AP English Literature and Composition Flashcards: How Plot Orders Events Fiction Drama

What this deck covers

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

How to use these flashcards

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 a framed narrative (frame story) in terms of plot order?

Answer: An outer story encloses and organizes an inner story. Creates layers of meaning through nested narratives.

Flashcard 2: What is foreshadowing as a plot-order technique?

Answer: Hints or signals that anticipate later events. Creates suspense by planting clues about future events.

Flashcard 3: Identify the plot-order term: the story opens with a crisis, then explains how it happened.

Answer: In medias res. Plunges reader into action before providing context.

Flashcard 4: Which plot structure best fits: the final scene repeats the opening image to close the arc?

Answer: Circular plot structure. Ending echoes beginning for thematic resonance.

Flashcard 5: What is a flashback as a plot-order technique?

Answer: An interruption that shifts to earlier events to supply context. Temporarily reverses time to provide backstory.

Flashcard 6: Identify the plot-order device: years pass in one sentence between two scenes.

Answer: Temporal gap (ellipsis) with compressed time. Jumps forward to maintain narrative economy.

Flashcard 7: What is a parallel plot (dual plotlines) in narrative ordering?

Answer: Two plotlines alternate and develop in relation to each other. Creates comparison or contrast through simultaneous stories.

Flashcard 8: What is pacing as it relates to how a plot orders events?

Answer: The narrative speed created by expanding or compressing time. Controls reader engagement through temporal manipulation.

Flashcard 9: What is a frame narrative (framing device) in plot structure?

Answer: An outer story that encloses and organizes an inner narrative. Creates layers by nesting one story inside another.

Flashcard 10: Identify the plot-order technique: the story opens with the climax, then rewinds.

Answer: In medias res with subsequent flashbacks. Hooks audience, then fills in missing context.

Flashcard 11: Identify the plot-order technique: a scene interrupts the present to show childhood.

Answer: Flashback. Past intrudes on present to provide backstory.

Flashcard 12: What is a parallel plot line in terms of ordering events?

Answer: Two event sequences alternate, often to invite comparison or tension. Juxtaposes storylines to build suspense or meaning.

Flashcard 13: What is anagnorisis as a plot event?

Answer: A moment of recognition that changes a character's understanding. Greek for "discovery" - often triggers plot reversals.

Flashcard 14: What is a montage sequence as a plot-order strategy?

Answer: A condensed series of brief scenes showing time passing quickly. Borrowed from film; compresses extended time periods.

Flashcard 15: Which plot-order effect is most directly created by delaying a key event until late in the narrative?

Answer: Suspense through withheld information. Strategic delay builds tension and curiosity.

Flashcard 16: Identify the plot-order technique: the narrator states early that the hero will die later.

Answer: Foreshadowing (often explicit or proleptic). Direct revelation creates dramatic irony.

Flashcard 17: Identify the plot-order term: early hints that a later disaster will occur.

Answer: Foreshadowing. Creates anticipation by planting narrative clues.

Flashcard 18: What is a reversal (peripeteia) in the ordering of plot events?

Answer: A turning point where events shift sharply in direction or fortune. Greek term for sudden change in character's circumstances.

Flashcard 19: Which plot structure best fits: chapters alternate between two characters' timelines?

Answer: Parallel plot lines (alternating structure). Weaves separate stories for comparison or contrast.

Flashcard 20: What is a temporal gap (ellipsis) in plot order?

Answer: A deliberate omission of intervening time between narrated events. Skips unimportant time to maintain narrative momentum.

Flashcard 21: Which plot-order label fits: Chapter A (present), Chapter B (past), Chapter C (present)?

Answer: Nonchronological order with a flashback. Past interrupts present timeline for context.

Flashcard 22: What is a subplot in relation to plot ordering?

Answer: A secondary sequence of events interwoven with the main plot. Enriches main plot through parallel or contrasting action.

Flashcard 23: Identify the plot-order structure: an outer narrator introduces a found diary that becomes the main story.

Answer: Frame narrative. Embeds the central story within another narrative.

Flashcard 24: What is a time shift in narrative structure?

Answer: A move forward or backward in time between scenes or sections. Transitions that reorder chronology for effect.

Flashcard 25: What is a flashback as a plot-order device?

Answer: An insertion of earlier events into the present narrative. Interrupts forward momentum to reveal past context.

Flashcard 26: What is episodic plot structure?

Answer: A sequence of loosely linked episodes rather than one tight arc. Common in picaresque novels and TV series formats.

Flashcard 27: What is a nonlinear fragmented plot structure?

Answer: The story is told in fragments that the reader must assemble. Mirrors psychological experience or thematic complexity.

Flashcard 28: What is in medias res as a plot opening strategy?

Answer: The narrative begins in the middle of the action, then fills in. Latin for "into the middle of things" - starts mid-crisis.

Flashcard 29: What is non-linear plot order?

Answer: Events are presented out of time sequence (reordered in time). Disrupts chronology for thematic or dramatic effect.

Flashcard 30: What is in medias res as a way to order plot events?

Answer: The narrative begins in the middle of the action. Latin for "into the middle of things"; hooks readers immediately.

Flashcard 31: Identify the plot-order term: a scene showing events earlier than the main timeline.

Answer: Flashback. Interrupts present action to show past events.

Flashcard 32: What is nonchronological plot order?

Answer: Events are presented out of story-time sequence for effect. Disrupts linear time for dramatic or thematic impact.

Flashcard 33: What is foreshadowing as a way of ordering events?

Answer: Early cues that anticipate later events and shape expectations. Plants seeds that bloom into later significance.

Flashcard 34: Which plot-order label fits: the narrator tells the ending first, then recounts earlier causes?

Answer: Nonchronological order (beginning with the outcome). Reverses cause-effect order for dramatic impact.

Flashcard 35: Identify the plot-order structure: alternating chapters follow two characters until their stories meet.

Answer: Parallel plotlines. Weaves separate threads toward convergence.