Elements of the Short Story

CharacterizationThe author tries to create believable characters. The way the character speaks, acts and reacts must be in keeping with his or her age, environment, circumstances and personality. An author can bring a character to life through: straightforward description, description of one character by another, dialogue or conversation, an explanation of the character’s inner thoughts, a character’s actions or behaviour, and the responses or reactions of a character to other characters or situations.

ConflictThe speeches, actions and feelings of the character must hinge upon some kind of conflict. Characters struggle to solve a problem despite tension and complications. The conflict can be: person against person, person against society, person against internal values or problems, or person against nature. Conflict gives the characters direction and brings them to life.

PlotThe plot unfolds as characters experience conflict and struggle to solve a problem. The story line begins with a problem or situation the protagonist must face. As the main character attempts to solve the problem, a sequence of events occurs, leading up to the climax and final outcome; the sequence of events is known as the plot. The plot is the skeleton of the story.

Point of ViewA story is always told from a point of view. To appreciate it you need to recognize: who is narrating the story, whom the narrator is addressing,

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what the narrator’s relationship is to the events, when and where the person is telling the story, and what kind of knowledge the person has of events, details and characters. The point of view colours the reader’s view of the events and people.Some stories are told in the third person and some in the first person.

ForeshadowingForeshadowing shadows events yet to come. The author carefully places hints and clues throughout the story to indicate what will happen. The reader may not notice the clues until the end of the story. You need to look for clues as you read.

SettingThe story usually occurs at a certain time and place. Time can mean a certain era, season, day of the month, or time of day. Place can mean nation, geographic type or terrain, and immediate surroundings. It can include climate and temperature. The setting can be implicit or explicit.

MoodThe mood is the emotional climate the author creates. The author does this through description, vocabulary and sentence structure.

ThemeThe theme is the idea or comment about life that the author makes. The underlying idea of the story can often be described very briefly by the reader. It is the soul of the story.

SymbolismA symbol is something ( often concrete) that suggests something else (often abstract).

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