Story Elements

1. Story Elements English I

2. Short Story • A work of fiction that usually can be read in one sitting. • Has one main conflict, a few characters, and limited detail. • Largely a product of the writer’s imagination with made-up characters and events. However, the characters, events, and places in a short story often reflect the real world.

3. Reading A Short Story • Question • Predict • Use what information you have to assess what could happen next. • Clarify • Pay close attention to detail and analyze how a writer develops each element and technique used. • Summarize • Pull It Together- • Determine the central point or insight of the story. What did it mean to you? React to it. Did you like it? Why or Why not? Key to understanding the story is with your feelings.

4. Elements of a Short Story • Plot: the plan of action, the arrangement of events in a story. Plot comes from a…. • Conflict: struggle between opposing forces. • Character: the people or animals who take part in the action • Point of View: the angle or perspective from which a story is told • Setting: where and when the action takes place • Theme: the message of the story. An insight into life revealed by the story. Theme is conveyed through the characters, setting, and plot.

5. Elements of a Short Story • http://www.flocabulary.com/fivethings/

6. Plot • A series of connected, related events. Framework of a story. • Like links in a chain • “Hooks” our curiosity • Read to find out “what happens next”— creates suspense • Based on conflict • Things to keep in mind: • Picture the action that is unfolding. • Be aware of the order in which events take place. • Identify the conflict and note details that move the plot forward. • Think about the structure of the plot, the way that the events fit together to make an interesting story.

7. Plot Chart/Freytag’s Pyramid

8. Plot Chart/Freytag’s Pyramid

9. Exposition • Introductory material • Creates the tone of the story • Sets the scene • Introduces and identifies characters • Establishes the situation at the beginning of the story

10. Plot Chart/Freytag’s Pyramid

11. Rising Action • Events that complicate the plot • Complications of the plot usually arise from the protagonist’s attempt to solve the conflict • These are the events that lead to the climax.

12. Plot Chart/Freytag’s Pyramid

13. Climax • The point of greatest interest or highest excitement • The turning point • This moment determines all remaining events of the story

14. Plot Chart/Freytag’s Pyramid

15. Falling Action • Events which lead to the resolution of the conflict • Tying up of loose ends

16. Plot Chart/Freytag’s Pyramid

17. Resolution/Denouement • Literally the “un-knotting” • The end of the story • The solving of the conflict

18. Plot Chart/Freytag’s Pyramid • Exposition: background information, sets the scene for the conflict • Rising Action: series of events leading up to the climax. • Climax: central turning point in the story. The point at which the conflict comes to a head. The most dramatic point in the story. • Falling Action: series of events from the climax leading to the final resolution • Resolution: shows how the situation turns out and ties up loose ends.

19. Setting • Physical background of a story—the time and place in which the action occurs • Geographical location, scenery, weather, furniture, clothing, time of year, period of history, etc • Specific (4:15 on the baseball field in West Park) OR General (sometime in the future in outer space). • Direct – describe setting • Indirect – showing characters’ reactions to their surroundings

20. Setting • Functions of a setting: help create the mood of a story • Can trigger an action or cause conflict • Try to picture the setting when you read. • Notice how it influences the plot or the characters. Think about the mood that it creates. Assess the importance of setting by deciding whether the same story could happen in any other time or place.

21. Theme • Theme is the main idea within a work of literature. A writer’s statement of the way things are or should be. • Difference between theme and subject • Theme: always a statement, makes some revelation about the subject. • Subject: topic of the story, can be stated in one or two words. • Revealing a truth about human behavior • Writer has usually discovered through experience • Not usually stated directly in the story. • Can be the story’s most forceful element • Extract the theme through careful reading and analysis

22. Theme • Conflict between what OUGHT to be and what IS • Previous eras—teach morality • Basic conflict in human experience • Thinking critically about theme • Question the author’s presentation of theme (presenting a truth or trying to force us to accept a false view of life). • Reader must make a judgment

23. The Most Dangerous Game Intro

24. The Most Dangerous Game • Author: Richard Connell (1893 – 1949) • Sports reporter at age ten! • By sixteen, he was editing his father’s newspaper in New York • Harvard University editor • Enlisted WWI – editor division newspaper • After the war – fiction, movie screenplays • 1924—The Most Dangerous Game (movie in 1932) • Received two Academy Award nominations for his work.

25. The Most Dangerous Game • Competition • Friendly vs. fierce • Can become unpleasant, dangerous • Suspense • Curiosity, uncertainty, anxiety about the outcome of events. • Place characters in tense, risky or unpredictable situations • Provide hints, keep reader guessing • Role Reversal

26. The Most Dangerous Game • Ship-Trap island • Characters: Whitney, Rainsford, General Zaroff, Ivan • Rainsford—main character. Celebrated hunter • Culture – hunting (specifically, big game) • practiced by all cultures, more so than farming (about one percent of human history) • Humankind’s occupation for more than half a million years • Traits – cooperation, organization, aggression • Hunting large wild animals – ultimate test of skill

27. The Most Dangerous Game • Large, dangerous animals - unfamiliar, exotic surroundings • Now a subject of controversy (endangered species) • Insight • Are human beings really civilized? • In the jungle of life, the “beast” within us is not as far below the surface as we think.

28. Point of View • Who is telling the story? • Narrator: a story’s voice • 1. Third Person Omniscient – “all knowing” • Not a character in the story and never refers to himself or herself with the first-person pronoun “I” • Can tell us everything about every character (including how they think and feel)

29. Point of View • 2. First Person - “I” tells the story • One of the characters in a story • Talks to us using “I”/”me” • We can only know what this person sees and hears about events and about other characters.

30. Point of View • 3. Third Person Limited – focus on one character • Not a character in the story • We witness the events of a story just as this one character witnesses them.

31. Point of View • Why is Point of View important? • How would the story be different if someone else were telling it?

32. Character • All you need to tell a story is a character, an adjective, and a series of choices that the character must make. • Interesting because of what it tells us about people and how it makes us feel about them • Creating Characters • Indirect • 1. Speech – the most obvious: tone of voice, kinds of words, etc. Dialogue is like listening to a conversation. • 2. Appearance – looks, sounds, physical characteristics, etc. • 3. Private Thoughts – character’s • 4. How other people feel about them.

33. Character • Creating Characters • Indirect • 5. Actions – what we see them doing. Direct Characteristics – tells us directly what a character is like or what a person’s motives are (vs. indirect, where the story shows us a character and allows us to interpret things for ourselves).

34. Character • Protagonist • Main character • This is the character we focus our attention on, the person who sets the plot in motion. • Always a well-rounded character that learns something by the end of the story, • Often, but not always, the hero.

35. Character • Antagonist • The character or force that blocks the protagonist • Often the villain

36. Conflict • Struggle or clash between opposing character OR forces • Without conflict, there would be no plot. • Not merely limited to open argument, it is any more of opposition that the main character faces • There are two types: internal conflict and external conflict

37. Internal Conflict • Man vs. himself • This is the only type of internal conflict • This when the protagonist struggles with himself, with his own soul, his own ideas of right and wrong, physical limitations, etc.

38. External Conflict • Struggle with forces outside of one’s self • Man vs. man • The protagonist struggles against other men • Man vs. society • The protagonist struggles against ideas, practices, rules, and customs of other people.

39. External Conflict • Man vs. nature • The protagonist struggles against forces of nature, animals, etc. • Man vs. fate • The protagonist struggles against fate or the circumstances of life facing him.