Exploring Literacy Concepts

Exploring Literacy Concepts

Read each question carefully and provide thoughtful responses. For multiple-choice questions, select the best answer. For short answer questions, write your responses in complete sentences.

Excerpt from 'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee

Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer's day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering heat. Men's stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o'clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum. People moved slowly then. They ambled across the square, shuffled in and out of the stores around it, took their time about everything. A day was twenty-four hours, but it seemed longer. There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside of Maycomb County. But it was a time of vague optimism for some of the people: Maycomb County had recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear itself.

1. What literary device is primarily used in the sentence: "Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o'clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum"?

2. The phrase "Maycomb County had recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear itself" is an allusion to which historical figure or event?

3. The overall feeling or atmosphere of a story is known as its  .

4. A figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things without using "like" or "as" is a  .

5. The main message or central idea of a literary work is called its  .

6. In your own words, explain the difference between denotation and connotation. Provide an example for each.

7. Identify and explain one example of imagery from the provided excerpt from 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.

8. The protagonist is always the hero of a story.

9. Symbolism is the use of objects or ideas to represent something else.

Use the words below to complete the sentences.

10. The central character in a story is called the  .

11. The struggle between opposing forces in a story is known as the  .

12. Hints or clues about future events in a story are examples of  .