Narrative Fiction: EOC Vocabulary
1. Narrative Fiction
• Writing that tells a story.• Writing drawn from the author’s
imagination (not real).• Two types: Short Story and the
Novel
2. Short Story
• A short work of Narrative Fiction.
3. The Novel
• A long work of Narrative Fiction.• Novels are longer than Short
Stories.
4. Prose
• The ordinary form of everyday writing.
• Essays, Short Stories, and Novels are Prose.
• Poetry, Drama, and Songs are not Prose.
5. Character
• Persons, animals, or things in a story.
• There are many different classifications of Characters and characterizations.
Main Character
• The important character in the story.
Secondary Character
• Characters other than the Main Character. (ALL other characters).
Indirect Characterization
• We learn about the character from what they do.
Direct Characterization
• The Author tells us what kind of person the character is.
Flat/Static Characters
• No Change (the character remains the same throughout the story)
Round/Dynamic Characters
• Changes (the character changes or develops as the story progresses)
6. Plot
• The sequence of events in a story.• What happens in the story?• A short 3-4 sentence summary that tells
about the characters and the conflicts they are in.
• Plot: Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Resolution
7. Setting
• The time and place of the action of the story.
• The year, time and place, season, weather, the daily life of the characters.
8. Conflict
• A struggle between two opposing forces or characters in the story.
• The fight or problem in the story. (often more than one)
Four types of Conflict
• Person v. Person• Person v. Nature• Person v. Society• Person v. Themselves
9. Theme
• Central Idea or basic meaning of a literary work.
• An underlying idea that has a lot to do with the story.
• The point or moral of the story.• What is this story saying about
people, or life, or the world? (one sentence)
10. Climax
• The point of greatest interest or suspense in the story.
• The “turning point”: when the crisis is resolved or the decision is made.
• The major (most important) part of the story.
11. Point-of-View
• The Vantage Point from which a story is told.
• 1st Person• 2nd Person• 3rd Person
1st Person Point-of-View
• Story is told by a character.• Uses “I”, “me”, and “we”.
2nd Person Point-of-View
• Gives instruction• Uses “you”
3rd Person Point-of-View
• Story is told by a Narrator. Uses “he”, “she”, and “it”.
• 3rd Person Limited – Narrator only knows some info, or what one person thinks.
• 3rd Person Omniscient – Narrator knows everything that is happening.
12. Protagonist
• The Main Character in the story.• Usually the Hero.
13. Antagonist
• The Person or Thing in conflict with the Protagonist.
• Usually the Villain.
14. Mood
• The feeling created in the reader by the story.
• The emotional response you feel from reading the story.
15. Tone
• The attitude the Author takes toward his subject.
• The words and details used in the story show the author’s tone.
• One word description: Humorous or Serious, Formal or Informal
16. Irony (Situational)
• A difference between what is expected and what really happens.
• A difference between what is said and what is really meant.
Dramatic Irony*
• When the reader knows something that the Character does not know.
17. Foreshadowing
• When things happen in the story that give hints or clues about what will happen later.
• When the Characters say things that let you know what might happen later.
18. Symbolism
• When an element of the story represents or stands for something else.
• A Rose=Love• A Skull=Death• Spring=Youth• Winter=Old Age
19. Flashback
• When a scene in a story represents something that happened before.