Literary Terms and Concepts

Posted on Aug 5, 2024 in English

Utopia

1. an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect.

2. This word relates to the book because the Party wanted everything to be perfect and under their control.

Dystopia

1. An imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one

2. This word relates to the book because it is what Winston thought of the Party, he thought this because he knew both parts of the story.

Totalitarianism

1. absolute control by the state or a governing branch of a highly centralized institution.

2. The Party had totalitarianism over everything that everyone did.

Oligarchy

1. a small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution

2. The Party has oligarchy over  every little thing that all the people in the country did.

Proletariat

1. workers or working-class people, regarded collectively

2. The proles where the proletariat  in the book 1984.

Ubiquitous

1. present, appearing, or found everywhere

2. There were telescreens ubiquitous at all time.

Dissent

1. hold or express opinions that are at variance with those previously, commonly, or officially expressed

2. At the beginning Winston and Julia both dissent about how the Party’s thoughts.

Orthodoxy

1. authorized or generally accepted theory, doctrine, or practice

2. Winston challenged many of the established orthodoxies.

Ideology

1. a system of ideas and ideals, especially one that forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy

2. The Party’s ideology was very unique and weird.  

Torpid

1. mentally or physically inactive; lethargic

2. During the cold months reptiles remain in a torpid state.

Truncheons

1. short, thick stick carried as a weapon by a police officer

2. The police carried a  truncheons so that they can use it instead of a weapon.

Gelatinous

1. having a jellylike consistency

2. I made an edible cell and it was gelatinous.

Equivocal

1. open to more than one interpretation; ambiguous

2. The parents  equivocal answer did not provide the kids with a clear response to his question.

Gratuitous

1. uncalled for; lacking good reason; unwarranted

2. There was gratuitous violence in a movie and people did not like it.

Sinecure

1. a position requiring little or no work but giving the holder status or financial benefit

2. A small child can handle the work of a sinecure since it doesn’t require a lot of work.

Apocalyptic

1. 1. “By the waters of Babylon” is a post-apocalyptic short story by Stephen Vincent Benet first published July 31, 1937.

   2. Description of the end of the world.

   3. The movie had an apocalyptic ending with all those cars crashing into each other and exploding.

2. Post Apocalyptic

   1. “By the waters of Babylon” is a post-apocalyptic short story by Stephen Vincent Benet first published July 31, 1937.

   2. Describing what happens after a catastrophic event.

3. Fascism

   1. Benet wrote the story in response to the April 25,1937 bombing of Guernica, in which Fascist military force destroyed the majority of Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil war  

   2. A type of government or social organization ruled by a dictator.

   3. There are few authoritarian structures out there as recognizable as fascism.

4. Prescient

   1. His “deadly mist”, and “fire falling from the sky” seem eerily prescient of the description of the aftermath of nuclear blasts.

   2. Knowing about an event before it take place.

   3. He predicted their response with amazing prescience.

5. Allusion

   1. Allusion to Psalm 137 in the King James Bible:

   2. A passing or casual reference; an incidental mention of something,either directly or by implication.

   3. Helen included an allusion about her ex-boyfriend in her song

6. Epitaph

   1. A commemorative inscription on a tomb or mortuary monument about the person buried at that site.

   2. The epitaph on Roger’s headstone is blank because his wife could think of nothing nice to say about him.

Anthem

“Shooting an Elephant”

1. Inequities

   1. Lack of fairness or justice.

   2. Peter abandoned a life of iniquity and became a contributing member of his local church.

2. Imperialism

   1. For at the time I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better.

   2. A policy of extending a country’s power and influence through diplomacy or military force.

   3. Because the people of the area wanted to be a self-governing state, they fought imperialism for many years.

3. Disillusion

   1. Disappointment resulting from the discovery that something is not as good as one believed it to be.

   2. Many voters who once loved the president have now become disillusioned with his ideals.

4. Satirical

   1. Containing or using sarcasm.

   2. Many comedians often make use of satire to create jokes at their own expense.

5. Relevant

   1. Bearing upon or connected with the matter in hand; pertinent.

   2. Since the reality star’s fifteen minutes of fame are over, she is no longer relevant.

6. Petty

   1. I was sub-divisional police officer of the town, and in an aimless, petty kind of way anti-European feeling was very bitter.

   2. Of little or no importance or consequence.

   3. The officer did not arrest the teen for the petty crime.

7. Baited

   1. As a police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so.

   2. Deliberately annoy or taunt (someone).

   3. He baited the trap for rabbits.

8. Jeer

   1. There were several thousands of them in the town and none of them seemed to have anything to do except stand on street corners and jeer at Europeans.

   2. To speak or shout rudely.

   3. The college kids jeer their rivals at the big game every year.

9. Cowed

   1. The wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the lock-ups, the grey, cowed faces of the long-term convicts, the scarred buttocks of the men who had been flogged with bamboos.

   2. To frighten with threats, violence.

   3. He has is like  a bully, someone who abuses the weak and is cowed by the strong.

10. Prostrated

    1. With one part of my mind I thought of the British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny, as something clamped down, in saecula saeculorum, upon the will of prostrate peoples.

    2. To cast (oneself) face down on the ground in humility, submission, or adoration.

    3. Kelly’s snow angel did not come out well because she laid prostrate on the ground instead of on her back.

Virginia Woolf

1. Shenanigans

1. 1. As these Web shenanigans reveal, Woolf has gone beyond her role as a writer to become a cultural icon

   2. foolishness

   3. The troublesome student would stop with his shenanigans in class.

2. Icon

   1. Woolf has gone beyond her role as a writer to become a cultural icon–a figure in whom many online constituencies see their own interests and obsessions reflected.

   2. A widely known symbol

   3. The Kardashians have become an icon symbol as Americans

3. Copiously

   1. I think what I learned most importantly was her conviction that the whole of human existence, while it is copiously contained in foreign wars and the death of kinds, and the other big subjects for big novels

   2. having or yielding an abundant supply

   3. Whenever people are aware of a natural disaster, they prepare by buying copious amounts of supplies and food for their homes.

4. Agog

   1. She was as adventurous, as imaginative, as agog to see the world as he was.

   2. very eager or curious to hear or see something.

   3. At the end of each episode of my novela, my face turns into agog.

5. Guffaw

   1. The manager–a fat, loose-lipped man–guffawed. He bellowed something about poodles dancing and women acting–no women, he said, could possibly be an actress.

   2. a loud and boisterous laugh

   3. The evil man had an annoying guffaw that could be heard from a mile away.

6. Musing

   1. Musing among the Vegetables?

   2. a period of reflection or thought.

   3. Something important that happened in your life may be musing.

7. Vivacious

   1. A touch of the bird about her, of the jay, blue-green, light, vivacious, though she was over fifty, and grown very white since her illness.

   2. Happily, attractively lively, and animated.

   3. School cheerleaders tend to be vivacious and energetic.

8. Solemnity

   1. Chill and sharp and yet (for a girl of eighteen as she then was) solemn, feeling as she did, standing there at the open window, that something awful was about to happen.

   2. the state or quality of being serious and dignified.

   3. When attending a funeral, one might feel solemnity and seriousness.

9. Irrevocable

   1. First a warning, musical; then the hour, irrevocable

   2. not able to be changed, reversed, or recovered; final.

   3. Your age and time are some things that cannot be irrevocable.

10. Suffuse

    1. As if a cuttlefish had suddenly suffused.

    2. gradually spread through or over.

    3. When one gets the common flu, it becomes suffused quickly.

11. Transient

    1. Meanwhile, since all the doors and windows were open in the heat, there was a perpetual sighing and ceasing sound, the voice of the transient and the perishing, it seemed, coming and going like human breath.

    2. lasting only for a short time; impermanent.

    3. Nothing in life is transient, everything has a solution.

12. Spinster

    1. As for facts, it was a fact that she was a spinster; that she was as rich; that she had bought this house and collected with her own hands

    2. an unmarried woman, typically an older woman beyond the usual age for marriage.

    3. The women is in her mid forties and she hasn’t been married so she adopted her children.

13. Obscure

    1. That she was as rich; that she had bought this house and collected with her own hands–often in the most obscure corners of the world and at great risk from poisonous string and Oriental diseases

    2. not discovered or known about; uncertain. Hidden

    3. The private island had an obscure cave.

14. Audacity

    1. And thus if one had the audacity to open a drawer and read her letters, one would find the traces of many agitations

    2. the willingness to take bold risks. boldness

    3. How dare you have the audacity to look through my room!

15. Upbraidings

    1. One would find the traces of many agitations, of appointments to meet, of upbraidings for not having met, long letters of intimacy and affection

    2. Scolded, shame on you for doing that.

    3. Your teacher may upbraid you for not doing you assignments.