Short Fiction Analysis Glossary

Methods to develop and reveal characters: direct and indirect.

Central struggle driving a narrative: external or internal.

Final resolution of a plot.

Author word choice contributing to tone and meaning.

Audience knows something a character does not.

Character contrasting with another to highlight qualities.

Hints suggesting future events.

A story within a story.

Blending narrator voice with character thoughts without markers.

Meaning communicated through omission and subtext.

Vivid descriptive language appealing to senses.

Beginning mid-action rather than chronologically.

Recurring element that develops meaning through repetition.

Resolution deliberately left ambiguous.

Attributing human qualities to non-human entities.

Narrative perspective: first person, second person, third-person limited, third-person omniscient.

Outcome contradicts expectations.

Underlying meaning beneath surface dialogue and action.

Concrete element representing an abstract idea.

Author attitude toward subject, conveyed through diction and imagery.

Narrator whose credibility is compromised.

Saying the opposite of what is meant.