Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
Region VIII
Schools Division of Baybay City
Baybay 2 District
BANAHAO NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

First Quarter Week No. 2

INFORMATION SHEET

Subject : Creative Nonfiction

Grade Level : 12
Subject Type : Specialized
Learning Competency : Create samples of the different literary elements based on one’s
experience HUMSS_CNF11/12-Ib-d-4
Objectives : Identify the different literary elements of the different genres and
Create samples of the different elements based on one’s experience

KEY CONCEPTS

Literary Elements are specific means by which writers or storytellers manipulate words
in specific patterns to unfold their stories and experiences. These are considered as the main tools
in a writer’s toolbox. You can avoid dull and bland-tasting stories or any literary pieces by popping
it with life by sprinkling in appropriate and effective literary elements. The more literary elements
that you employ the more powerful and creative your writing will be. While it’s okay to stick to
some literary elements that are distinctive as your style, variety is always beneficial. This prevents
you from overusing several literary elements. This can also strengthen your writing skills and
creativity.
Exploiting literary elements in writing transforms us into becoming prolific writers and
storytellers. Take note that successful classic and modern writers used literary elements in their
crafts. Here are reasons why you should utilize literary elements in any piece of work:
1. Literary elements add special effects to your writing.

2. They establish connection with the reader.

3. They engage and captivate readers.

4. They help you in conveying abstract information.

5. They paint vivid pictures of your words.

6. They enhance the reader’s vicarious experience.

The number one rule in writing is to show, don’t tell. By applying literary elements, you
can show to the readers what is going on in your story instead of telling them. They will be able to
know what the characters know, feel what the characters feel, and see what the characters see.
You may consider the following tips to incorporate literary elements in your craft:
1. Read the work of other writers.
1
 2. Do not overdo it. (We said earlier to just sprinkle appropriate and effective literary elements
and not to dump them altogether.)
3. Make it seem natural.

4. When in doubt about a certain literary element, do not use it. (Familiarize first yourself first
with the element.) 5. Make it understandable for your readers.
6. Look for real-life examples.

The inventory of literary elements of the different genres is long and comprehensive but we
will cover the most common ones. Let us start with fiction.
Fiction has six literary elements namely character, setting, plot, point-of view, conflict, and theme.
Character
A character is a figure in a literary work. Characters can be major or minor. Characters are classified into:
a. Flat, when they are defined by a single idea of quality and does not change too much from the start of the
narrative to its end Examples:
• Shakespeare’s Queen Gertrude, who seems to be a caring mother of Hamlet but inwardly she is a weak-
willed lady
• Harper Lee’s Miss Maudie, who acts as a voice of reason for kids and supports and explains Atticus’
motivations and actions
b. Round, when they possess the complexity of real people Examples:
• Shakespeare’s Hamlet, for being complex, enigmatic, mysterious, knowledgeable, philosophical, intelligent,
and thoughtful
• F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Gatsby, who is a man of great mystery
Characters can also be:
a. Protagonist, the main character with whom the reader is meant to identify, also the person is not necessarily good by
any conventional moral standard, but he/she is the person in whose plight the reader is most invested. (e,g., Rizal’s
Crisostomo Ibarra)
Tragic hero/tragic figure
The tragic hero or tragic figure is a protagonist who comes to a bad end as a result of his own behavior, usually caused by a
specific personality disorder or character flaw.
Example: Oedipus in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex
Tragic flaw
The tragic flaw is the single characteristic (usually negative) or personality disorder that causes the downfall of the
protagonist.
Example: Oedipus’ pride
b. Antagonist, the character who opposes the main character, also the counterpart to the main character and source of a
story’s main conflict; may not be “bad” or “evil” by any conventional moral standard, but he/she opposes the
protagonist in a significant way. (Rizal’s Padre Damaso)
We learn about a character in five different ways:
1. What the character says.
2. What the character thinks.
3. What the character does.
4. What other characters or the narrator say about the character.
5. What the author says about the character.
Setting
Setting refers to the time and place where a story occurs. It can be used to create the mood or atmosphere within a story. It can
also express the writer’s view of the world.
2
 The setting can be:
a. Specific
Examples:
• Thunderbird Resort, Poro Point, City of San Fernando 2500 La Union
• Northern Naguilian National High School, Gusing Norte, Naguilian 2511 La Union
b. Ambiguous Examples:
• A large urban city during economic hard times
• Somewhere in the 2nd floor of the grocery store
Plot
The plot is the sequence of events in a story. It is made up of:
a. Exposition, the beginning of the story, characters, setting, and the main conflict are typically introduced.
b. Rising Action, also called Complication, where the main character is in crisis and events leading up to facing the
conflict begin to unfold. The story becomes complicated.
c. Climax, the peak of the story, where a major event occurs in which the main character faces a major enemy, fear,
challenge, or other source of conflict. The most action, drama, change, and excitement occur here.
d. Falling Action, where the story begins to slow down and work towards its end, tying up loose ends.
e. Resolution, like a concluding paragraph that resolves any remaining issues and ends the story.
Examples: Manuel E. Arguilla’s How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife
The story starts off where the narrator introduced his brother Leon and Maria, where he describes Maria and her
physical appearance. He also described how his brother Leon is in love with Maria, and that’s where their journey
begins. The problem was introduced when Maria was afraid that the father of Leon would not accept her in the family.
The climax of the story was when the three arrived home and Baldo was called by his father who asked him about
their journey, about Labang, and a bit about the wife of his brother. The story gears to its end when Baldo left the
room of his father and goes to take care of Labang and talks to Leon and Maria. The story ends when Baldo
describes Maria smelling like a morning where papayas are in bloom.

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

The plot of the story begins when Lizzie’s sister, Jane, falls in love with Darcy’s friend named Mr. Bingley. Lizzie
develops an interest in Mr. Wickham, who accuses Darcy of destroying him financially. When Lizzie goes to meet her
friend, she runs into Mr. Darcy, who proposes, and Lizzie rejects. She then writes him a letter telling him why she
dislikes him. He writes back, clearing up all misunderstandings and accusations. Jane runs away with Mr. Wickham,
and Lizzie realizes that Mr. Darcy is not as bad a man as she had thought him to be.
Point-of-view
Point-of-view refers to the identity of the narrative voice. It is the person or entity through whom the reader experiences the story. It
may be:
a. Third-person, where a narrator describes what is seen but as a spectator, who may be:
1. Limited, sees only what is in front of him and unable to read any other character’s mind
2. Omniscient, sees all, much as an all-knowing god of some kind 3. Limited omniscient, can only see into one
character’s mind
Example: Joseph Heller’s Catch-22
“What are you doing?” Yossarian asked guardedly when he entered the tent, although he saw at once. “There’s
a leak here,” Orr said. “I’m trying to fix it.” “Please stop it,” said Yossarian. “You’re making me nervous.” “When I was
a kid,” Orr replied, “I used to walk around all day with crab apples in my cheeks. One in each cheek.” Yossarian put
aside his musette bag from which he had begun removing his toilet articles and braced himself suspiciously. A
minute passed. “Why?” he found himself forced to ask finally. Orr tittered triumphantly. “Because they’re better than
horse chestnuts,” he answered.
b. Second-person, using the pronoun you to narrate the story
Example: Heather McElhatton’s Pretty Little Mistakes
While standing in his parents’ kitchen, you tell your boyfriend you’re leaving. You’re not going to college. You’re not
buying into the schedules, the credits, or the points. No standardized success for you.
c. First-person, when we are seeing events through the eyes of the character telling the story
3
 Example: Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid
“First of all, let me get something straight: This is a Journal, not a diary. I know what it says on the cover, but
when Mom went out to buy this thing I specifically told her to get one that didn’t say ‘diary’ on it. Great. All I need is for
some jerk to catch me carrying this book around and get the wrong idea.”
Conflict
The conflict is a struggle between opposing forces which is the driving force of a story. Conflicts can exist as:
a. Man versus man, the typical scenario between the protagonist and antagonist
Examples: Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, Agatha Christie’s And Then There
Were None
b. Man versus nature, where the character is tormented by natural forces such as storms or animals
Examples: Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, Herman
Melville’s Moby Dick
c. Man versus self, where the conflict develops from the protagonist’s inner struggles, and may depend on a character
trying to decide between good and evil or overcome self-doubts
Examples: Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
d. Man versus society, where a character must take on society itself, stands at odds and realizes the necessity to work
against these norms
Examples: John Steinbeck’s The Pearl, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man
e. Man versus fate, where a protagonist is working against what has been foretold for that person
Example: Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five
Theme
A theme is the main idea or underlying meaning conveyed by the piece.
Examples:
• Love and friendship – Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Emily Bronte’s
Wuthering Heights, Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina
• War – Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man
• Crime and mystery – Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue, Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock
Holmes, Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code
Moving on, poetry uses sound devices such as alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, rhyme, and rhythm.
It also employs meter, imagery, stanza, theme, symbolism, tone, and figurative language such as metaphor,
personification, and simile.
Alliteration
Alliteration is derived from the Latin word ‘Latira’ which means letters of alphabet. It is exemplified with the repetition of
consonant sounds within close proximity, usually in consecutive words within the same sentence or line. Alliteration is popularly
used in book titles, business names, nursery rhymes, and tongue twisters.
Examples:
• Companies: Dunkin’ Donuts, PayPal, Best Buy, Coca-Cola, Krispy Kreme
• Names: Ronald Raegan, Mickey Mouse, Porky Pig, Lois Lane, Donald
Duck, Spongebob Squarepants  From literature:
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
“The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;
We were the first that ever burst
Into the silent sea.”
Assonance
Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within words.
Examples:
• Al Swearengin’s Deadwood

4
 If I bleat when I speak it’s because I just got flee
• Sylvia Plath’s The Bee Meeting
Strips of tinfoil winkling like people
• William Wordsworth’s Daffodils
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze
Consonance
Consonance refers to repetitive sounds produced by consonants within a sentence or phrase which often takes place in quick
succession.
Examples: Fugees’ Zealots
Rap rejects my tape deck, ejects projectile
Whether Jew or gentile, I rank top percentile
Many styles, more powerful than gamma rays
My grammar pays, like Carlos Santana plays

George Wither’s Shall I Wasting in Despair

Great, or good, or kind, or fair,
I will ne’er the more despair,
If she love me, this believe,
I will die ere she shall grieve;
If she slight me when I woo,
I can scorn and let her go;
For if she be not for me,
What care I for whom she be?
Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is a word that conveys the sound of something. Sounds are spelled out as words, or when words describing
sounds actually sound like the sounds they describe.
Examples: Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Come Down, O Maid
The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees

Shakespeare’s The Tempest

Hark, hark!
Bow-wow.
The watch-dogs bark!
Hark, hark! I hear
The strain of strutting chanticleer Cry, ‘cock- a-diddle-dow!

5
Rhyme
Rhyme is a repetition of similar sounding words, occurring at the end of lines in poems or songs.
Examples: Jane Taylor’s Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Twinkle, twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are

Cole Porter and Robert Fletcher’s Don’t Fence Me In

Just turn me loose let me straddle my old saddle, Underneath the western skies,
On my cayuse let me wander over yonder, ‘Til I see the mountains rise.

Rhythm
Rhythm is the pattern of stressed and unstressed beats.

Meter identifies units of stressed and unstressed syllables. When a writer combines metrical units into a pattern, he creates
rhythm. The five key metrical units are:
1. Iamb, one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable
Example: Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, (iambic pentameter)
If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! It had a dying fall:
O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of violets

2. Trochee, one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable

Example: Philip Larkin’s The Explosion Shadows pointed towards the pithead:
In the sun the slagheap slept.
Down the lane came men in pitboots
Coughing oath-edged talk and pipesmoke
Shouldering off the freshened silence.

3. Spondee, two subsequent stressed syllables

Example: Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida
Cry, cry! Troy burns, or else let Helen go.

4. Dactyl, one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables

Example: Alfred Lord Tennyson’s The Charge of the Light Brigade
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!” he said:
Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.

6
 5. Anapest, two unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable
Example: Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark “Just the place for a Snark!” The Bellman
cried,
As he landed his crew with care;
Supporting each man on the top of the tide
By a finger entwined in his hair
There was also a Beaver, that paced on the deck,
Or would sit making lace in the bow:

Imagery
Imagery appeals to the reader’s physical senses motivating strong and distinct mental images of what the writer is trying to show.
It is classified into:
a. Visual imagery (seeing)
Example: Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear
b. Olfactory imagery (smelling)
Example: (Patrick Suskind’s Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
The streets stank of manure, the courtyards of urine, the stairwells stank of moldering wood and rat droppings, the
kitchens of spoiled cabbage and mutton fat; the unaired parlors stank of stale dust, the bedrooms of greasy sheets,
damp featherbeds, and the pungently sweet aroma of chamber pots.
c. Gustatory imagery (tasting)
Example: William Carlos Williams’ This is Just to Say I have eaten the plums
that were in the ice box and which you were probably
saving for breakfast. Forgive me they were delicious so sweet
and so cold
d. Tactile imagery (touching or feeling)
Example: E. B. White’s Once More to the Lake
When the others went swimming my son said he was going in, too. He pulled his dripping trunks from the line where
they had hung all through the shower and wrung them out. Languidly, and with no thought of going in, I watched him,
his hard little body, skinny and bare, saw him wince slightly as he pulled up around his vitals the small, soggy, icy
garment. As he buckled the swollen belt, suddenly my groin felt the chill of death.
e. Auditory imagery (hearing or listening)
Example: John Keats’ To Autumn
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
Stanza
A stanza is a smaller unit or group of lines in poetry. Stanza may be:
a. Couplet, two lines
Example: Alexander Pope’s Essay on Criticism
True wit is nature to advantage dress’d;
What oft was thought, but ne’er so well express’d.
b. Tercet, three lines
7
 Example: Thomas Wyatt’s Second Satire
My mother’s maids, when they did sew and spin,
They sang sometimes a song of the field mouse,
That for because their livelihood was but so thin.

Would needs go seek her townish sister’s house.

Would needs She thought herself endured to much pain:
The stormy blasts her cave so sore did souse
c. Quatrain, four lines popularized by Persian poet Omar Khayyam who called it Rubai
Example: Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat III translated by Edward Fitzgerald
And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before
The Tavern shouted – Open the Door!
You know how little while we have to stay,
And, once departed, may return no more.
d. Quintain, also referred as Cinquain, five lines
Example: Adelaide Crapsey’s November Night
Listen…
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees And fall.
e. Sestet, six lines
Example: Matthew Arnold’s The Better Part
So answerest thou; but why not rather say:
‘Hath man no second life? – Pitch this one high!
Sits there no judge in Heaven, our sin to see? – More strictly, then, the inward judge obey!
Was Christ a man like us? Ah! Let us try
If we then, too, can be such men as he!
f. Septet, seven lines
Example: Michael Degenhardt’s True Miracle
Precious child
You have changed the world
You’ve given us forgiveness
And gave chances for true salvation
Child of the world, crying not,
May we learn from you
And your love
g. Octave, eight lines
Example: John Donne’s Death Be Not Proud
Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
8
 Rest of their bones, and souls delivery.
h. Sonnet, 14 lines (three quatrains and a couplet)
Example: Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling
buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest;

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Symbolism
Symbolism happens when something is used to represent something else, such an idea or concept. Writers use symbols as
objects to represent a non-literal meaning.
A symbol must be something tangible or visible, while the idea it symbolizes must be something abstract or universal.
Examples: William Blake’s Ah Sunflower
Ah Sunflower, weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the sun;
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveler’s journey is done.

Blake uses sunflower as a symbol for human beings, and the sun symbolizes life. Therefore, these lines symbolically refer
to their life cycle and their yearning for a never-ending life.
Sara Teasdale’s Wild Asters
In the spring, I asked the daisies
If his words were true, And the clever, clear-eyed daisies
Always knew.
Now the fields are brown and barren,
Bitter autumn blows,
And of all the stupid asters
Not one knows.

In the lines above, spring and daisies are symbols of youth. Brown and barren are symbols of becoming old. Bitter autumn
symbolizes death.
Tone
Tone is defined as a speaker’s or narrator’s attitude about a subject and is different from the mood a reader gets while reading the
story.
You can set the tone of your literary piece by choosing the words that fit the tone you’re trying to convey, and by having the
character take a certain stance or position on a topic.

9
Examples: Donald Barthelme’s The School
And the trees all died. They were orange trees. I don’t know why they died, they just died. Something wrong with the soil
possibly or maybe the stuff we got from the nursery wasn’t the best. We complained about it. So we’ve got thirty kids there,
each kid had his or her own little tree to plant and we’ve got these thirty dead trees. All these kids looking at these little brown
sticks, it was depressing.
The use of the adjectives dead and depressing sets a gloomy tone in the passage.
Ernest Hemingway’s A Clean, Well-Lighted Place
It was very late and everyone had left the café except an old man who sat in the shadow the leaves of the tree made
against the electric light. In the day time the street was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust and the old man liked to sit
late because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the difference.

The culminating tone of the writer is of peace and serenity.

Metaphor
Metaphor is the implicit, implied, or hidden comparison between two unrelated things but share some common characteristics.
When comparing, metaphor does not use the words like or as.

Examples: John Donne’s The Sun Rising

She’s all states, and all princes, I.
This line demonstrates the speaker’s belief that he and his beloved are richer than all states, kingdoms, and rulers in the
entire world because of the love they share.

E. E. Cummings’ I Carry your Heart with Me

…and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you…

The writer compared his beloved to the moon and to the sun.

Kate Chopin’s The Storm

Her mouth was a fountain of delight.
And when he possessed her, they seemed to swoon together at the very borderland of life’s mystery.

The comparison was between her mouth and fountain of delight.

Personification
Personification takes place when a writer gives inanimate objects or inhuman beings (like animals) human characteristics or
attributes.
Examples: John Knowles’ A Separate Peace
Peace had deserted Devon. Although not in the look of the campus and village; they retained much of their dreaming summer
calm. Fall had barely touched the full splendor of the trees, and during the height of the day the sun briefly regained its
summertime power. In the air there was only an edge of coolness to imply the coming winter. But all had been caught up, like the
first fallen leaves, by a new and energetic wind.
L. M. Montgomery’s The Green Gables Letters
I hied me away to the woods – away back into the sun-washed alleys carpeted with fallen gold and glades where the moss is
green and vivid yet. The woods are getting ready to sleep – they are not yet asleep but they are disrobing and are having all sorts
of little bed-time conferences and whisperings and good-nights
.
Simile
Simile is the explicit or direct comparison between two different things and uses the words like or as.
Examples: Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim
I would have given anything for the power to soothe her frail soul, tormenting itself in its invincible ignorance like a small bird
beating about the cruel wires of a cage.
10
 Robert Burns’ A Red, Red Rose
O my Luve’s like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve’s like the melodie
That’s sweetly played in tune.
Furthermore, drama employs literary elements such as setting, characters, plot, theme, style, and dialogue. The first four
literary elements of drama have been previously presented and discussed under fiction since these genres share some common
literary elements. Thus, in this section, we will tackle style and dialogue.

Style
Style is the way in which an author writes and/or tells a story.
Fairy tales are great examples of how the same story can be told in very different ways. Since they have been retold over and over
for centuries the style of their telling changes from one writer to the other.
Example: Charles Perrault’s Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood set out immediately to go to her grandmother, who lived in another village. As she was going
through the wood, she met a wolf, who had a very great mind to eat her up, but he dared not, because of some woodcutters
working nearby in the forest. He asked her where she was going. The poor child, who did not know that it was dangerous to stay
and talk to a wolf, said to him, “I am going to see my grandmother and carry her cake and a little pot of butter from my mother.”

Let us compare Perrault’s style with Grimm’s Little Red Riding Hood.
The grandmother lived out in the wood, half a league from the village, and just as Little Red Riding Hood entered the wood, a wolf
met her. Red Riding Hood did not know what a wicked creature he was, and was not at all afraid of him.
‘Good day, Little Red Riding Hood,’ said he.
‘Thank you kindly, wolf.’
‘Whither away so early, Little Red Riding Hood?’
‘To my grandmother’s.’
‘What have you got in your apron?’
‘Cake and wine; yesterday was baking-day, so poor sick grandmother is to have something good, to make her stronger.’

Both two versions give the same overall information. Perrault’s version is shorter, less detailed, and with very little dialogue. On the
other hand, Grimm’s version is longer, has more imagery, and has more dialogue. Perrault’s point was to teach a lesson while
Grimm’s point was for more entertainment. Each author developed his style based on his purpose.
Dialogue
Dialogue is the stance where characters speak to one another. A dialogue may be:
a. Inner, where the characters speak to themselves and reveal their personalities (stream of consciousness, dramatic
monologue)
b. Outer, a conversation between characters
Examples: Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment
“But who did he tell it to? You and me?”
“And Porfiry.”
“What does it matter?”
“And, by the way, do you have any influence over them, his mother and sister? Tell them to be more careful
with him today…”
“They’ll get on all right!” Razumikhin answered reluctantly.
“Why is he so set against this Luzhin? A man with money and she doesn’t dislike him…”
“But what business is it of yours?”
Razumikhin cried with annoyance.
11
 John Fuller’s A Dialogue Between Caliban and Ariel
Cal. “Have you no visions that you cannot name?”
Ar. “A picture should extend beyond its frame,
There being no limitation
To bright reality:
For all their declaration
And complexity,
Words cannot see.”
Yet there are other literary elements used by writers to add an artistic flair to their craft.
Allusion
An allusion is a brief and indirect reference to persons, places, things or ideas of historical, cultural, literary, or political
significance. It does not describe in detail what it refers to instead it is just a passing comment. An easy way to remember allusion
is to think of the verb ‘allude.’ When you allude to something, you are referencing something else.
Example: Milton’s Paradise Lost
All night the dread less Angel unpursu’d
Through Heav’ns wide Champain held his way, till Morn,
Wak’t by the Circling Hours, with rosie hand
Unbarr’d the gates of Light. There is a Cave
Within the Mount of God, fast by his Throne
In these lines, dread less Angel is a reference to Abdiel, a fearless angel. Circling hours alludes to a Greek Myth ‘The
Horae’, the daughters of Zeus and Themis namely Thallo (Spring), Auxo (Summer), and Carpo (Winter). With rosie hand Milton
refers to Homer’s illustration of the rosy fingered dawn.
Anaphora
Anaphora, possibly the oldest literary device, is the deliberate repetition of the first part of the sentence. It traces its roots in Biblical
Psalms where it is used to emphasize certain words or phrases.
Example: Shakespeare’s Richard II, Act 2, Scene 1
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings
This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,”
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is employed when animals or inanimate objects are portrayed in a story as people, such as by walking, talking,
or being given arms, legs and/or facial features.
Example: non-human characters in Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Diction
Diction is a style of speaking or writing determined by the word choice of speakers or writers. Proper diction is important to convey
your message otherwise wrong choice of words will result to misinterpretation and misunderstanding. In using diction:
a. Words should be right and accurate.
b. Words should be in context.
c. Words should be understood by the listeners or readers.
Furthermore, diction is classified into:
a. Formal diction, when formal words are used in formal situations such as meetings and conferences
b. Informal diction, when informal words are used conversationally such as writing to or talking with friends
c. Colloquial diction, when common words and phrases are used in everyday speech but vary in different regions or
communities
12
 d. Slang diction, when newly coined, trendy, or impolite words are used
Example:
Formal Good day to you!
Informal See yah later!
Colloquial Cheerio!
Slang Peace out!

Epistrophe
Epistrophe, the opposite of anaphora, repeats words or phrases at the end of a sentence to strategically add rhythm or emphasize
a point.
Example: Robert Penn Warren’s Flood: A Romance of our Time
The big sycamore by the creek was gone. The willow tangle was gone. The little enclave of untrodden bluegrass was gone. The
clump of dogwood on the little rise across the creek – now that, too, was gone.

Euphemism
Euphemism describes someone or something in a more pleasant or more polite way. We use euphemisms when we want to
soften the blow or lessen the impact of harsh truth.
Example: Instead of straightforwardly saying “My father is bald,” we can say “My father is follicly challenged.”

Flashback
Flashback happens when a narrator is mentally transported to an event that happened in the past. It is used to provide the reader
with more contexts about the character, a situation or an event, to increase the suspense and tension, and to clue readers in to an
important event that affected the present.
An example is the ballad of The Cruel Mother (Anonymous) where a mother remembers her murdered child. While going to
church, she remembers her child’s birth, growing up, and death. Later, she thinks back further to a distant time in her past to
remember how her own mother was ruthless to her.

Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is employed when writers hint at what will happen next in the story without being too obvious in order to build
suspense.

Example: Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

Life were better ended by their hate,
Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love.
In these lines, Romeo says that he would rather have Juliet’s love and die sooner than not obtain her love and die later.
Eventually, he gets her love and dies for her love, too.

Hyperbole
Hyperbole is the extreme exaggeration of a real event or scenario while adding a humorous effect or to emphasize a concept.
Example: Paul Bunyan’s Babe the Blue Ox
Well now, one winter it was so cold that all the geese flew backward and all the fish moved south and even the snow turned blue.
Late at night, it got so frigid that all spoken words froze solid afore they could be heard. People had to wait until sunup to find out
what folks were talking about the night before.

Irony
Irony happens when an event occurs which is unexpected, and which is in absurd or mocking opposition to what is expected or
appropriate.
Example: Samuel Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.

13
 In these lines, the ship is stranded in the sea. Ironically, there is water everywhere but they do not have a single drop of drinkable
water.
Juxtaposition
Juxtaposition is applied when a writer places two contrasting concepts, people, or events directly side-by-side in a sentence or
paragraph to show the reader the differences or similarities between two things, or to add an element of surprise.
Examples: Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of
belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was
the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all
going direct the other way.

Mood
Mood is the atmosphere or emotional condition created by the piece, within the setting.
Example: Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers
The river, reflecting the clear blue of the sky, glistened and sparkled as it flowed noiselessly on.
This line creates a calm, peaceful, serene and non-violent mood.
Motif
Motif is exemplified when a recurrent element (such as an image, sound, or concept) is found throughout a story, to help develop
the theme, or central message.
Example: Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The motif of childhood gives the novel a lighter tone and makes it enjoyable to read despite its grave central ideas of slavery and
racism.
Oxymoron
Oxymoron includes a combination of contrasting, or opposite, words to create a dramatic effect for the reader, especially in poetry.
Example: Sir Thomas Wyatt’s Petrarch’s 134th Sonnet
I find no peace, and all my war is done
I fear and hope, I burn and freeze like ice,
I flee above the wind, yet can I not arise
Paradox
A paradox is different from an oxymoron because it is a sentence or a phrase that appears contradictory, but implies some kind
truth, to add a hidden meaning to a concept in your writing.

Example: Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

The earth that’s nature’s mother is her tomb;
What is her burying grave, that is rainbow in her womb.

References:

Aranz, Antonette S. 2020. " Creative Non-Fiction Module 2." HUMMS - Creative Non-Fiction. La
Union .

14
 CREATIVE NONFICTION
First Quarter Week No. 2
ACTIVITY SHEET
Activity 1

The Protagonist versus the Antagonist

Local television programs thrived with teleseries that hooked even the whole family watching and
excitedly waiting for the next episode. Complete the table by filling in characters that played as
protagonists and their antagonists. Use a separate sheet for your answers.

Protagonist Antagonist
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Activity 2

He Says, She Says

According to research, women tend to become more verbose in speaking than men who are more
straightforward even though they mean the same thing. Complete the gaps below by filling in how
the other person says it. Both expressions should have the same meaning. Use a separate sheet
for your answers.
HE SAYS SHE SAYS

I love you.

1.

Your delightful invitation arrived completely out of the blue, and I

would absolutely love to attend such a significant event, but I
2.
already have a commitment.

I will be late for dinner tonight. 3.

This shampoo has vexed me that I have to lather it onto my hair

many times but it still makes my crowning glory frizzy and unruly
4.
so I will never use it again.

That movie made me laugh. 5.

15
Activity 3
At this point, you are going to write about an experience when you were at the lowest point
of your life. Narrate how you dealt with it and how you coped up. Employ necessary literary
elements in your composition. Use a separate sheet for your answers.

Your answer will be scored using the following rubrics:

Perfect (10 points) Good (8 points) Poor (5 points)
The composition focused on the
The composition focused on specified subject and supplied
The composition partly focused on
the specified subject and the needed information. It also
the specified subject and supplied
supplied the needed employed some literary
some information. It used minimal
information. It also employed elements. Organization is quite
literary elements. Organization is
necessary literary elements. incoherent and there are
incoherent and there are many
Organization is logical and several ungrammatical parts.
ungrammatical parts.
grammar is flawless.

16
 Quarter 1 Creative Nonfiction week 2
ASSESSMENT SHEET

Directions: Read carefully each item. Write only the letter of the best answer for each test item.
Use a separate sheet for your answers.
1. When Achilles thought that he is completely invincible, he manifested
.
A. Tragic figure C. Tragic hero
B. Tragic flaw D. Tragic weakness
2. In Elie Wiesel’s Night, the setting from the lines below is .
“And then, one day all foreign Jews were expelled from Sighet. And Moishe the
Beadle was a foreigner. Crammed into cattle cars by the Hungarian police, they
cried silently. Standing on the station platform, we too were crying. The train
disappeared over the horizon; all that was left was thick, dirty smoke. Behind me,
someone said, sighing, ‘What do you expect? That’s war.”
A. 1940s, Hungary C. 1950s, Hungary
B. 1940s, station platform at Sighet D. 1950s, station platform at Sighet
3. Hamlet wants to kill his father’s murderer, Claudius, but he also looks for proof to justify his
action. This is a conflict.
A. Man vs. Man C. Man vs. Self
B. Man vs. Nature D. Man vs. Society
4. Faustus thinks honestly about repenting, acting upon the advice of ‘the good angel,’ but ‘the
bad angel’ distracts him by saying it is all too late. This is a
conflict.
A. Man vs. Man C. Man vs. Self
B. Man vs. Nature D. Man vs. Society
5. In Arguilla’s How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife, the lines below

exemplify .
“The sky was wide and deep and very blue above us; but at the saw-tooth rim of the
Katayagan Hills to the southwest flamed huge masses of clouds. Before us, the
fields swam in a golden haze through which floated big purple and red and yellow
bubbles when I looked at the sinking sun.”
A. Anthropomorphism C. Metaphor
B. Imagery D. Personification

17
6. When the mother said “Well, son, I’ll tell you: Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair,” in
Langston Hughes’ Mother to Son, she used .
A. Allusion C. Metaphor
B. Hyperbole D. Symbolism
7. The underlined phrase in the sentence “I would take your part in the play tonight at the
drop of a hat!” means .
A. Behaving inappropriately C. Something is easy or nice
B. Doing it immediately D. Very eager for something
8. The sentence “Death lays his icy hands on kings.” employs
.
A. Imagery C. Personification
B. Metaphor D. Symbolism
9. The sentence “She accepted it as the kind cruelty of the surgeon’s knife.” exemplifies
.
A. Hyperbole C. Oxymoron
B. Irony D. Paradox
10. The sentence “It was a cold stormy night that would introduce her to eternal
darkness, forever changing the course of her life.” applies .
A. Euphemism C. Flashback
B. Exposition D. Foreshadowing

Answer Key

1. B

2. B

3. C

4. C

5. B

6. C

7. B

8. C

9. C

10. D

18
_____1. In a Creative Non Fiction, what do you call the framework of a particular story?
A. Blueprint B. Plot C. Sequence D. Timeline
_____2. “Maria is very anxious about her current situation. She doesn’t know what to do.”
Granting that this is told by a narrator, what point of view (POV) is being applied?

A. 1st Person POV B. 2nd Person POV C. 3rd Person POV D. 4th Person POV
_____3. What is the most appropriate question that should be asked in order to analyze the
characters and their characterizations in the story?
A. What are the names of the characters?
B. What are the dialogues that they uttered?

C. How many characters are there in the story?

D. How did the characters exemplify their roles in the story?
_____4.Which of the following guidelines should be taken into consideration when you need to
analyze the Point of View used in the story.
A. The important dialogues should be considered.
B. The characters’ speech should be analyzed based on their attitude.
C. The narrator of the story and the pronouns he/she uses should be considered.
D. The author of the story should point out the over-all meaning of the story.
_____5. What level of thinking is best applied when you ask this question: “How did the conflict
affect the succeeding events in the story?”?
A. Literal Level
B. Interpretive Level

C. Lower Order Thinking Skills

D. Higher Order Thinking Skills
_____6. “God’s faithfulness is evident” is an example of _________.
A. Mood B. Moral C. Theme D. Tone
_____7. Granting that you are reading a CNF story and you came across with this
sentence: “I can hear the loud and endless cries of our people because of this
pandemic.” What kind of figurative language is exemplified?
A. Apostrophe B. Hyperbole C. Onomatopoeia D. Personification
_____8. How do you analyze the symbolisms present in a CNF story?
A. Look at the object in a literal level.
B. Try to compare the object with another object of its kind.
C. Look for the deeper meaning of the object and connect it with how it is valued or given
importance in the story.
D. Figure out what’s in the object which cannot be found in another object for you to unveil
its symbolism in the story.

_____9. How do you analyze the different figurative languages in the story?
A. Interpret them in its surface level.

B. Read them as if you are reading them normally.

19
 C. Read them in their deeper sense and see their relationship with the story.
D. List the different figurative languages that you can see and identify what kind they are.
_____10. What are the most essential skills in analyzing the elements in a CNF story?
A. The ability to read the text.
B. The ability to read and understand the texts.

C. The ability to read, understand and analyze the texts.

D. The ability to read, understand, and analyze both the texts and the elements of the
story.

KEY TO CORRECTION

1. B
2. C
3. D
4. C
5. D
6. B
7. C
8. C
9. C
10. D

20