Page 68 - ABCTE Study Guide_Neat

omniscient narrator gives him the ability to tell the story from a variety of perspectives: across characters
and across time.

Review

• Plot is the sequence of events that take place in a story including the conflict, rising
action, climax, falling action, and resolution.
• Theme is the underlying message of a story. Characterization, plot, setting, and point of
view all contribute to a story’s theme.
• Characterization is made up of three elements: appearance, personality, and behavior.
• Setting details include the time (historical and otherwise) and place of a story.
• Point of view refers to the narrator of the story. The most common points of view are
first person, third-person limited, and third-person omniscient.

Lesson Objective

In this next section, we’ll review some specific devices that authors use to shape their language. We’ll
also see how the form that authors use influences the effect on the reader.

Previously Covered

At this point you should be familiar with the basic literary elements of narrative text including plot, setting,
and point of view, and how authors use these elements to convey underlying meaning or themes. You
should also be familiar with the similarities and differences between fables, fairy tales, folk tales, myths,
and legends.

Precision of language is key to an author’s craft. An author’s word choice determines whether a story is
simply good or great, full of surprises or fraught with confusion. Word choice and description not only set
the tone or mood of a particular story but also relate important information to the reader about setting,
plot, character, and ultimately theme.

Authors use dialogue to convey any and all information about a particular character’s, age, culture,
education, gender, personality, historical era, beliefs, etc. Dialogue brings a character to life and makes a
story believable.

Let’s look at the opening of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Diction refers to the way a character speaks. Huck speaks in a very particular diction that is appropriate to
his age, lack of education, historical time period, and upbringing. Twain uses Huck’s dialogue purposefully
to underscore the effect of Huck’s awakening at the end of the novel.

Authors use imagery and symbolism to create a certain mood in a story. To borrow another example
from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, we see the river throughout the book as a constant symbol
of freedom, independence, and life in the wild. The river typifies the life Huck wants to live and the
freedom due Jim, and by extension, all slaves in the South.

Allegories are stories or poems in which an author uses animals or objects to represent moral, political, or
religious meaning. In Animal Farm, George Orwell uses animals to critique the tyranny of totalitarianism
and bases many events in the book on the Soviet Union during the Stalin era.

Figurative language refers to an author’s use of a word or phrase that is not intended for literally
interpretation. You’ll want to be familiar with the different types of figurative language as outlined in the
chart below.