The major conflicts are the central problem that the characters face. The two types of conflicts that exist in a plot are major conflicts and minor conflicts. The conflict of a story is the problem that the main characters have to tend to. It introduces the major characters/protagonist and setting (this is when and where the story takes place). This is the introductory part of the story. These types of plots have six elements, in this pattern: Certain literature like a novel or a play and other long-form literature follow a typical plot structure that’s referred to as a plot arc or story arc. There’s causality in this event.Īll plots follow a pattern that has a beginning, a middle, and an end, but this does not encompass the idea of the basic plot structure. The child died then the mother died grieving the child is a plot.The child died and the mother died is a story.The plot is created in a fashion that makes it enticing to the reader. The plot of a literary work is the order of events that takes place, where each plot affects the next from the beginning of the story to the end.Įnglish novelist, E.M Forster argued that a plot doesn’t just describe a random event like a story does but instead it describes the cause and effect. Language can be used in a way to help readers understand the tone or setting of the characters. Plus, the language can also help readers understand the book better.

To read a book, you have to understand the language it is written in. Language is a system of communicating ideas and feelings through speech, writing, and signs/gestures.Įvery literature is expressed or written in a known language since the purpose of every literature is to pass an idea, stories, and concepts to a larger audience. This is the most important element of literature. Literary elements are there to help in the discussion and understanding of literary works. “For years now I have heard the word ‘wait.’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity.Elements of literature or literary elements are the components of a literary work.Ī literary work is a branch of literature that involves the use of words to create an idea, a picture, or a story in a meaningful pattern. Giving human-like characteristics to non-human objects or abstract ideas when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading ‘white’ and ‘colored’.” “But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she cannot go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television.”Ī form of repetition in a sentence or thought that emphasizes an idea or deepens the reaction to the idea The use of descriptive or figurative language to create vivid mental imagery that appeals to the senses “Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal…” “But again I am thankful to God that some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom.”īrief and indirect reference to well-known person, place, thing or idea, usually of historical, cultural or literary significance “The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward the goal of political independence, and we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter.” Repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words in a sentence or line Literary Elements King Uses in “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” Give them the following six literary elements and have them create a storyboard that depicts and explains the use of each literary element in the letter: alliteration, metaphor, allusion, imagery, parallelism, personification. After reading “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, ask your students to do a scavenger hunt using the storyboard creator. When teaching speeches and letters, it’s helpful to refresh or introduce students to literary elements that enhance rhetorical strategies.