Literary Terms for Old Yeller

In Old Yeller we are looking at a few literary terms. The terms in the boxes in the information below will be on a future quiz.

 Setting

Setting is when and where a story takes place.

Sometimes an author will state directly the setting, but usually authors simply   gives us hints early on to let us know when and where. This can be through descriptions that can give us an idea of time and place. For example, if a story describes horse and buggies, we can guess it is before cars were invented. If a story describes someone uses technology, we can guess it is modern day.

Here are some examples of well-known story settings:

Story	When	Where
Peter Pan	Early 1900's	·         London, England ·         the Darling's nursery ·         Neverland
Batman	1950's to modern day	·         Gotham City, USA

Protagonist

A Protagonist is the main character(s) or hero of the story.

This character is the one the author reveals the most about and who the reader relates to the most. This character often has a conflict or problem that gets resolved by the end of the novel.

Examples of protagonists:

Lemony Snickets Series	Violet, Klaus and Sunny
Magic Tree House Series	Annie and Jack
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory	Charlie
Harriet the Spy	Harriet

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is when an author hints at what is to come in the story. 

In Old Yeller, Fred Gipson foreshadows Old Yeller's death at least twice in the novel.

Chapter One- Travis says, "First I wanted to kill him…then I had to kill him." 

Chapter Fourteen- Travis says" I didn't call him back…As it turns out, it's a good thing I didn't. Only afterward, I wished a thousand times that I could have had some way of looking ahead at what was to happen. Then I would have done everything I could to keep all of them from going."

First Person Perspective

First Person Perspective is when the narrator of the story is someone in the story.

Narrators in stories are either first person (when someone in the story tells the story) or third person.  Third person perspective can be limited (only knowing the thoughts or feelings of a one or two characters, or third person omniscient (knowing the thoughts of all the characters).

Examples:

Book	Narrator	Proof
Diary of a Wimpy Kid	First Person	Story is told by Greg and uses words like "I", "me", "we"
Runaway Ralph	Third Person Limited	Story is about Ralph and uses words like "he", "him", "they" Only reveals thoughts and feelings of  Ralph
Old Yeller	First Person	Story is told by Travis and uses words like "I", "me", "we".