Narrative Vocabulary: Level 1

 

1. Narrative: A story; an artfully crafted account of an experience or series of experiences.

 

2. Narrator: A person (or characters) who delivers a commentary accompanying a story, movie, play etc. A character who recounts the events of a narrative or poem. The narrator cannot always be trusted as accurate in the retelling.

 

3. Characters: The person (or people), animal(s), object(s), plant(s) etc. the story is about.

 

4. Setting: A location in the story; the various points, places and locations in which the story takes place.

 

5. Plot: A series of related events (event: something that happens at a given place and time) that make up the "story" or narrative.

 

6.Literal: When words are stated explicitly or defined in the most basic terms, without figurative language. For Example: When giving directions people are typically speaking literally. Turn left at the corner.

 

7. Alliteration: The occurance of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. Alliteration is used to create a particular sound effect or rhythm.

 

8. Simile: A comparison between 2 unlike things (people, animals,experiences etc.) that is drawn to emphasize a point; The comparison always uses either the word "like" or "as".

 

9. Antagonist: A character (or group of characters) that represent(s) opposition against the main character. For example: The Joker is an antagonist in Batman.

 

 

Narrative Vocabulary: Level 2

  

10. Protagonist: The leading character(s) in a novel, movie, play or other fictional text. The protagonist comes into conflict with an opposing major character or force.

 

11. Perspective (Point of View): Refers to the way in which a story is told.

 

11a.1st Person Point of View: The character speaks about himself. "I" or "We"

 

11b. 2nd Person Point of View: The characters are referred to by another person. "You"

 

11c. 3rd Person Point of View: The characters are referred to by the narrator as "he", "she", "it", "they" and NEVER as "I", "we" or "you".

 

12. Figurative: When the meaning of words is not explicitly stated or defined in their most basic terms. The audience needs to interpret and analyze the text in order to grasp the underlying meaning. For Example: The extension on Ms. Kennedy's project is a unicorn, flying my procrastinating group to freedom!

 

13. Dialogue: Conversations between characters; effective dialogue allows the audience to understand characters more deeply without explicitly stating attributes about the personalities of the characters.