A character's values, beliefs, biases, and cultural norms are revealed through three channels:
Description — how a character looks, dresses, or is introduced
Dialogue — what a character says, and how they say it
Behavior — what a character actually does, especially under pressure
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Perspective shapes interpretation
A character's perspective — how they understand their own circumstances — is shaped by their background, biases, and relationships with other characters. Two characters can witness the exact same event and walk away with completely different understandings of what happened.
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Setting + Action + Conflict = Dramatic Situation
Setting is just time and place. Add action and conflict, and you get the dramatic situation — the circumstances readers are dropped into at the start of a narrative.
Setting: when and where
Dramatic situation: setting + what's happening + what's at stake
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Plot vs. Exposition
Plot is the full sequence of events in a narrative. Exposition is the writing that focuses readers' attention on the key information they need — about character, setting, and dramatic situation — to follow that sequence.
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The narrator is never the author
The narrator or speaker is the voice telling the story — and it is always a constructed literary device, distinct from the author who created it. This is true even when a first-person narrator sounds autobiographical.
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Point of view controls the reader's experience
Point of view is the position from which the narrator tells events. Because the narrator decides what to include, omit, and emphasize, the same events can produce very different meanings depending on whose point of view frames them.
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First-person vs. third-person narration
First-person — narrator is involved in the events, often using "I." Limited to what that narrator knows or believes.
Third-person observational — outside narrator reporting only what's observed.
Third-person omniscient — outside narrator with access to multiple characters' thoughts and feelings.
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Claim + Textual Evidence = Literary Argument
A claim is a defensible interpretive statement. Textual evidence is the specific proof from the text that supports it. Together, claim + evidence is the smallest building block of every essay you'll write in AP Lit — from a single paragraph in Unit 1 to the full literary argument essay on the exam.
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How to use the visual review
Spend 30 seconds per slide before clicking next. Read the concept, then ask yourself: "Could I explain this with my own example from a story I've read?"
Use the fullscreen button () on desktop for the best experience. Use arrow keys to navigate. Tap "Show all slides" to jump around.
This is great for review the night before the exam — fast, visual, and covers everything you need to remember about Unit 1's foundational elements.