Literary Elements Of The Literature That Make The Reading Experience More Interesting

In literature, there are many different elements that allow an author to shape the reading experience so that they can appeal to the reader more. These elements consist of allegory, character, and figurative language. There is also imagery, meter, plot, point of view, rhythm, setting, speaker, structure, symbolism, and tone. Some of these elements have subsections that allow for extra ways to make the literature better as a whole. This paper is designed to touch on the more important elements of the literature that make the reading experience more interesting.

The first element is allegory. An allegory is a “narrative form in which the characters are representative of some larger humanistic trait (i.e. greed, vanity, or bravery) and attempt to convey some larger lesson or meaning of life”. When a character in a story portrays a larger trait and the aim is to teach the audience some type of lesson, it appeals to the reader because they want to know more.

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When the reader is interested in what they are reading, then they will want to continue reading and they will keep coming back for more. The allegory influences how the reader feels because when they think that they are learning something valuable, they will want to know more. While this is not the only element, it is an important one.

Another element is the character, which is the “representation of a person, place, or thing performing traditionally human activities or functions in a work of fiction,” and it can fall into a few different sub-categories, which are: protagonist, antagonist, minor character, static character, and dynamic character.

In any given story, the protagonist is the most important person, because the story revolves around them. The antagonist does not always have to be a person; it is just something that goes against the protagonist and tends to be negative. A minor character is one who does not have too much of an important role, but their main purpose is to support the protagonist. Finally, the static and dynamic characters differ in the way that the static character is “a character that remains the same,” and the dynamic character is “a character that changes in some important way”. These subcategories all fall under the element of a character, and they all have a way of enhancing the reading experience because when there are different characters, they are able to tell a story that they would not be able to do if there were no characters whatsoever. The different types of characters are able to tell stories from varying points of view and that has a way of appealing to readers.

Another literary element that helps to make a story better is imagery. Imagery is “the author’s attempt to create a mental picture in the mind of the reader,” so that means that the author will explain things in a way that paints a picture into the minds of the reader. When the author finds a way to describe something so vividly that it paints a clear picture in the reader’s mind, it helps the reader to enjoy the piece that they are reading just a little bit more. That allows the reader to feel differently about the piece that they are reading, which makes the piece much more interesting.

Figurative language is yet another element that is used in literature. Figurative language is broken down into multiple categories, but as a whole it is “the use of words to express meaning beyond the literal meaning of words,” meaning that instead of just saying a simple phrase, the phrase will be changed in order to make more of a statement. The subcategories that fall under figurative language are metaphors, similies, hyperboles, and personification. These categories differ, but all have similar goals, they want to make a point. A metaphor is “contrasting to seemingly unalike things to enhance the meaning of a situation or theme without using like or as,” which means that a phrase may attempt to use a word to make a point. Similarly, a simile has the same goal but unlike a metaphor, the simile uses the word like or as. A hyperbole is some type of exaggeration to make a phrase sound even more inflated, and finally, personification is “giving non-human objects human characteristics,” (Literary Analysis). All of these subcategories are similar in a way that they all have a way to exaggerate phrases in order to make a point. They change the meaning of a phrase to make it a bit more important and it helps the reader to understand the importance of the phrase as a whole.

While there are more literary elements that aim to make readers feel a certain type of way when they are reading a story, these are very important ones and they are well known to many individuals. Readers will continue to want to read these stories even more due to the fact that they are playing with the reader’s feelings. Imagery, figurative language, character, and allegory all have found a way to influence how a reader feels and it makes the literature that much better.

Literary elements as well as literary genres are all part of the literature that is known to man today. The literary elements can be used in the literary genres in order to make a story even better. While all of these elements and genres are part of their own little subculture, they all come together in order to make a work of art appeal to a reader even more. When the stories appeal to the reader, it makes them feel as if they can relate to it a bit more, and that is why people still enjoy literature to this day, whether it be drama, poetry, prose fiction, and/or graphic novels.