The Elements of Fiction

1. The Elements of Fiction

2. Setting • The place where the story takes place • Geographical location • Time period • Socio-economic characteristics • Specific structures • Example: Dry September

3. Dry September: William Faulkner • Through the bloody September twilight, aftermath of sixty-two rainless days, it had gone like a fire in dry grass—the rumor, the story, whatever it was. Something about Miss Minnie Cooper and a Negro. Attacked, insulted, frightened: none of them, gathered in the barber shop on that Saturday evening where the ceiling fan stirred, without freshening it, the vitiated(to destroy or drastically reduce the effectiveness of something, or make it invalid or faulty; to degrade something morally) air, sending back upon them, in recurrent surges of stale pomade and lotion, their own stale breath and odors, knew exactly what had happened.

4. Characters • The people (personages: animals, things etc. presented as people) appearing in the literary work. • Round - convincing, true to life. Many different and sometimes even contradictory personality traits. • Flat – stereotyped, shallow and often symbolic. Have only one or two personality traits. • Dynamic – undergo some type of change or development in the story, often because of something that happens to them. • Static do not change in the course of the story • Protagonist – the main character in the story • Antagonist – the character who opposes the protagonist

5. Plot • The structure of the story; the arrangement of events and actions. • Exposition – the beginning or set-up of the situation before the action starts • Rising Action – the series of conflicts an crises that lead to the climax • Climax – the turning point, the most intense moment – either mentally or in the action • Falling Action – all of the action which follows the climax • Resolution – the conclusion, the tying together of all of the threads • Conflict – the dramatic struggle between two forces in a story. No conflict—no plot

6. The Plot Arc

7. Point of View • The perspective from which the story is told: who is telling the story, how do we know what is happening. • First Person – “I” The author is telling the story directly—usually as a character in the story • Third Person – “he, she, they” – the author is outside of the story. • Omniscient – the author tells the story from the point of view of any character and knows all the information • Limited – the author tells the story from a point of view restricted to only one character, which restricts the information to what that character knows

8. Friend Request • First Person

9. To Live For • Third Person

10. Theme • The meaning of the story; a distinct, recurring and unifying idea in the literary work

11. Symbolism • The representation of something abstract (an idea) by something concrete (a person or object)

12. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne eTheForest – Natural Sin “Look, Mother,” Pearl pointed. “The sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself because of the scarlet letter. They walked together and talked until they were far enough into the forest that no casual passer-by would see them…The forest around them was centuries old, older than the Puritan doctrine and law. “Tell me about the Black Man,”…tell me how he lives here in the Deep Forest.” Pearl – The results of transgression …the Puritans of the village had begun to whisper that Pearl was a demon offspring, created through her mother’s sin, sent for some foul and wicked purpose. Pearl was obsessed with the scarlet letter. It was the very first object she seemed to become aware of. Whenever Hester would lean over the cradle, Pearl would grab at the letter. When she became old enough to pick flowers, Pearl would pinch off the stems and throw the flowers, one by one, at Hester, breaking into laughter each time one struck the letter.

13. Imagery • The figurative language, especially metaphors and similes, used in literary works; language that makes pictures • Figurative language – a nonliteral sense of a word or words • Sensory relating to the sense organs iesight, touch, sound, smell, taste • Concrete - able to be seen or touched because it exists in reality, not just as an idea; definite, certain and specific rather than vague • Simile – a comparison between two different things usually containing the words “as” or “like” • Metaphor- a direct comparison used to describe something not literally but in vivid representation of a distinct trait • Allegory – a work in which the characters and events are to be understood as representing other things and symbolically expressing a deeper, often spiritual, moral or political meaning

14. Voice • The individual writing style of an author, a combination of idiotypical usage of syntax, diction, punctuation, character development, dialogue etc.

15. Friend Request