AP English Literature and Composition Flashcards: Describe Narrator Speaker Fiction Drama

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This deck focuses on Describe Narrator Speaker Fiction Drama, giving you a quick way to review the definitions, rules, and examples that matter most for AP English Literature and Composition.

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Work through these flashcards in short sessions. Try to answer each prompt before flipping the card, then revisit any cards you miss until the explanation feels automatic.

Flashcard 1: What is "narrative distance" in describing a narrator or speaker?

Answer: How emotionally or intellectually close the voice is to events. Measures involvement versus detachment.

Flashcard 2: Identify the point of view: "She wondered whether he knew the truth."

Answer: Third-person limited narration. Shows one character's thoughts using third-person pronouns.

Flashcard 3: What is the term for a narrator who is a minor character observing the protagonist?

Answer: Peripheral (observer) narrator. Witnesses main events but isn't central to the action.

Flashcard 4: What is the key distinction between "narrator" in fiction and "speaker" in lyric poetry?

Answer: Narrator tells events; speaker voices the poem's persona. Fiction uses narrator for story; poetry uses speaker for voice.

Flashcard 5: Identify the point of view: "He opened the door. The room was empty. The clock ticked."

Answer: Third-person objective narration. No thoughts revealed, only observable actions described.

Flashcard 6: Identify the narrative stance: "I watched him leave, but I never knew why he did it."

Answer: First-person observer narrator. "I" observes but lacks access to "his" thoughts.

Flashcard 7: What is a first-person narrator who is also the story's central character called?

Answer: First-person protagonist narrator. The main character tells their own story.

Flashcard 8: What is a dramatic monologue?

Answer: A single speaker addresses a silent listener in a scene. One-sided conversation revealing character.

Flashcard 9: Which feature most directly signals possible unreliability: contradictions, bias, or omniscience?

Answer: Contradictions. Direct evidence of factual inconsistency.

Flashcard 10: What is a first-person narrator who mainly observes another character's story called?

Answer: First-person observer (witness) narrator. Narrates events but isn't the main focus.

Flashcard 11: Identify the point of view: "I hid the letter before anyone could see it."

Answer: First-person narration. The "I" pronoun signals the narrator is a character.

Flashcard 12: Identify the narrative stance: "He entered. She stood. The clock ticked. No one spoke."

Answer: Third-person objective (dramatic). Reports only actions without inner access.

Flashcard 13: Identify the narrator's reliability: "I never lie," says a narrator caught contradicting facts.

Answer: Unreliable narrator. Self-contradiction reveals the narrator cannot be trusted.

Flashcard 14: What is a third-person narrator who knows the thoughts and feelings of all characters called?

Answer: Third-person omniscient. Has godlike access to everyone's minds.

Flashcard 15: Identify the narrative stance: "He tightened his grip; he could not stop thinking about the letter."

Answer: Third-person limited. Shows only "his" thoughts, not others'.

Flashcard 16: What is the term for a narrator who directly addresses the audience to comment on the story?

Answer: Intrusive narrator. Breaks the fourth wall to offer commentary or opinions.

Flashcard 17: What is the term for a narrator speaking after events have occurred, with hindsight?

Answer: Retrospective narrator. Looks back on past events with knowledge of outcomes.

Flashcard 18: Identify the point of view: "You step into the hallway and feel the air change."

Answer: Second-person narration. Direct address using "you" places reader in the story.

Flashcard 19: What is the term for narration that reports only observable actions, not inner thoughts?

Answer: Third-person objective narrator. Functions like a camera, recording only external actions.

Flashcard 20: What is the term for a narrator who is not a character but knows all characters' thoughts?

Answer: Third-person omniscient narrator. Has godlike access to every character's inner thoughts.

Flashcard 21: Which term names the beliefs, values, and attitudes revealed by a narrator or speaker?

Answer: Point of view (perspective). The lens through which story is filtered.

Flashcard 22: Identify the narrative stance: "She smiled, unaware that he had already decided to betray her."

Answer: Third-person omniscient. Reveals both characters' inner thoughts.

Flashcard 23: What is the term for a speaker or narrator whose account cannot be trusted as accurate?

Answer: Unreliable narrator. May lie, misunderstand, or have limited perspective.

Flashcard 24: What is the key distinction between the speaker in a poem and the author?

Answer: The speaker is a persona, not necessarily the author. Authors create fictional voices to speak.

Flashcard 25: What is a narrator who reports only observable actions and speech, not inner thoughts?

Answer: Third-person objective (dramatic) narrator. Acts like a camera, recording only externals.

Flashcard 26: In drama, what is the equivalent of a narrator, delivering the text directly to the audience?

Answer: A character's dialogue or monologue (no narrator). Characters speak directly without narration.

Flashcard 27: Which narrator type uses "he/she/they" and is not a character in the story?

Answer: Third-person narrator. Exists outside the story world entirely.

Flashcard 28: What is the term for a narrator who addresses "you," making the reader a character?

Answer: Second-person narrator. Rare technique that directly involves readers.

Flashcard 29: Which narrator type uses "I" to tell the story from within the action as a character?

Answer: First-person narrator. Participates in events while narrating them.

Flashcard 30: What is the term for a narrator who follows only one character's mind in third person?

Answer: Third-person limited narrator. Restricted to one character's perspective and knowledge.

Flashcard 31: What is the term for a narrator who is also the main character of the story?

Answer: Protagonist narrator. The story's hero tells their own story directly.

Flashcard 32: What is the term for the voice telling a story from outside the action using "he" or "she"?

Answer: Third-person narrator. Remains outside the story world, observing characters externally.

Flashcard 33: Which narrator type can reveal the private thoughts of multiple characters in the same scene?

Answer: Third-person omniscient narrator. Only this type knows what everyone is thinking simultaneously.

Flashcard 34: What is the term for a narrator who addresses the reader as "you" as the central character?

Answer: Second-person narrator. Rare technique that makes the reader the protagonist.

Flashcard 35: Which narrator type is most restricted to what a single focal character knows and perceives?

Answer: Third-person limited narrator. Bound to one character's knowledge and perceptions only.

Flashcard 36: What is the term for a narrator who is a character and uses "I" to tell the story?

Answer: First-person narrator. Participates in the story as a character while narrating.

Flashcard 37: What is a third-person narrator limited to one character's inner life called?

Answer: Third-person limited. Follows only one character's perspective.

Flashcard 38: What is the term for a speaker persona that is clearly not the author's literal identity?

Answer: Dramatic speaker (persona). A created voice distinct from the poet's actual self.

Flashcard 39: In lyric poetry, what is the term for the voice that speaks in the poem?

Answer: The speaker. The "I" of a poem, distinct from the poet.