Short Story Terms

Kelly Road English Department – English 9 Short Story Terms

Plot Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • What happens in a story

Setting Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • The place and time in which a story occurs

Exposition Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • Tells background information about what has gone on in that setting • Sets up later plot events

Crisis Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • The main problem or troubling event that sets the action going

Rising Action Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • The series of events leading to the climax

Climax Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • The point at which the action and/or tension is at its height

Falling Action Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • The beginning of the end of the story • Crisis resolved; character conflicts dealt with

Denouement Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • Day-new-maw • Loose ends of the plot tied up, either after the climax, or (more commonly) in the very final scenes of the story

Protagonist Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • The main character(s) in a story

Antagonist Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • The character(s) or force(s) arrayed against the main character

Foreshadowing Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • Hints given in the plot about what is going to happen later

Irony Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • When the writer expresses a meaning that is different than the words used

Parody Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • To make fun of a type of literature by writing something like it that pokes fun at it

Mood Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • Also called atmosphere • The “feeling” presented in the story through the way the author describes scenes or plot events • Eg.: It was a dark and stormy night…

Tone Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • The author’s attitudes and/or biases that come through in the story, whether in character descriptions, or in their dialogue

Dilemma Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • A choice that a character must make between 2 unpleasant outcomes, in response to a plot challenge • Dilemmas are often hard choices that involve moral or ethical issues

Symbolism Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • When an important person, place or thing in a story represents both itself, and something else • The secondary representation is generally figurative

Suspense Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • A feeling of tension that builds throughout the plot • Usually linked to what will happen at the climax

Flashback Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • A scene inserted into the plot that shows events that occurred at an earlier time

Conflict Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • General term for negative interactions between characters

Internal Conflict Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • Internal – struggle inside a character’s mind or self – Person vs. Self

External Conflict Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • Person vs. Person – conflict between 2 or more characters • Person vs. Environment – conflicts between a person and their situation – Nature, society, group, etc.

Characterization Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • Round – character has many traits • Flat – character has few traits

Characterization Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • Dynamic – character’s traits change over time • Static – character’s traits do not change over time

Characterization Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • Stereotype/Stock – character with clichéd traits • Eg. James Bond, Robin Hood, Wicked Stepmother, etc. • Realistic – A character who is NOT based on a stereotypical cliché, but on “real life”

Characterization Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • Motivation – the combination of circumstance and personality that makes a character do what they do

Point of View Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • The viewpoint through which a story is told • Types: • First Person – “I” – solely the POV of the narrator; reader only knows as much as narrator

Point of View Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • The viewpoint through which a story is told • Types Cont’d: • Third Person Omniscient – “God Mode” – narrator knows characters’ thoughts and feelings • Third Person Limited Omniscient – narrator knows thoughts and feelings of one character, but not necessarily others

Theme Kelly Road English Department – English 9 • The central idea or thesis of a story • Can be stated directly by the author, or indirectly through the outcome of the plot

The End Kelly Road English Department – English 9

Short Story Terms