Example: "Hills like White Elephants," by Ernest Hemingway. Allusion -- A casual reference in one literary work to a person, place, event, or another piece of literature, often without explicit identification. It is used to establish a tone, create an indirect association, create contrast, make an unusual juxtaposition, or bring the reader into a world of references outside the limitations of the story itself. Example: "The Wasteland" by T.S. Eliot alludes to "Paradise Lost" by John Milton.

Repetition -- The repeating of a word or phrase or rhythm within a piece of literature to add emphasis. Example: The story of Agamemnon in The Odyssey by Homer.

Blank verse -- Unrhymed lines of ten syllables each with the even-numbered syllables bearing the accents, most closing resembling the natural rhythms of English speech. Example: "The Princess" by Alfred Lord Tennyson.

Irony -- It can be when a character makes a statement wherein the actual meaning differs greatly from the meaning the words superficially express. Example: Hester's fall down the social ladder in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Diary -- An informal documentation of a person's private life, thoughts, and concerns. Example: The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett.

Mood -- It is a feeling or emotional state or disposition of the mind that predominates the atmosphere of the work. Example: Psychosis in American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis.

Tone -- How the author creates a relationship or conveys mood. Example: Matter of fact tone in The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien.

Plot -- The structure and relationship of actions and events in a work of fiction. What exactly happens in the narrative, from start to finish. Example: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.

Flashback -- A method of narration in which present action is temporarily interrupted so that the reader can witness past events, usually in the form of memories,...

Example: The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.
Secondary characters -- Characters that are not the protagonist or antagonist, but support and reflect the main characters in some way. They may represent perspectives, viewpoints, emotions, or other symbols. Example: Captain Carter in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

Epic -- A genre of classical poetry that is long, serious, told in grandiose language, has a hero on a significant journey with large-scale consequences that begins in medias res, in the middle of things. Example: The Aeneid, by Virgil.

Dramatic Irony -- When the audience is aware of situation that the characters within the narrative are not. Example: The fate of Romeo and Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare.

Characterization -- The author's use of description, dialogue, and action to create an internal reaction in the reader to a character as a means to make the character realistic. Example: Winston Smith in 1984 by George Orwell.

Lyric Poetry -- A short poem with repeating stanzas designed to be set to music. Example: "How do I Love Thee" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Foreshadowing -- Suggesting, hinting, or indicating something will occur later in a narrative alluding to what may happen next. Example: when Ralph reminds Jack to remember the fire in Lord of the Flies by William Golding.