Literary elements are tools authors use to create effects and convey information. Plot, setting, characters, point of view, conflict, and characterization are important elements in literature. They help readers analyze and understand stories.
Literary elements are devices, techniques and components that authors use in literature to create a certain effect or to convey information to readers. Authors use various literary elements in their writing, whether intentionally or not. Plot, setting, and characters are all kinds of literary elements. A literary element can also be used by readers as a way to analyze and study stories.
Plot is a literary element that refers to the way a story unfolds. The plot of a story has to do with what happens and the order in which it happens. Some stories begin with an exposition providing background information about the characters and setting; this is followed by escalating action, where tension and conflict build and lead to the climax, or high point in a story. Falling action and a conclusion concludes the story.
Different stories follow different patterns. Not all stories end with a definitive conclusion. While some have very clear resolutions, some authors design their work to have readers deduce what might have happened.
Authors create and develop one or more protagonists and antagonists in most stories. Protagonists are the main characters around whom the story revolves. They can be good or bad. Antagonists are people or forces that cause problems or conflicts for the protagonist.
Setting is a literary element that refers to the time, place, and social conditions in which a story takes place. The events that take place in a work of fiction are strongly influenced by the setting in which they are placed. For example, a story set during a war in Europe in the 1800s is bound to be different from a story set in a peaceful village in Canada in the 1950s.
Point of view is a literary element that refers to the perspective from which a story is told. The most common viewpoints, which have to do with the narrator’s position in the story, are first person, omniscient third person, and limited third person. The first-person point of view means that the narrator is inside the story and is telling it from his or her perspective. The limited third-person point of view indicates that the narrator is outside a story and can see inside the mind of a character, often the protagonist. The third-person omniscient point of view means that the narrator is outside the story but can see into the minds of all the characters and, therefore, can relate their thoughts, feelings and motivations.
Conflict is a necessary literary element for a captivating fictional story. If there is no conflict, there is usually no plot and nothing to resolve that would hold the readers attention. A story in which two people sit peacefully on a porch talking for five hours wouldn’t make much of a story unless their conversation used flashbacks — a literary technique that recalls past events — to tell a fascinating story, or they wouldn’t. quarreled or experienced a disaster.
Another important literary element is characterization, which is how authors create and develop characters. Readers become more engaged in a story if there are fully detailed characters they develop an interest in. Most of the protagonists and other important characters are round characters, meaning they are multidimensional, as opposed to supporting characters who may be undeveloped. A dynamic character changes beliefs, experiences, or personalities in some significant way over the course of a story, while a static character stays the same. The authors use direct quotes, actions and thoughts of the characters to help readers understand them.
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