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Flashcards · AP® English Literature and Composition · Unit 1

Unit 1: Short Fiction I flashcards

30 cards on topics 1.1 to 1.5. Pick a topic or study the whole unit.

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1.1 Character: what details reveal about perspective and motive

What are the three main ways a text reveals a character?
Description (what is said about the person), dialogue (what they say and avoid saying) and behaviour (what they do or fail to do). Your job is to infer from these, not to label the character with a trait word.
What is the difference between a character's perspective and a character's motive?
Perspective is how a character understands their situation: what they notice, assume, fear or trust. Motive is the reason behind a choice or action: what it gains or protects.
How do you move from a detail to a claim about a character?
Detail, then inference, then claim. Point to a specific word, action or line of speech, say what it suggests, then state a claim about perspective or motive that goes no further than the details allow.
Why must you ask who is describing a character?
A description may come from the narrator, another character or the character. Each has its own angle and wants, so it can reveal the describer's view as well as the character's. Do not treat it as neutral fact.
What is wrong with saying "the author thinks" about a character's view?
A character's view is not the author's view. Write "the character believes" for the character, "the narrator suggests" for the narrator, and reserve claims about the writer for what the whole text does.
Why is "Marit is brave" a weak claim about a character?
It is a trait word with no detail behind it. A stronger claim names a motive or perspective and rests on a quoted detail, for example that her careful rehearsal shows she fears her father's judgement.

1.2 Setting: details that convey a time and place

What three jobs do setting details do?
They situate the reader (period, landscape), create mood (atmosphere) and convey values (what a community cares about). A good setting analysis says which job a detail is doing and what it adds to the meaning.
What is mood, and how is it created in setting?
Mood is the feeling a text creates in the reader. Setting creates it through sensory detail, especially light, sound, weight and temperature: adjectives such as "soundless" or "oppressively low" build a heavy mood.
How can setting convey a community's values?
Through order, custom and condition: what is kept tidy or neglected, who stands where, what is inherited. Fixed stall positions at a market, for example, can show respect for tradition.
Why is "the weather matches the character's feelings" a risky claim?
Weather does not always match mood. A writer may set a bright morning against bad news for contrast or irony. Check what the details do in context before saying setting mirrors a character.
What should you avoid when naming a time or place in a setting?
Do not name a precise decade or location the text does not state. Say what the details suggest, such as an earlier period from a gas lamp, and keep the claim as firm as the evidence.
How does a setting detail show a character's position?
It marks where the character stands in relation to the place or group, such as being at the edge or the back. The setting can limit what the character can do or signal that they are an outsider.

1.3 Plot: how events are ordered and why

What is plot, and how does it differ from a summary?
Plot is the sequence of connected events, often linked as cause and effect. A summary only retells them; plot analysis explains why the order matters and what each event leads to.
What does exposition do?
It introduces characters, setting and the opening situation, so the reader knows what must change. Ask: what do I need to know before things start to change?
What is the climax, and why is it not simply the loudest scene?
The climax is the decisive turn after which something cannot be undone. It may be a quiet moment, such as a decision or a discovery, so judge it by what it changes, not by its noise.
What does a flashback do, and what must analysis say about it?
A flashback returns to earlier events inside the present of the story. Do not just say it gives background: say what it explains, changes or makes the reader reconsider at that moment.
What is withholding in plot?
Delaying a key detail so the reader's knowledge changes along with the character's. It creates suspense or surprise, and analysis should say what the reader feels or guesses in the meantime.
What question links plot order to meaning?
Why did the writer tell it in this order? Opening on the consequence, for instance, makes the reader ask how it came about, and the later explanation then changes how the opening is understood.

1.4 Narrator and point of view

Is the narrator the same as the author?
No. The narrator is the voice that relates the events and may be partial or mistaken. Write about what the narrator suggests or knows, not what the author thinks.
What is point of view?
The position from which events are told: first person (narrator is involved) or third person (outside narrator). It determines what the reader can know and must infer.
What is the difference between third-person limited and omniscient narration?
A limited narrator is tied to one character's mind, so the reader may see more than that character does. An omniscient narrator knows several minds and events and may comment on or judge them.
What is the difference between point of view and perspective?
Point of view is the position of telling (first or third person). Perspective is how the narrator sees and judges the circumstances, shown through word choice, qualifiers and what is emphasised.
How can a first-person narrator be limited?
They know only what they have seen, understood or want to admit. The reader may notice a gap between what the narrator says and what the details show, which creates irony or doubt.
What is a strong way to write about narrator choices?
Name the point of view, say what it lets the reader know and what it hides, then link that to an effect, such as sympathy for a character or distance from a judgement.

1.5 Writing a paragraph with a claim and textual evidence

What is a claim in a literary-analysis paragraph?
A statement about the text that needs defence with evidence. A reasonable reader could ask "how do you know?" A fact or a summary is not a claim.
What makes good textual evidence?
Specific details or short, exact quotations that are relevant to the claim. Quote the shortest accurate phrase, and never change or quote from memory a text that is in front of you.
What does the link sentence do?
It explains how the evidence supports the claim. A quotation placed after a claim without a link leaves the reader to guess the connection.
What is an embedded quotation?
A short quotation built into the grammar of your own sentence, for example: the narrator calls the town "quiet", but the word is full of dread. It reads more smoothly than a dropped-in quotation.
What tense should you use when writing about a text?
The present tense for what the text does ("the narrator describes") and consistent tense throughout the paragraph. Mixing past and present is a common slip.
What is the basic order of an evidence paragraph?
Claim, then evidence, then a link that explains how the evidence supports the claim, ending with a sentence that ties the paragraph back to the question.

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