Module 12 Literary Key Terms

The narrator can be first person, second person, third person limited, or third person omniscient. Character traits describe what a character is like. The plot is the events in a story. The setting is where and when the story takes place. Dialogue is what characters say or think. Rising action leads up to the climax. The problem or conflict is what is wrong in the story. The climax is the intense moment where the resolution is about to be revealed. The resolution is when the problem is solved. The theme is the big idea or lesson the author wants readers to remember. First person narrator. The I narrator uses words like I, we, me, myself. Second person narrator. The you narrator is written to you like in directions. Third person limited narrator. The narrator is outside the story with a camera looking in perspective. The narrator knows just one character's thoughts or feelings. Third person omniscient narrator. The narrator is outside the story with a camera looking in perspective. The narrator knows each character's thoughts and feelings. Character trait. Tells what the character is like as a person. Plot. The events in a fiction story. Setting. Where and when the story takes place. Dialogue. The words a character says out loud or thinks to themselves marked by quotation marks. Rising action. Part of the plot leading up to the climax. Problem or conflict. What is wrong in the fiction story? What the character or characters tries to solve. This can be a conflict between two people as in person versus person. Or person versus the natural world. Or person versus the big world, the society. It can also be person against themselves. The climax. The part of the story in the plot where readers are about to discover the resolution to the problem. It's the most intense moment in the story. Resolution. The part of the plot at the end of the story or the book when the problem is solved. Theme. The big idea of a text. What the author wants readers to keep in their minds after reading the text. The lesson the author is teaching through the plot.