Reading Literary Text: Character, Theme, and Figurative Language
What the questions test
Literary passages (short stories, poems, excerpts) ask about character, setting, plot, conflict, theme, point of view, and figurative language. Track character motivation: what a character wants, fears, and does, and how the character changes. Plot questions depend on sequence, so note the inciting incident, the rising conflict, the climax, and the resolution.
Theme and inference
A theme is a message about life that the whole story supports, stated as a full sentence ("Pride can isolate a person"), not a single word ("pride"). Theme is usually implied, so gather evidence from repeated images, what characters learn, and how the conflict resolves. Inferences about feelings require textual clues: dialogue, actions, and the narrator's descriptions.
Figurative language and tone
Know these devices: simile (comparison using like or as), metaphor (direct comparison), personification (human traits given to nonhuman things), hyperbole (exaggeration), and imagery (sensory description). Tone is the author's or narrator's attitude; mood is the feeling created in the reader. Word choice drives both, so read adjectives and verbs closely.
Traps to watch for
- Confusing narrator and author: a first-person narrator may be unreliable.
- Literal readings of figurative lines: "Her smile was a sunrise" describes warmth, not weather.
- Oversimplified theme choices: a theme must apply to the whole text, not one scene.
- Emotion guesses: "He was furious" is wrong if the text shows clenched fists but says nothing about anger.
Rule of thumb
For any interpretation, ask: "Which line supports this?" If you cannot point to a line, the choice is probably wrong. When two answers seem plausible, pick the one better supported across the whole passage.
Worked example
A story says a girl hides her painting, then finally shows it after a friend praises her sketch. The theme is not "art is hard" but "confidence grows through encouragement," because the change follows the friend's words.