You must be able to define, identify, or give an example of these literary terms:
Genre
Short Story
Ballad
Irony- verbal and situational
Point of view— 1st and 3rd persion limited, omniscient, and objective
Conflict— man vs. man, man vs. self, man vs. nature/supernatural
Character
Static character
dynamic character
Mood/tone
Direct exposition
Indirect revelation
Alliteration- an approximate rhyme in which the initial consonants of words are the same: i.e. ghostly galleon, peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
Stanza
Theme
Your test will have three sections:
- A literary terms section-- this will be a matching section that will either contain the definitions or examples of each literary term. I am doing this so that you have plenty of time to write for section three of the exam and because I don't want you to feel like I'm killing you. :)
- A comprehension question section-- this will cover the comprehension questions that are in the textbook and in your notes.
- A short essay section that identifies and analyzes a passage taken from one of the stories we have read.
For section three, you must know how to correctly spell the title of each work as well as the author's name.
Then, in your short essay, you must be able to answer these three questions about the passage:
1. How does this passage relate to the rest of the story or poem’s plot?
This part should provide a brief summary of the story or poem and talk about where the passage occurs within that story-- is it in the beginning of the story? The end of the story? Is this passage a very significant part in the plot of the story? Why is it significant?
2. Does it contain any dominant literary or poetic terms that you learned about? Define at least 3 elements and then explain what they are in the passage. Choose elements that are important or dominant in the passage (i.e. If you have The Highwayman or The Ballad of the Harp Weaver, then you must include ballad as one of the literary elements, since it is the most dominant literary term for those works)
3. What is the purpose of this passage? What does it teach you? What effect does it have?
This is usually the section where you discuss the tone, mood, and theme--
If the passage is from a poem, it is more likely that you will be talking about what feelings that passage creates within you (i.e. The Ballad of the Harp Weaver has a very depressing effect because the story is so tragic and it is moving to see the way that the mother and son suffer as well as the way that the mother dies in order to save her son)
If the passage is from a story, then it is more likely that you will be talking about what it is teaching you-- if you focus on the THEMES of each story, then you will know how to write about what it's teaching you, since the theme of a story is the main point that the author wants to teach the reader.
In the comments section of this post, I have put an example of a passage identification question and answer.
1 comment:
"Men say the winter
Was bad that year;
Fuel was scarce,
And food was dear.
A wind with a wolf's head
Howled about our dodor,
And we burned up the chairs
And sat upon the floor.
All that was left us
Was a chair we culdn't break,
And the harp with a woman's head
Nobody would take,
For song or pity's sake.
The night before Christmas
I cried with the cold,
I cried myself to sleep
Like a two-year-old.
And in the deep night
I felt my mother rise,
And stare down upon me
With love in her eyes."
This passage is taken from Edna St. Vincent Millay's The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver.
1. This passage occurs in the center of the poem. In this poem, there is a son and a mother who are very poor- so poor that they cannot afford to buy or make clothes. In addition to this, the season has started to change and the weather has gotten colder and colder. Tragically, the son gets skinnier and skinnier and his clothes get barer and barer. In this section of the poem, the weather has reached its coldest-- and its so cold that it is actually causing physical pain in the son to the point that he cries himself to sleep. When the passage says that the son saw his mother rise and look at him with love in her eyes, it shows what the mother will be doing-- right after this passage, the mother starts to magically weave clothing for her son with her harp. She sacrifices her life by working through the freezing night on these clothes, in the end dying, but leaving him with plenty of clothes to stay warm.
2. This passage has three dominant literary terms. The first and most important term is this poem's genre, which is the ballad. A ballad is a short narrative song written in stanzas commonly containing the themes of love, tragedy, courage, and the supernatural. You can see that this is a ballad because it is divided into stanzas and it has a particular meter and pattern in rhyme. You can also see that this is a ballad because the situation of the son and mother contains the themes of love and tragedy. A theme is the main point that the author wants to convey to the reader-- and I think that the main theme of this story is love, specifically the sacrificial love that the mother has for her son. The final literary term in this passage is conflict-- a conflict is a struggle between two opposing forces, and this ballad contains a conflict of man vs. nature since it is all about the way that the son and mother are struggling against the murderous cold.
3. This passage has a very tragic tone and it is very emotionally moving. It is tragic to see the way that the son and mother are suffering and struggling to survive and it really evokes the sympathy of the reader as they see their tragic situation. It is also very touching to see the way that the mother loves her son and loves him enough to sacrifice her own life just so that he can live.
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