Elements of Literature

Component parts of a work of literature.

Allegory
The characters are representative of some larger humanistic trait and attempt to convey
some larger lesson or meaning in life.

Allusion
A reference to something in history, culture or literature (especially historical).

Antagonist
The force that works against the protagonist.

Characterization
The creation and development of the people in a story.

Climax
The point in the story where the conflict is at its peak.

Conflict
The struggle a character must overcome.

Connotation
Implied meaning of the word is the associated meaning that comes from its use in
various social contexts; will change over time and vary from location to location.

Crisis
A significant turning point in the story that determines how it must end.

Diction
The author's choice of words to imply some social or connotative meaning.

Exposition
The background information of a story.

Flashback
A strategy of plot sequencing where the author takes the reader back to events that
occurred before the present time in the story.

Foreshadowing
Use of clues to suggest something that is going to happen.

Imagery
The author's attempt to create a mental picture in the mind of the reader.

Irony
A twist of fate in which the results of action are not the expected results.

Metaphor
A comparison of two generally unlike things meant to illuminate truth.
 Motif
A recurring image or idea.

Mood
The feeling a reader gets from a story.

Plot
The events that occur in a story.

Point of View
Refers to whether that story is told by a character or an outside observer.

Protagonist
The character the story revolves around.

Resolution
The conclusion of the story.

Setting
Where and when the action takes place.

Structure
The way that the writer arranges the plot of a story.

Subplot
A secondary plot strand that is a supporting side story for the main plot.

Suspense
The tension that the author uses to create a feeling of discomfort about the unknown.

Symbolism
A person, place, event or object that has a deeper meaning that its literal meaning.

Theme
The central idea or lesson about life that an author conveys.

Tone
The author's voice or attitude about what he or she writes

Elements of Literature
There are different elements of literature that plays a significant role. Let’s
have a look on them:
Character
In literature, the word character demonstrates two meanings; the individual in
a work of fiction or the attributes of a person. Basically, the persons in
a fiction work are of two types.
 Antagonist: The evil character in a story is called the antagonist. In
short, a person whose action harm others
 Protagonist: The real hero or we can say the major or central character
of the story is Protagonist
On the other hand, the characteristics of a person means the information that
author is providing about any character to its audience/reader.
The author may depict about a character in various ways such as,
1. Physical appearance of the character
2. Emotions, feelings and dreams of a character
3. Likings and disliking of a character
4. Others opinion and reaction about the character
Characters are persuasive, if they are motivational and reliable. Furthermore,
there are also different types of characters:

 Individual: A type of character that possesses complex personality, or

become problematic as the story goes on.
 Developing: It’s a dynamic type of character that changes by the end of
the story. In the end, such character will converted into a better person or can
be a worse one for others.
 Static: Such literary characters are stereotypes, they have one of two
characteristics that nobody can change and they remain the same throughout
the story.
Theme
Basically, the theme is the message that author wants to give to its readers. In
other words, it’s a kind of lesson or message, author is trying to convey to its
readers. In literature, the majority of the stories revolve around the theme of
Love, Revenge and Hatred etc. Moreover, it is not compulsory that a story
only contains one theme; there can be more than one theme in a literary story,
novel or drama.
In fiction, the theme does not mean to preach or teach somebody. Actually,
you have to figure out the theme yourself by analyzing the story, action,
characters and setting. Basically, the task of the author is to interact with the
reader in a way that audience can easily figure out the lesson.

Let’s have a look on a few ways to uncover the theme of a story, novel or
other literary piece of work.
 You can simply figure out the theme by the title of the story
 Always pay attention towards the patterns and symbols used in the
story.
 Check out that what sorts of allusions are made in the story.
 Read out the details of the story attentively and identify the meaning
behind them.
Always keep in your mind that plot, structure and interlinked. Moreover, you
cannot determine the story on the basis of a theme only. It is just an element
that makes up the whole.

Plot
A plot means the sequence of different events take place in the story. The plot
reflects a vivid picture of the characters of the story and reader can easily
understand about their nature through it. A plot’s structure is something on
which the elements of story are arranged. For example, the plot of a story can
be mysterious or might be reality based. There are different parts of story that
comes under the category of a plot.
 Exposition: It is the information that is required for the reader to
understand the story.
 Complications: It is the point in the story from where the conflicts
begin.
 Climax: A very important and turning point of the story where situation
get totally changed or a character finally resolves the problem.
 Resolution/Catastrophe: When the story finally reaches on end. It can
be a happy ending or might be unfortunate for all the characters of the story.
Point of View
When it comes to the elements of literature, you can’t overlook the point of
view. Keep in mind that there is always someone between the reader and
action of the story. Point of view is something through which the events,
people and story is viewed while reading that piece of writing. There are
different types of point of view in literature.
 Objective Point of View: The author describes what happens without
telling more than can be contingent from the dialogue and action in the story.
The storyteller will never expose anything about what the character is thinking
or his/her emotionally condition.
 Third Person Point of View: Here the storyteller does not take part in
any story’s action, but give us the idea what actually the character is feeling.
 First Person Point of View: In the first person point of view, we
ourselves need to realize that the storyteller is trying to convey. We should
question the reliability of the accounting.
 Omniscient and Limited Omniscient Points of View: In Omniscient
Point of view, the narrator knows each and everything about the characters.
On the other hand, in a story, where storyteller who knows limited about the
characters is called limited omniscient point of view.
Setting
In setting, the author tells about the world they know. In fact, the sounds,
colors, textures and sights of a story are called setting. An author imagines
that where should be story needs to take place, what will be the background,
what should be the sound effect etc is called setting. Some of the main
aspects of settings are below:

 Place: Where will be the story take place, in short the geographical

location?
 Time: When the story will take place. It included time period, day, date,
year etc.
 Weather: The background that means whether the atmosphere will be
sunny, rainy or stormy.
 Social Condition: It shows the daily life of the characters, their dress,
customs, speech style and place etc.
 Mood: What sort of feeling is aroused at the start of the story, whether it
was cheerful or frightening?
Conflict
Conflict is the quintessence of fiction. It makes plot. The contentions we
experience can typically be distinguished as one of four sorts.

 Human versus Human: Clash that sets one individual against another.

 Human versus Nature: This includes a keep running in with the powers
of nature. From one viewpoint, it communicates the irrelevance of a solitary
 human life in the infinite plan of things. Then again, it tests the points of
confinement of a man’s quality and will to live.
 Human versus Society: The qualities and traditions by which other
people lives are being tested. The character may arrive at an inconvenient
end as an aftereffect of his/her feelings. The character may, then again,
convey others around to a thoughtful perspective, or it might be chosen that
society was directly truth to be told.
 Human versus Self: Inner clash. Not all contention includes other
individuals. Some of the time individuals are the cause all their own problems.
An interior clash is a decent test of a character’s qualities. Does he/she offer
into enticement or transcend it? Does he/she request the most from
him/herself or settle for something less? Does he/she much try to battle? The
inward clashes of a character and how they are determined are great
intimations to the character’s internal quality.
Frequently, more than one sort of contention is occurring in the meantime. For
every situation, on the other hand, the presence of contention improves the
reader’s comprehension of a character and makes the anticipation and
interest that make you need to keep perusing.

Tone
In literature, tone is the enthusiastic color or the passionate importance of the
work and gives an amazingly critical commitment to the full significance. In
talked dialect, it is shown by the affectation of the speaker’s voice. The
passionate importance of an announcement may shift broadly as per the
manner of speaking with which it is expressed; the tone may be blissful,
suspicious, despondent, surrendered, and so on. In tone, we can’t generally
comprehend a lyric unless we have precisely detected whether the mentality it
shows is lively or serious, ridiculing or respectful, smooth or energized.
In talked dialect, the speaker’s voice can direct us to the tone. In any case, the
right determination of tone in writing is a great deal more sensitive matter.
Components of tone incorporate phrasing, or word decision; linguistic
structure, the syntactic course of action of words in a content for impact;
symbolism, or distinctive speaks to the faculties; subtle elements, realities that
are incorporated or excluded. Tone can be understood through three points:

 A creator’s disposition or center point toward his/her subject. In this

worry, the tone can be practical, grave, discouraging, sentimental, brave, and
so forth.
 The devices used to make the disposition and air of an abstract work. In
this sense, the tone comprises of similar sounding word usage, sound
similarity, consonance, phrasing, symbolism, meter, topic, imagery, incongruit
y, and so on.
 The musical quality in dialect. Here, the tone relies on the hints of
words, their course of action and their arrangement.
The literary form in the phililppines literature

CHRISTINE F. GODINEZ-ORTEGA

       The diversity and richness of Philippine literature evolved side by side with the
country’s history. This can best be appreciated in the context of the country’s pre-
colonial cultural traditions and the socio-political histories of its colonial and
contemporary traditions.        

       The average Filipino’s unfamiliarity with his indigenous literature was largely due to
what has been impressed upon him: that his country was “discovered” and, hence,
Philippine “history” started only in 1521.

       So successful were the efforts of colonialists to blot out the memory of the country’s
largely oral past that present-day Filipino writers, artists and journalists are trying to
correct this inequity by recognizing the country’s wealth of ethnic traditions and
disseminating them in schools and in the mass media.

       The rousings of nationalistic pride in the 1960s and 1970s also helped bring about
this change of attitude among a new breed of Filipinos concerned about the “Filipino
identity.”

Pre-Colonial Times

       Owing to the works of our own archaeologists, ethnologists and anthropologists, we

are able to know more and better judge information about our pre-colonial times set
against a bulk of material about early Filipinos as recorded by Spanish, Chinese, Arabic
and other chroniclers of the past.

       Pre-colonial inhabitants of our islands showcase a rich past through their folk
speeches, folk songs, folk narratives and indigenous rituals and mimetic dances that
affirm our ties with our Southeast Asian neighbors.

       The most seminal of these folk speeches is the riddle which is tigmo in
Cebuano, bugtong in Tagalog,paktakon in Ilongo and patototdon in Bicol. Central to the
riddle is the talinghaga or metaphor because it “reveals subtle resemblances between
two unlike objects” and one’s power of observation and wit are put to the test. While
some riddles are ingenious, others verge on the obscene or are sex-related:

Gaddang:

        Gongonan nu usin y amam If you pull your daddy’s penis

        Maggirawa pay sila y inam. Your mommy’s vagina, too,

                   (Campana) screams. (Bell)

       The proverbs or aphorisms express norms or codes of behavior, community beliefs

or they instill values by offering nuggets of wisdom in short, rhyming verse.

       The extended form, tanaga, a mono-riming heptasyllabic quatrain expressing

insights and lessons on life is “more emotionally charged than the terse proverb and
thus has affinities with the folk lyric.” Some examples are the basahanon or extended
didactic sayings from Bukidnon and the daraida and daragilon from Panay.

       The folk song, a form of folk lyric which expresses the hopes and aspirations, the
people’s lifestyles as well as their loves. These are often repetitive and sonorous,
didactic and naive as in the children’s songs or Ida-ida(Maguindanao), tulang
pambata (Tagalog) or cansiones para abbing (Ibanag).

       A few examples are the lullabyes or Ili-ili (Ilongo); love songs like
the panawagon and balitao (Ilongo);harana or serenade (Cebuano);
the bayok (Maranao); the seven-syllable per line poem, ambahan of the Mangyans that
are about human relationships, social entertainment and also serve as a tool for
teaching the young; work songs that depict the livelihood of the people often sung to go
with the movement of workers such as the kalusan (Ivatan), soliranin (Tagalog rowing
song) or the mambayu, a Kalinga rice-pounding song; the verbal jousts/games like
the duplo popular during wakes.

       Other folk songs are the drinking songs sung during carousals like the tagay
(Cebuano and Waray); dirges and lamentations extolling the deeds of the dead like
the kanogon (Cebuano) or the Annako (Bontoc).

       A type of narrative song or kissa among the Tausug of Mindanao, the parang sabil,
uses for its subject matter the exploits of historical and legendary heroes. It tells of a
Muslim hero who seeks death at the hands of non-Muslims.

       The folk narratives, i.e. epics and folk tales are varied, exotic and magical. They
explain how the world was created, how certain animals possess certain characteristics,
why some places have waterfalls, volcanoes, mountains, flora or fauna and, in the case
of legends, an explanation of the origins of things. Fables are about animals and these
teach moral lessons.

       Our country’s epics are considered ethno-epics because unlike, say, Germany’s
Niebelunginlied, our epics are not national for they are “histories” of varied groups that
consider themselves “nations.”

       The epics come in various

names: Guman (Subanon); Darangen (Maranao); Hudhud (Ifugao);
andUlahingan (Manobo). These epics revolve around supernatural events or heroic
deeds and they embody or validate the beliefs and customs and ideals of a community.
These are sung or chanted to the accompaniment of indigenous musical instruments
and dancing performed during harvests, weddings or funerals by chanters. The
chanters who were taught by their ancestors are considered “treasures” and/or
repositories of wisdom in their communities.

       Examples of these epics are the Lam-

ang (Ilocano); Hinilawod (Sulod); Kudaman (Palawan); Darangen(Maranao); Ulahingan 
(Livunganen-Arumanen Manobo); Mangovayt Buhong na Langit (The Maiden of the
Buhong Sky from Tuwaang–Manobo); Ag Tobig neg Keboklagan (Subanon);
and Tudbulol (T’boli).

The Spanish Colonial Tradition

       While it is true that Spain subjugated the Philippines for more mundane reasons,
this former European power contributed much in the shaping and recording of our
literature.   Religion and institutions that represented European civilization enriched the
languages in the lowlands, introduced theater which we would come to know
as komedya, the sinakulo, the sarswela, the playlets and the drama. Spain also brought
to the country, though at a much later time, liberal  ideas and an internationalism that
influenced our own Filipino intellectuals and writers for them to understand the
meanings of “liberty and freedom.”

       Literature in this period may be classified as religious prose and poetry and secular
prose and poetry.

       Religious lyrics written by ladino poets or those versed in both Spanish and
Tagalog were included in early catechism and were used to teach Filipinos the Spanish
language. Fernando Bagonbanta’s “Salamat nang walang hanga/gracias de sin
sempiternas” (Unending thanks) is a fine example that is found in the Memorial de la
vida cristiana en lengua tagala (Guidelines for the Christian life in the Tagalog
language) published in 1605.

       Another form of religious lyrics are the meditative verses like the dalit appended
to novenas and catechisms. It has no fixed meter nor rime scheme although a number
are written in octosyllabic quatrains and have a solemn tone and spiritual subject
matter.

       But among the religious poetry of the day, it is the pasyon in octosyllabic quintillas
that became entrenched in the Filipino’s commemoration of Christ’s agony and
resurrection at Calvary. Gaspar Aquino de Belen’s “Ang Mahal na Passion ni Jesu
Christong Panginoon natin na tola” (Holy Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Verse) put
out in 1704 is the country’s earliest known pasyon.

       Other known pasyons chanted during the Lenten season are in Ilocano,

Pangasinan, Ibanag, Cebuano, Bicol, Ilongo and Waray.

       Aside from religious poetry, there were various kinds of prose narratives written to
prescribe proper decorum. Like the pasyon, these prose narratives were also used for
proselitization. Some forms are: dialogo(dialogue), Manual de Urbanidad (conduct
book); ejemplo (exemplum) and tratado (tratado). The most well-known are Modesto de
Castro’s “Pagsusulatan ng Dalawang Binibini na si Urbana at si Feliza”
(Correspondence between the Two Maidens Urbana and Feliza) in 1864 and Joaquin
Tuason’s “Ang Bagong Robinson” (The New Robinson) in 1879, an adaptation of Daniel
Defoe’s novel.

       Secular works appeared alongside historical and economic changes, the

emergence of an opulent class and the middle class who could avail of a European
education. This Filipino elite could now read printed works that used to be the exclusive
domain of the missionaries.

       The most notable of the secular lyrics followed the conventions of a romantic
tradition: the languishing but loyal lover, the elusive, often heartless beloved, the rival.
The leading poets were Jose Corazon de Jesus (Huseng Sisiw) and Francisco
Balagtas. Some secular poets who wrote in this same tradition were Leona Florentino,
Jacinto Kawili, Isabelo de los Reyes and Rafael Gandioco.

       Another popular secular poetry is the metrical romance, the awit and korido in

Tagalog. The awit is set in dodecasyllabic quatrains while the korido is in octosyllabic
quatrains. These are colorful tales of chivalry from European sources made for singing
and chanting such as Gonzalo de Cordoba (Gonzalo of Cordoba) and Ibong
Adarna (Adarna Bird). There are numerous metrical romances in Tagalog, Bicol, Ilongo,
Pampango, Ilocano and in Pangasinan. The awit as a popular poetic genre reached
new heights in Balagtas’ “Florante at Laura” (ca. 1838-1861), the most famous of the
country’s metrical romances.

       Again, the winds of change began to blow in 19th century Philippines. Filipino
intellectuals educated in Europe called ilustrados began to write about the downside of
colonization. This, coupled with the simmering calls for reforms by the masses gathered
a formidable force of writers like Jose Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Mariano Ponce, Emilio
Jacinto and Andres Bonifacio.

       This led to the formation of the Propaganda Movement where prose works such as
the political essays and Rizal’s two political novels, Noli Me Tangere and the El
filibusterismo helped usher in the Philippine revolution resulting in the downfall of the
Spanish regime, and, at the same time planted the seeds of a national consciousness
among Filipinos.

       But if Rizal’s novels are political, the novel Ninay (1885) by Pedro Paterno is largely
cultural and is considered the first Filipino novel. Although Paterno’s Ninay gave
impetus to other novelists like Jesus Balmori and Antonio M. Abad to continue writing in
Spanish, this did not flourish.

       Other Filipino writers published the essay and short fiction in Spanish in La
Vanguardia, El Debate,Renacimiento Filipino, and Nueva Era. The more notable
essayists and fictionists were Claro M. Recto, Teodoro M. Kalaw, Epifanio de los
Reyes, Vicente Sotto, Trinidad Pardo de Tavera, Rafael Palma, Enrique Laygo (Caretas
or Masks, 1925) and Balmori who mastered the prosa romantica or romantic prose.

       But the introduction of English as medium of instruction in the Philippines hastened

the demise of Spanish so that by the 1930s, English writing had overtaken Spanish
writing. During the language’s death throes, however, writing in the romantic tradition,
from the awit and korido, would continue in the novels of Magdalena Jalandoni. But
patriotic writing continued under the new colonialists. These appeared in the vernacular
poems and modern adaptations of works during the Spanish period and which further
maintained the Spanish tradition.

The American Colonial Period

       A new set of colonizers brought about new changes in Philippine literature. New
literary forms such as free verse [in poetry], the modern short story and the critical
essay were introduced. American influence was deeply entrenched with the firm
establishment of English as the medium of instruction in all schools and with literary
modernism that highlighted the writer’s individuality and cultivated consciousness of
craft, sometimes at the expense of social consciousness.

       The poet, and later, National Artist for Literature, Jose Garcia Villa used free verse
and espoused the dictum, “Art for art’s sake” to the chagrin of other writers more
concerned with the utilitarian aspect of literature. Another maverick in poetry who used
free verse and talked about illicit love in her poetry was Angela Manalang Gloria, a
woman poet described as ahead of her time. Despite the threat of censorship by the
new dispensation, more writers turned up “seditious works” and popular writing in the
native languages bloomed through the weekly outlets like Liwayway and Bisaya.

       The Balagtas tradition persisted until the poet Alejandro G. Abadilla advocated
modernism in poetry. Abadilla later influenced young poets who wrote modern verses in
the 1960s such as Virgilio S. Almario, Pedro I. Ricarte and Rolando S. Tinio.

       While the early Filipino poets grappled with the verities of the new language,
Filipinos seemed to have taken easily to the modern short story as published in
the Philippines Free Press, the College Folio and Philippines Herald. Paz Marquez
Benitez’s “Dead Stars” published in 1925 was the first successful short story in English
written by a Filipino. Later on, Arturo B. Rotor and Manuel E. Arguilla showed
exceptional skills with the short story.

       Alongside this development, writers in the vernaculars continued to write in the

provinces. Others like Lope K. Santos, Valeriano Hernandez Peña and Patricio Mariano
were writing minimal narratives similar to the early Tagalog short fiction
called dali or pasingaw (sketch).

       The romantic tradition was fused with American pop culture or European influences
in the adaptations of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan by F. P. Boquecosa who also
penned Ang Palad ni Pepe after Charles Dicken’sDavid Copperfield even as the realist
tradition was kept alive in the novels by Lope K. Santos and Faustino Aguilar, among
others.

       It should be noted that if there was a dearth of the Filipino novel in English, the
novel in the vernaculars continued to be written and serialized in weekly magazines
like Liwayway, Bisaya, Hiligaynon and Bannawag.

       The essay in English became a potent medium from the 1920’s to the present.
Some leading essayists were journalists like Carlos P. Romulo, Jorge Bocobo, Pura
Santillan Castrence, etc. who wrote formal to humorous to informal essays for the
delectation by Filipinos.

       Among those who wrote criticism developed during the American period were
Ignacio Manlapaz, Leopoldo Yabes and I.V. Mallari. But it was Salvador P. Lopez’s
criticism that grabbed attention when he won the Commonwealth Literay Award for the
essay in 1940 with his “Literature and Society.” This essay posited that art must have
substance and that Villa’s adherence to “Art for Art’s Sake” is decadent.

       The last throes of American colonialism saw the flourishing of Philippine literature in
English at the same time, with the introduction of the New Critical aesthetics, made
writers pay close attention to craft and “indirectly engendered a disparaging attitude”
towards vernacular writings — a tension that would recur in the contemporary period.

The Contemporary Period

       The flowering of Philippine literature in the various languages continue especially

with the appearance of new publications after the Martial Law years and the resurgence
of committed literature in the 1960s and the 1970s.

       Filipino writers continue to write poetry, short stories, novellas, novels and essays
whether these are socially committed, gender/ethnic related or are personal in intention
or not.

       Of course the Filipino writer has become more conscious of his art with the
proliferation of writers workshops here and abroad and the bulk of literature available to
him via the mass media including the internet. The various literary awards such as the
Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, the Philippines Free Press,
Philippine Graphic, Home Life and Panorama literary awards encourage him to compete
with his peers and hope that his creative efforts will be rewarded in the long run.

       With the new requirement by the Commission on Higher Education of teaching of

Philippine Literature in all tertiary schools in the country emphasizing the teaching of the
vernacular literature or literatures of the regions, the audience for Filipino writers is
virtually assured. And, perhaps, a national literature finding its niche among the
literatures of the world will not be far behind.