Elements of FictionShort Stories

6 Basic Elements

•Characters•Setting•Plot•Conflict•Point of View•Theme

CharacterizationA writer reveals what a character is like and

how the character changes throughout the story.

Two primary methods of characterization:Direct- writer tells what the character is

like.

Indirect- writer shows what a character is like by describing what the character looks like, by telling what the character says and does, and by what other characters say about and do in response to the character..

CHARACTERS•Actors in the story’s plot

•May be human, animal, object, etc.

▫Protagonist – main character▫Antagonist – person in conflict with the

main character

*Not all stories have an antagonist.

Character Types•Major or Minor

•Protagonist or Antagonist

•Round or Flat

• Round – more description, fully developed

• Flat – two-dimensional; uncomplicated

•Dynamic or Static

• Dynamic – undergoes change through complication

• Static – stays basically the same throughout

•*Stereotypes=Stock Characters*

SETTING - Time and location where the story take place•Place - geographical location•Time - historical period, time of day, year,

etc.•Weather conditions•Social conditions - customs, status•Mood or atmosphere - the feeling created

in the reader

Elements of SettingElements of Setting

Plot – what happens and how it happens in the story

Stages of Plot:

• Exposition – introduce characters, setting, conflict

• Rising Action – events that intensify conflict• Climax – emotional highpoint• Falling Action – subsequent events caused by

climax• Resolution (or Denouement)– ending, outcome

Special Techniques of PlotSuspense - excitement or tension

Foreshadowing - hint or clue about what will happen in story

Flashback - interrupts the normal sequence of events to tell about something that happened in the past

Surprise Ending - conclusion that reader does not expect

CONFLICT - Internal or ExternalConflict is a struggle between opposing forces

Every plot must contain some kind of conflict

Stories can have more than one conflict

Conflicts can be external or internalExternal conflict- outside force may be person,

group, animal, nature, or a nonhuman obstacleInternal conflict- takes place in a character’s

mind

POINT OF VIEW - Who is telling the story?•First Person – narrator is a character IN

the story (“I” is used)

•Third Person - narrator is NOT a character is the story (“he or she”)

•Third Person Limited – narrator reveals thoughts of only one character

•Third Person Omniscient – narrator reveals thoughts of all characters

Theme

A central message, concern, or insight into life expressed through a literary work

Can be expressed by one or two sentence statement about human beings or about life

May be stated directly in the story (“and the moral of this story is . . .”) OR implied (reader needs to infer the theme).

Do you remember these literary elements?Metaphor, personification, simile, alliteration, oxymoron

•self-contradictory phrase, i.e., “same difference”

•giving human qualities to something nonhuman

•repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of words in the same sentence

•comparison or two unlike things using “like” or “as”

•same as above NOT using “like” or “as”