literary elements

Literary Elements; find out in every story

Hello, Dear readers,

Today, I will be discussing all the important literary elements which are usually used by the writer and novelist. I ensure you will get a complete idea to understand and conceptualise any story easily. this draft will help you to comprehend and write any story articles novel etc. After reading this page you will find the secret to score outstanding marks in the board examination too.

Let’s get started

Content for Discussion

  • Concept and Definition
  • Setting
  • Plot
  • Mood
  • Theme
  • Point of View
  • Narrator
  • Conflict
  • Characters

Concept and Definition; Literary Elements

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Take a moment and think of a building. What are a number of the items that you simply would absolutely need to include so as to form a house? a number of those non-negotiable elements are a roof, walls, a kitchen, and a toilet, right. If you did not have these elements, you would not have a house. if I am not wrong.

A literary element’s definition is pretty similar. Literary elements are the items that each literature—whether it is a news story, a novel, or a poem—absolutely need to have. A bit like a house, literary elements are the elemental building blocks of writing, and that they play a crucial role in helping us write, read, and comprehend and conceptualise the literature or any literary text.

Some time, it is called the DNA of literature

The Top-most Literary Elements

Setting

Have you ever imagined yourself living at the river bank or even you’ve wished you’ll attend the Mad Hatter’s party in Wonderland? These are samples of how settings—especially vivid ones—capture readers’ imaginations and help a literary world come to life.

The setting is defined simply because of the time and site during which the story takes place. The setting is additionally the background against which the action happens. for instance, Hogwarts becomes the situation, or setting, where Harry, Hermione, and Ron have many of their adventures.

Keep in mind that longer works often have multiple settings. The Harry Potter series, for instance, has plenty of memorable locations, like Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley, and Gringotts. Each of those settings plays a crucial role in bringing the Wizarding World to life.

The setting of a piece is vital because it helps convey important information about the planet that impact other literary elements, like plot and theme. for instance, a historical book set in America within the 1940s will likely have a way different atmosphere and plot than a fantasy book set 300 years within the future. The setting might include geographical, social atmosphere too.

Plot

The plot of a piece of writing is defined as the sequence of events that happens from the primary line to the ends. In other words, the plot is what happens during a story.

All literature features a plot of some kind. Mostly long-form literature; sort of a novel or a play, follows a reasonably typical plot structure, also referred to as a plot arc. this sort of plot has six elements:

1. Beginning/Exposition: This is often the very beginning of a story. During the exposition, authors usually introduce the main characters and settings to the reader.
2.Conflict: A bit like in the real world, the conflict of a story is that the problem that most characters need to tackle. There are two sorts of conflict that you’re going to see during a plot. the main conflict is that the overarching problem that characters face. Minor conflicts, on the opposite hands, are the smaller obstacles characters need to overcome to resolve the main conflict.
3.Rising Action: Rising action is literally everything that happens during a story that leads up to the climax of the plot. Usually, this involves facing and conquering minor conflicts, which is what keeps the plot moving forward. More importantly, writers use rising action to create tension that involves a head during the plot’s climax.
4.Climax: The climax of the plot is that a part of the story where the characters finally need to face and solve the main conflict. this is often the “peak” of the plot where all the strain of the rising action finally involves ahead. You’ll usually identify the climax by deciding which a part of the story is that the moment where the hero will either succeed or totally fail.
5. Falling Action: Falling action is everything that happens after the book’s climax but before the resolution. this is often where writers traffic jam any loose ends and begin bringing the book’s action to an in-depth.
6.Resolution/Denouement: this is often the conclusion of a story. But simply because it’s called a “resolution” doesn’t suggest every single issue is resolved happily—or even satisfactorily. for instance, the resolution in Romeo and Juliet involves (spoiler alert!) the death of both main characters. This won’t be the type of ending you would like, but it’s an ending, which is why it’s called the resolution!

Mood

The mood of a bit of literature is defined because the emotion or feeling that readers get from reading the words on a page. So if you have ever read something that’s made you are feeling tense, scared, or maybe happy…you’ve experienced mood firsthand!

While a story can have an overarching mood, it’s more likely that the mood changes from scene to scene counting on what the author is trying to convey. for instance , the general mood of a play like Romeo and Juliet could also be tragic, but that does not mean there aren’t funny, lighthearted moments in certain scenes.

Thinking about mood once you read literature may be a good way to work out how an author wants readers to feel about certain ideas, messages, and themes. These lines from “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou are an honest example of how mood impacts an idea:

You may shoot me with your words, 

You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Theme

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The main idea of a piece of literature…but more accurately, themes are any ideas that appear repeatedly throughout a text. A text may have multiple themes.

All literature has themes because a serious purpose of literature is to share, explore, and advocate for ideas. Even the shortest poems have themes. inspect this two line poem, “My life has been the poem i might have writ,” from Henry David Thoreau:

My life has been the poem I might have writ
But I couldn’t both live and utter it.

When trying to find a topic , ask yourself what an author is trying to show us or show us through their writing. during this case, Thoreau is saying we’ve to measure within the moment, and living is what provides the fabric for writing.

Point of View

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Point of view is that the position of the narrator in relationship to the plot of a bit of literature. In other words, point of view is that the perspective from which the story is told.

We even have an excellent in-depth guide to point of view that you simply can find here. But here’s the short version: literature are often written from one among four points of view.

First person: this is often told by one among the characters of the story from their perspective. you’ll easily identify first-person points of view by trying to find first-person pronouns, like “I,” “you,” and “my.”
Second person: second-person point of view happens when the audience is formed a personality within the story. during this instance, the narrator uses person pronouns, like “you” and “your.” If you ever get confused, just remember that “Choose Your Own Adventure” books use person .

Third person limited: this is when the narrator is removed from the story and tells it from an outside perspective. To do this, the narrator uses pronouns like “he,” “she,” and “they” to refer to the characters in the story. In a third person limited point of view, this narrator focuses on the story as it surrounds one character. It’s almost like there’s a camera crew following the protagonist that reports on everything that happens to them.

Third person omniscient: in this point of view, the narrator still uses third-person pronouns…but instead of being limited to one character, the narrator can tell readers what’s happening with all characters at all times. It’s almost like the narrator is God: they can see all, hear all, and explain all!

Point of view is an important literary element for two reasons. First, it helps us better understand the characters in a story. For example, a first-person point of view lets readers get to know the main character in detail since they experience the main character’s thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Narrator

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As I just mentioned, the narrator is the person who’s considered as the storyteller. All literature has a narrator, even if that narrator isn’t named or an active part of the plot.

When you read a newspaper article, it’s the reporter’s job to tell you all the details of a particular event. That makes the reporter the narrator. They’re taking a combination of interviews, research, and their own eyewitness account to help you better understand a topic.

similarly, for the narrator of a book or poem is the same job. The narrator helps make sense of the plot for the reader. It’s their job to explain, describe, and even dramatically reveal plot points to the audience. Here’s an example of how one of the most famous narrators in literature, John Watson, explains Sherlock Holmes’ character to readers in A Study in Scarlet

Conflict

Because conflict may be a a part of plot—and as we’ve already established, all literature has some kind of plot—that means conflict may be a literary element, too. A conflict is that the central struggle that motivates the characters and results in a work’s climax. Generally, conflict occurs between the protagonist, or hero, and therefore the antagonist, or villain…but it can even exist between secondary characters, man and nature, social structures, or maybe between the hero and his own mind.

More importantly, conflict gives a story purpose and motivates a story’s plot. Put differently , conflict causes the protagonist to act. Sometimes these conflicts are large in scale, sort of a war…but they caneven be small, like conflict during a relationship between the hero and their parents.

One of the foremost important things to know about conflict is it will be both explicit and implicit. Explicit conflict is explained within the text; it’s an understandable moment where something goes wrong and characters got to fix it. Bram Stoker’s Dracula uses explicit conflict to fuel its plot: a vampire has come to England, and therefore the heroes within the story need to kill him as soon as possible.

Characters

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A piece of literature must have a minimum of one character, which may be an individual , an object, or an animal.

While there are various character types (and archetypes!), we’re about tomention the two you absolutely should know: the protagonist and also the antagonist.

The protagonist of a piece is its main character. The plot circles around this person or object, and they are central to solving the conflict of the story. Protagonists are often heroic, but they don’tneed to be: many stories target the struggles of average people, too. For the foremost part, protagonists are the characters that you just remember long after the book is over, like Katniss Everdeen, David Copperfield, Sherlock Holmes , and Hester Prynne.

Antagonists, on the opposite hand, are the characters that oppose the protagonist in how . (This opposition is what causes the conflict of the story!) There are often multiple antagonists in a very story, though usually there’s one major character, animal, or object that continues to impede the protagonist’s progress. If you ever forget what an antagonist is, just consider your favourite Disney villains. They’re a number of the best bad guys out there!

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