Humanities Study Guide

Humanities Study Guide

word "omniscient." Omniscient means "all-knowing." When an author tells a story through the omniscient point of view, the author or narrator tells the story from an outsider's perspective, describing what is going on around them. Still, they also know what every character is thinking in the plot. Limited is also told from an outsider's perspective using words like "he," "she," "they," but they do not know what everyone is thinking. Instead, the narrator only knows what one character is thinking and feeling in the story. These elements help place us in the story plot and offer unique experiences. Think about your favorite novel, and imagine it told from a different point of view; think about how this changes the presentation of the story. Conflicts occur not only in life but also in literature, and they can be between two people, one person or nature herself. We use this term here to describe the struggle between two opposing forces. Internal conflict addresses the struggle a character has with his or her own emotions or intentions, whereas external conflict deals with the struggle between two characters or entities. A theme is themessage an author is trying to convey, that is more than a simple cliche or moral. Some common themes that authors might use include friendship, love, relationships, and loyalty. Identifying the theme of a story is a higher-order thinking skill and requires the reader to make inferences about the text. A suitable method for determining the theme is to ask yourself to summarize the writing in a single word or phrase after reading. Then, stretch that word into a statement to determine the message that the author was trying to convey. Poetry When we analyze poetry, we are looking at how a poet arranges a poem on paper. We consider how many stanzas are present, the punctuation, the breaks in the lines, and whatever other details we can see. The diction is the word choice that the author makes; the informal or formal phrases and words can change the tone, characterization, and theme of the poem. Sonic devices are resources writers use to convey and reinforce the meaning or experience of their writing through the skillful use of sound. These are especially important for poets. After all, poets are trying to use a concentrated blend of sound and imagery to evoke an emotional response. Understanding sonic devices is crucial both for analysis and for one's writing. One sonic device is alliteration , which uses a stream of words that all start with the same first phoneme. For example, "someone sang a song" uses alliteration since four of the words begin with the same "s" sound. The use of alliteration can suggest a humorous or even a threatening tone. Assonance is the repetition of a similar set of vowel sounds, typically used to emphasize intensity, mood, and imagery. Examples of assonance include "go and mow the lawn" or "here and there and everywhere." A cacophony is defined as a harsh mixture of sounds. In poetry, a cacophony is the use of words with harsh consonants, usually at the beginning of a word. A poet might use cacophony to set a mood of negativity and unhappiness. An onomatopoeia is a word that attempts to emulate a sound such as bang , zoom , crash , and smack . Poets use onomatopoeia tomake their writing enjoyable and to provide variety in their poems. A combination of all these elements can determine the heart and intention of a work of literature.

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