central message or insight into life revealed through literary work. A long literary work may have several themes.

What happens and why.

The time, place of the action

The people who are used in the work, such as: protagonist, antagonist.

Major characters and minor characters.

central

the writers attitude toward his or her audience and subject usually revealed through diction, images, and details. Some _____ words are playful, bitter, ironic, sympathetic, grieving, friendly, humorous, serious, earnest, etc. But tone/attitude is complex and cannon usually named with a single word.

represent things and ideas for something which they are not.

For example, a character can be symbolic of a particular idea, or an object can be symbolic of a concept.

the feeling created in the reader by a literary work which is suggested by descriptive details and diction