• Tone

• Plot

• Genre

A DIRECT comparison of two seemingly unlike things.

• Simile

• Mood

• Metaphor

• Tone