Definitions of terms used in AP Literature Exams.

Stereotype

A conventional pattern, expression, character, or idea. In literature, a stereotype could apply to the unvarying plot and characters of some works of fictions (those of Barbara Cartland, for example) or to the stock characters and plots of many of the greatest stage comedies.

Convention

A device of style or subject matter so often used that it becomes a recognized means of expression. For example, a lover observing the literary love conventions cannot eat or sleep and grows pale and lean. Romeo, at the beginning of the play is a conventional lover, while an overweight lover in Chaucer is consciously mocking the convention. A famous romantic convention used by writers is "happily ever after." However, this is not true with the situation of Romeo and Juliet.

Metaphor

A figurative use of language in which a comparison is expressed without the use of a comparative term like "as," "like," or "than." A simile would say, "night is like a black bat"; a metaphor would say, "the black bat night." When Romeo says, "It is the east, and Juliet is the sun," his metaphors compare her window to the east and Juliet to the sun. The test was a breeze. (metaphor because the test is not literally a breeze [wind] implies that it is easy)

Personification

A figurative use of language which endows the nonhuman (ideas, inanimate objects, animals, abstractions) with human characteristics. Keats personifies the nightingale, the Grecian urn, and autumn in his major poems. The flowers dance in spring.

Litotes

A form of understatement in which a thing is affirmed by stating the negative of its opposite. For example, "She was not a bad singer." Sarah was not a bad dancer.

Epigram

A pithy saying, often using contrast. The epigram is also a verse form, usually brief and pointed. Sonnet 76 So all my best is dressing old words new, Spending again what is already spent: For as the sun is daily new and old, So is my love still telling what is told. The purpose is to show his confusion with the lover, and perhaps about his own feelings regarding his sexuality

Attitude

A speaker's, author's, or character's disposition toward or opinion of a subject. For example, Hamlet's attitude toward Gertrude is a mixture of affection and revulsion, changing from one to the other within a single scene. Jane Austen's attitude toward Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice combines respect for his wit and intelligence with disapproval of his failure to take sufficient responsibility for the rearing of all his daughters. Romeo's attitude towards Juliet is seen as an undying loyalty and devotion of true love.

Soliloquy

A speech in which a character who is alone speaks his or her thoughts aloud. A monologue also has a single speaker, but the monologuist speaks to others who do not interrupt. Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" and "O! what a rogue and peasant slave am I" are soliloquies. Browning's "My Last Duchess" and "Fra Lippo Lippi" are monologues, but the hypocritical monk of his "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister" cannot reveal his thoughts to others. "O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a Capulet."

Parable

A story designed to suggest a principle, illustrate a moral, or answer a question. Parables are allegorical stories. The Obstacle in Our Path teaches us that when we overcome certain obstacles, it will lead to self improvement. king laid a boulder in his driveway, everyone walked around it, one person put down groceries and moved it, under it was a purse full of gold.

Allegory

A story in which people, things, and events have another meaning. Examples of allegory are Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Spenser's Faerie Quenne, and Orwell's Animal Farm. EXAMPLE: In Lord of the Flies, the beast represents evil and darkness. Piggy's glasses symbolize intelligence. The conch stands for law and order. It is also an allegory that savagery will overcome civilization.

Terza rima

A three-line stanza rhymed aba, bcb, cdc. Dante's Divine Comedy is written in terza rima. (A) New life begins to spring to life in spring (B) Green shoots appear in the April showers (A) Birds migrate back home and rest tired wings

Iamb

A two-syllable foot with an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable. The iamb is the most common foot in English poetry. Ex. The way a crow Shook down on me Dust of Snow by Robert Frost

Didactic

Explicitly instructive. A didactic poem or novel may be good or bad. Pope's "Essay on Man" is didactic; so are the novels of Ayn Rand. Recipe For Heavenly Destination To get to Heaven And stay with Christ Follow this recipe And his face you will see Love Love your neighbor Love everyman Spread the love as much as you can

Ambiguity

Multiple meaning a literary work may communicate, especially two meanings that are incompatible. The duck is prepared to eat.

Sonnet

Normally a fourteen-line iambic pentameter poem. The conventional Italian, or Petrachan, sonnet is rhymed abba, abba, cde, cde; the English, or Shakespearean, sonnet is rhymed abab, cdcd, efef, gg.

Literal

Not figurative; accurate to the letter; matter of fact or concrete. In Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Violet was violet. Literally

Consonance

Repetition of internal consonant sounds. I picked the locket that had the loudest click.

Polysyndeton

Sentences, clause, phrases, or words are linked by coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, yet); we see this in Milton's Paradise Lost when he describes Satan: ...pursues his way, And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies The birds were flying over, or soaring, or gliding, or falling.

Imagery

The images of a literary work; the sensory details of a work; the figurative language of a work. Imagery has several definitions, but the two that are paramount are the visual, auditory, or tactile images evoked by the words of a literary work or the images that figurative language evokes. When an AP question asks you to discuss the images or imagery of a work, you should look especially carefully at the sensory details and the metaphors and similes of a passage. Some diction (word choice) is also imagery, but not all diction evokes sensory responses. Ex: The eerie silence was shattered by her scream.

Connotation

The implications of a word or phrase, as opposed to its exact meaning (denotation). Both China and Cathay denote a region in Asia, but to a modern reading, the associations of the two words are different. headstrong vs. determined

Modify

To restrict or limit in meaning. In the phrase "large, shaggy dog," the two adjectives modify the noun; in the phrase "very shaggy dog," the adverb "very" modifies the adjective "shaggy," which modifies the noun "dog." "very pretty flower"

Stanza

Usually a repeated grouping of three or more lines with the same meter and rhyme scheme.

Diction

Word choice. Nearly all essay questions on a passage of prose or a poem will ask you to talk about diction or about "techniques" that include diction. Any word that is important to the meaning and the effect of a passage can be used in your essay. Often several words wit ha similar effect are worth discussion, such as George Eliot's use in Adam Bede of "sunny afternoons," "slow waggons," and "bargains" to make the leisure of bygone days appealing. These words are also details. In the novel Beloved, Sethe's diction helps define her insecurities and worries in supporting her children. (ie. worrying about not having enough milk, breaking down in front of Paul D, abiding Beloved's every command to please her and beg for her forgiveness

Euphemism

A Figure of speech using indirection to avoid offensive bluntness, such as "deceased" for dead" or "remains" for "corpse." "passed away" instead of "dead" "sanitation engineer" instead of "garbage man"

Oxymoron

A combination of opposites; the union of contradictory terms. Romeo's line "feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health" has four examples of the device. jumbo shrimp

Parody

A composition that imitates the style of another composition normally for comic effect. Fielding's Shamela is a parody of Richardson's Pamela. A contest for parodies of Hemingway draws hundreds of entries a year. Vampires Suck! is a modern parody for the Twilight series. It's basically about a girl named Becca who is torn between a werewolf and a vampire and must decide at prom, similar to Twilight, but has a comedic sense to it.

Metonymy

A figure of speech characterized by the substitution of a term naming an object closely associated with the word in mind for the word itself. For example, we commonly speak of the king as "the crown." The pen is mightier than the sword. (written words are stronger than physical force [military]) White House is a metonymy for the President

Hexameter

A line containing six feet. Today I believed that anything could happen.

Point of View

Any of several possible vantage points from which a story is told. The point of view may be omniscient, limited to that of a single character, or limited to that of several characters. And there are other possibilities. The teller may use the first person (as in Great Expectations or Wuthering Heights) or the third person (as in The Mayer of Casterbridge or A Tale of Two Cities). Faulkner's As I Lay Dying uses the others as well in the first person, while in Wuthering Heights, Mr. Lockwood tells us the story that Nelly Dean tells him, a first-person narration reported by a second first-person narrator. describe points of view.

Grotesque

Characterized by distortions or incongruities. The fiction of Poe or Flannery O'Connor is often described as grotesque. The Metamorphosis is a grotesque story about a man who wakes up as an insect.

Hyperbole

Deliberate exaggeration, overstatement. As a rule, hyperbole is self-conscious, without the intention of being accepted literally. "The strongest man in the world" or "a diamond as big as the Ritz" are hyperbolic. It took a hundred years for my mom to pick me up afterschool.

Alliteration

The repetition of identical of similar consonant sounds, normally at the beginning of words. "Gnus never know pneumonia"i s an example of alliteration, since despite the spellings, all four words begin with the "n" sound. Susie swallowed several strawberries. Alliteration because repetitive consonant sound, S, at the beginning of each word.

Assonance

The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds. "A land laid waste with all its young men slain" repeats the same "a" sound in "laid," "waste," and "slain." A maid paid for the broken trays.

Jargon

The special language of a profession or group. The term jargon usually has pejorative associations, with the implication that jargon is evasive, tedious, and unintelligible to outsiders. The writings of the lawyer and the literary critic are both susceptible to jargon. Political jargon: Right wing - Jargon meaning a conservative viewpoint Deconstruction: No one knows what it really means, but every literary analysis will include it.

Devices of sound

The techniques of deploying the sound of words, especially in poetry. Among devices of sound are rhyme, alliteration, assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia. These are defined below under metrical terms. The devices are used for many reasons, including to create a general effect of pleasant or of discordant sound, to imitate another sound, or to reflect a meaning. BOOM! The canon erupted.

Satire

Writing that seeks to arouse a reader's disapproval of an object by ridicule. Satire is usually comedy that exposes errors with an eye to correct vice and folly. A classical form, satire is found in the verse of Alexander Pope or Samuel Johnson, the plays of Ben Jonson or Bernard Shaw, and the novels of Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Or Joseph Heller. The Onion is a satirical website. Huckleberry Finn "What's the use you learning to do right, when it's troublesome to do right and isn't no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?" (Chap 16)

Figurative language

Writing that uses figures of speech (as opposed to literal language or that which is actual or specifically denoted) such as metaphor, simile, and irony. Figurative language uses words to mean something other than their literal meaning. "The black bat night has flown" is figurative, with the metaphor comparing night and a bat. "Night is over" says the same thing without figurative language. No real bat is or has been on the scene, but night is like a bat because it is dark. "The toast jumped out of the toaster!" "My internal water heater is leaking."

Asyndeton

the opposite of polysyndeton. A condensed form of expression in which elements usually joined by conjunctions are presented in a series without conjunctions. The most famous example is probably Caesar's "Veni, Vidi, Vici" (I Came, I saw, I conquered) We played, we ate, we slept

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part signifies the whole or the whole signifies the part. A good synecdoche is based on an important part of the whole and not a minor part and the part selected to stand for the whole must be one directly associated with the subject under discussion. For example, we say "threads" and "wheels" for "clothes" and "car." Coke refers to all drinks.

Tetrameter

A line of four feet. She may have seen the man before.

Periodic sentence

A sentence grammatically complete only at the end. A loose sentence is grammatically complete before the period. The following are (1) periodic and (2) loose sentences. 1. When conquering love did first my heart assail, / Unto mine aid I summoned every sense. 2. Fair is my love, and cruel as she's fair. Periodic sentences complete the important idea at the end, while loose sentences put the important idea first. Neither is a better sentence. Good writers use both. After going to school, shopping at the mall, going out to eat dinner, I went home.

Structure

The arrangement of materials within a work; the relationship of the parts of a work to the whole; the logical divisions of a work. The most common principles of structure are series (A, B, C, D, E), contrast (A vs. B, C vs. D, E vs. A), and repetition (AA, BB, AB). The most common units of structure are —play: scene, act; novel: chapter; poem: line, stanza. Structure of Beloved. 28 chapters

Imperative

The mood of a verb that gives an order. "Eat your spinach" uses an imperative verb. Practice for your competition

Ellipsis

The omission of a word or several words necessary for a complete construction that is still understandable. "If rainy, bring an umbrella" is clear though the words "it is" and "you" have been left out. "If hungry, get something to eat."

Pentameter

A line containing five feet. The iambic pentameter is the most common line in English verse written before 1950. "If mu/sic be /the love /of food, /play on"

Dactyl

A metrical foot of three syllables, an accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables. The word POETRY itself is an example of a dactyl. The first syllable is stressed while the remaining are unstressed.

Rhyme Royal

A seven-line stanza of iambic pentameter rhymed ababbcc, used by Chaucer and other medieval poets. Tempus Ambigua Time is a concept quite beyond my ken. String theory baffles brilliant folks and me. I'll not wax philosophic then again Perhaps I did already, shame on me. Time keeps everything in order you see. For flies who's life-cycle completes in one day, Men and boys would be distinct I would say.

Apostrophe

Direct address, usually to someone or something that is not present. Keut's "Bright star would I were steadfast" is an apostrophe to a star, and "To Autumn" is an apostrophe to a personified season. "Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee! I have thee not, and yet I see thee still." Macbeth talks to the dagger as if it's a real person.

Synaesthesia

The concurrent response of two or more of the senses to the stimulation of one. The term is applied in literature to the description of one kind of sensation in terms of another--for example, the description of sounds in terms of colors, as a "blue note." Other examples: "how sweet the sound," " a cool green." Emily Dickens "Dying": "With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz, Between the light and me; And then the windows failed, and then could not see to see."

Thesis

The theme, meaning, or position that a writer undertakes to prove or support.

Simile

A directly expressed comparison; a figure of speech comparing two objects, usually with "like," "as," or "than." It is easier to recognize a simile than a metaphor because the comparison is explicit: my love is like a fever; my love is deeper than a well; my love is as dead as a doornail. The plural of "simile" is "similes" NOT "similies."

Irony

A figure of speech in which intent and actual meaning differ, characteristically praise for blame or blame for praise; a pattern of words that turns away from direct statement of its own obvious meaning. The term irony implies a discrepancy. In verbal irony (saying the opposite of what one means), the discrepancy is between the statement and meaning. Sometimes, irony may simply understate, as in "Men have died from time to time..." When Mr. Bennet, who loathes Wickham, says he is perhaps his "favorite" son-in-law, he is using irony. After first sight, Sethe suddenly embodies an uncontrollable sensation to go to the restroom, symbolizing the same feeling as a water breaking. Sweet Home is an example of irony because it is the name of the plantation Sethe and the rest of the men lived at, but it does not resemble anything sweet at all about their past lives.

Syllogism

A form of reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion is drawn from them. A syllogism begins with a major premise ("All tragedies end unhappily,") followed by a minor premise ("Hamlet is a tragedy.") and a conclusion (Therefore, "Hamlet ends unhappily."). A poem by John Donne: "All that is lovable is wonderful and the mistress is wonderful. Therefore, the mistress is lovable."

Ballad meter

A four-line stanza rhymed abcb with four feet in lines one and three and three feet in lines two and four. O Mother, mother make my bed. O make it soft and narrow. Since my love died for me today, I'll die for him tomorrow. Yea, though I walk in vale of death, yet will I fear no ill: Thy rod and staff do comfort me, and thou art with me still. Psalm: 23

Resources of Language

A general phrase for the linguistic devices or techniques that a writer can use. A question calling for the "resources of language" invites a student to discuss the style and rhetoric of a passage. Such topics as diction, syntax, figurative language, and imagery are all examples of resources of language. diction, syntax, figurative language, imagery.

Clause

A group of words containing a subject and its very that may or may not be a complete sentence. In the sentence "When you are old, you will be beautiful," the first clause ("When you are old") is a dependent clause and not a complete sentence. "You will be beautiful" is an independent clause and could stand by itself. When Christmas is over, you will promptly remove the ornaments from the Christmas tree.

End-stopped

A line with a pause at the end. Lines that end with a period, comma, colon, semicolon, exclamation point, or question mark are end-stopped lines. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date....

Caesura

A pause of break in a line of verse (poetry only). For example, in Andrew Marvell's poem, "To His Coy Mistress," we see caesuras in the first two lines. Had we but world enough, and time The coyness, lady, were no crime If this were to be, and forever My love, dear lady, is for you.

Reliability

A quality of some fictional narrators whose word the reader can trust. There are both reliable and unreliable narrators, that is, tellers of a story who should or should not be trusted. Most narrators are reliable (Fitzgerald's Nick Carraway, Conrad's Marlow), but some are clearly not to be trusted (Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart," several novels by Nabokov). And there are some about whom readers have been unable to decide (Jame's governess in The Turn of the Screw, Ford's The Good Soldier). Holden Caulfield is an unreliable narrator in the Catcher in the Rye. He starts the book off by saying that he is one of the biggest liars we will ever meet. His lies are skewed by his immaturity and instability in life.

Rhetorical Question

A question asked for effect, not in expectation or a reply. No reply is expected because the question presupposes only one possible answer. The lover of Sucking's "Shall I wasting in despair / Die because a lady's fair?" has already decided the answer is no. "are you kidding me?" "is the rain wet?" "what is the meaning of life" "do pigs fly?"

Allusion

A reference in a work of literature to something outside the work, especially to a well-known historical or literary event, person, or work. Lorraine Hansberry's title A Raisin in the Sun is an allusion to a phrase in a poem by Langston Hughes. When T.S. Eliot writes, "To have squeezed the universe into a ball" in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," he is alluding to the lines "Let us roll all our strength and all / Our Sweetness up into one ball" in Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress." In Hamlet, when Horatio says, "ere the mightiest Julius fell," the allusion is to the death of Julius Caesar. He is the new Albert Einstein of our school.

Cumulative sentence

A sentence in which the main clause appears near the beginning rather than partially or wholly at the end; the opposite of a periodic sentence. Also known as a "loose sentence." Example: "He could sail for hours, searching the blanched grasses below him with his telescopic eyes, gaining height against the wind, descending in the mile-long, gently declining swoops when he curved and rose back, never beating a wing." She walked through the sewer, scanning for rats, holding her breath as the aroma of feces and rotten food drafted by.

Parallel structure

A similar grammatical structure within a sentence or within a paragraph. Winston Churchill's "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields" speech or Martin's Luther's King's "I have a dream" speech depend chiefly on the use of parallel structure. Tiffany likes to sing, to dance, and to draw.

Paradox

A statement that seems to be self-contradicting but, in fact, is true. The figure in Donne's holy sonnet that concludes I never shall be "chaste except you ravish me" is a good example of the device. In Beloved, Sethe tells Paul D, "If I hadn't killed her, she would have died and that is something I could not bear happen to her."

Details (also choice of details)

Details are items or parts that make up a larger picture or story. Chaucer's "Prologue" to The Canterbury Tales is celebrated for its use of a few details to bring the characters to life. The miller, for example. is described as being brawny and big-boned, able to win wrestling contests or to break a door with his head, and having a wart on his nose on which grew a "tuft of hairs red as the bristles of a sow's ears." The princess's crown was lavished with shining sapphires, fluorescent pearls, and a lace of gold around the circumference.

Free verse

Poetry which is not written in a traditional meter but is still rhythmical. The poetry of Walt Whitman is perhaps the best known example of free verse. Come slowly, Eden Lips unused to thee. Bashful, sip thy jasmines, As the fainting bee, Reaching late his flower, Round her chamber hums, Counts his nectars—alights, And is lost in balms! Come Slowly, Eden by Emily Dickinson

Internal rhyme

Rhyme that occurs within a line, rather than at the end. "God save thee, ancient Mariner! From the fiends that plague thee thus!— Why look'st thou so?"—With my crossbow I shot the Albatross Line three contains the internal rhyme of "so" and "bow." She lost her purse due to the witch's curse.

Symbol

Something that is simultaneously itself and a sign of something else. Winter, darkness, and cold are real things, but in literature they are also likely to be used as symbols of death. A paper lantern and a light bulb are real things, but in A Streetcar Named Desire, they are also symbols of Blanche's attempt to escape from reality and reality itself. Yorick's skull is a symbol of human mortality, and Melville's white whale is certainly a symbol, but exactly what it symbolizes has yet to be agreed upon. A red rose or the color red in general is a symbol for love. A white dove is a symbol for peace.

Lyrical

Songlike; characterized by emotion, subjectivity, and imagination. I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, And Mourners to and fro Kept treading - treading - till it seemed That Sense was breaking through - This poem by Emily Dickinson is a lyrical poem as it describes the emotions of a person who is believed to be going insane.

Antecedent

That which goes before, especially the word, phrase, or clause to which a pronoun refers. In the sentence "The witches cast their spells," the antecedent of the pronoun "their" is the noun "witches." Due to Lady Macbeth's guilty conscience, she was often found sleepwalking and constantly performing the motion of washing her hands to rid herself from Duncan's blood.

Setting

The background to a story; the physical location of a play, story, or novel. The setting of a narrative will normally involve both time and place. The setting of A Tale of Two Cities is London and Paris at the time of the French Revolution, but the setting of Waiting for Godot is impossible to pin down specifically.

Rhetorical techniques

The devices used in effective or persuasive language. The number of rhetorical techniques, like that of the resources of language, is long and runs from apostrophe to zeugma. The more common examples include devices like contrast, repetitions, paradox, understatement, sarcasm, and rhetorical question. paradox: This is the beginning of the end. I can resist anything but temptation. -Oscar Wilde

Denotation

The dictionary meaning of a word, as opposed to connotation. "It is best to place a wall between our friendship." The word wall implies a physical barrier, but it also has some emotional context to it.

Theme

The main thought expressed by a work. Essay questions may ask for discussion of the theme or themes of a work or may use the words "meaning" or "meanings." The open question frequently asks you to relate a discussion on one subject to a "meaning of the work as a whole." When preparing the novels and plays you might use on the open question, be sure to consider what theme or themes you could write about if you are asked to talk about a "meaning of the work." The question is much harder to answer for some works than others. I'm not sure what I could say is the meaning of Hamlet, Wuthering Heights, or Waiting for Godot. But I have much less trouble defining theme in works like Brave New World of Animal Farm. Slavery is a main theme in Beloved.

Strategy (or rhetorical strategy)

The management of language for a specific effect. The strategy or rhetorical strategy of a poem is the planned placing of elements to achieve an effect. For example, Shakespeare's sonnet 29, "When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes," spends the first nine lines describing the speaker's discontent, then three describing the happiness the thought of the loved-one brings, all in a single sentence. The effect of this contrast is to intensify the feelings of relief and joy in lines 10-12. The rhetorical strategy of most love poems is deployed to convince the loved-one to return the speaker's love. By appealing to the loved-one's sympathy ("If you don't return my love, my heart will break."), or by flattery ("How could I not love someone as beautiful as you?"), or by threat ("When you're old, you'll be sorry you refused me."), the lover attempts to persuade the loved-one to love in return. If you don't tell me you love me now, I will die from heartache.

Tone

The manner in which an author expresses his or her attitude; the intonation of the voice that expresses meaning. Tone is described by adjectives, and the possibilities are nearly endless. Often a single adjective will not be enough, and tone may change from chapter to chapter or even line to line. Tone is the result of allusion, diction, figurative language, imagery, irony, symbol, syntax, and style to cite only the relevant words on this list. In the Wordsworth passage on the 1992 exam, the tone moves from quiet to apprehensive to confident to exuberant to terrified to panicked to uncertain to restive in only twenty-five lines.

Narrative techniques

The methods involved in telling a story; the procedures used by a writer of stories or accounts. Narrative techniques is a general term (like "devices," or "resources of language") which asks you to discuss the procedures used in the telling of a story. Examples of the techniques you might use are point of view, manipulation of time, dialogue, or interior monologue. describe the different points of view.

Style

The mode of expression in language; the characteristic manner of expression of an author. Many elements contribute to style, and if a question calls for a discussion of style or of "stylistic techniques," you can discuss diction, syntax, figurative language, imagery, selection of detail, sound effects, and tone, using the ones that are appropriate. Notice that there are several phrases used in the essay question that invite you to choose among several possible topics: "devices of style," "narrative techniques," "rhetorical techniques," "stylistic techniques," and "resources of language" are all phrases that call for a consideration of more than one technique but do not specify what techniques you must discuss. Usually one of the two essay questions on a set passage will use one of these phrases, while the other question will specify the tasks by asking for "diction, imagery, and syntax" or a similar three or four topics.

Syntax

The structure of a sentence; the arrangement of words in a sentence. A discussion of syntax in your essay could include such considerations as the length or brevity of the sentences, the kinds of sentences (questions, exclamations, declarative sentences, rhetorical questions—or periodic or loose; simple, complex. or compound). Syntax is often an issue on the English language exam. It has also been used frequently in recent essay questions on the AP Literature examples, since it is clear that many students are not prepared to write about syntax. Until this defect has been repaired, syntax questions will continue to appear regularly in both the multiple-choice and essay sections of the test. In chapter 22, Beloved's syntax of small fragments of text demonstrates her scattered thoughts and a desire to be heard.

Digression

The use of material unrelated to the subject of a work. The interpolated narrations in the novel of Cervantes or Fielding may be called digressions, and Tristram Shandy includes a digression on digressions. EX: In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut incorporates a wide variety of digressions in order to demonstrate Billy Pilgrim's conflicted mind. He incorporates digressions concerning the past and present, and further elaborates on the planet of Tralfamadore to indicate the illusion of free will.

Onomatopoeia

The use of words whose sound suggests their meaning. Examples are "buzz," "hiss," or "honk." SCREECH. dragging nails down a chalkboard.

Omniscient Point of View

The vantage point of a story in which the narrator can know, see, and report whatever he or she chooses. The narrator is free to describe the thoughts of any of the characteristics, to skip about in time or place, or to speak directly to the reader. Most of the novels of Austen, Dickens, or Hardy employ the omniscient point of view.

Heroic couplet

Two end-stopped iambic pentameter lines rhymed aa, bb, cc with the thought usually completed in the two-line unit. The Rape of the Lock: Canto 5 by Alexander Pope When those fair suns shall set, as set they must, And all those tresses shall be laid in dust

Blank verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter Men called him Mulciber; and how he fell From heaven, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove Sheer o'er the crystal battlements: from morn To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve. Blank verse is the meter of most of Shakespeare's plays, as well as that of Milton's Paradise Lost. My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

Pathetic Fallacy

When nature responds or reacts to something a character does or feels. For example, when Othello kills Desdemona and then himself, an eclipse of the sun occurs. In Wuthering Heights, the idea that Lockwood is trapped in a snow storm and how there is a storm ouside when Cathy makes a choice between loving Edgar or Heathcliff. This represents her inner struggle.

Understatement

When the literal sense of what it said falls short of the magnitude of what is being talked about. The winner of the Miss Universe beauty pageant was decent.