Elements of Fiction

Elements of Fiction • Setting • Character • Plot • Point of View • Theme • Symbolism • Other

the time, place and period in which the action takes place. Setting: The Bean Trees: Arizona/Oklahoma 1980s. Lord of the Flies: deserted island, the future. The Catcher in the Rye:New York, 1940s

Setting:can help in the portrayal of character. “…it was so quiet and lonesome out, even though it was Saturday night. I didn’t see hardly anybody on the street. Now and then you just saw a man and a girl crossing the street with their arms around each other’s waists and all, or a bunch of hoodlumy-looking guys and their dates, all of them laughing like hyenas at something you could bet wasn’t funny. New York’s terrible when somebody laughs on the street very late at night. You can hear it for miles. It makes you feel so lonesome and depressed.” The Catcher in the Rye (81)

Setting:in some works of fiction action is so closely related to setting that the plot is directed by it. “The new manstands, looking a minute, to get the set-up of the day room. One side of the room younger patients, known as Acutes because the doctors figure them still sick enough to be fixed, practice arm wrestling and card tricks…Across the room from the Acutes are the culls of the Combine’s product, the Chronics. Not in the hospital, these to get fixed, but just to keep them from walking around the street giving the product a bad name. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (19)

Setting:can establish the atmosphere of a work. “During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country.” “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe

Character The people (or animals, things, etc. presented as people) appearing in a literary work. • Types of Characters: • Round Character:convincing, true to life. • Dynamic Character:undergoes some type of change in story. • Flat Character:stereotyped, shallow, often symbolic. • Static Character:does not change in the course of the story.

Methods of Characterization • Direct: “he was an old man..” (TheOld Man and the Sea) • Own Words and Actions • Reaction of other Characters • Physical appearance • Own thoughts

Plot The series of events and actions that takes place in a story.

Types of Plot Plots can be told in: • Chronological order • Flashback • In media res (in the middle of things) when the story starts in the middle of the action without exposition

Elements of Plot: Conflict Conflict is the dramatic struggle between two forces in a story. Without conflict there is no plot.

Types of Conflict • Man VS Man • Man VS Nature • Man VS Society • Man VS Himself

Pyramidal Plot • The most basic and traditional form of plot: • Based on Gustav Freytag’s Plot Structure & Aristotle’s Elements of the Greek Tragedy

Plot Line Climax: The turning point. The most intense moment (either mentally or in action. Rising Action: the series of conflicts and crisis in the story that lead to the climax. Falling Action: all of the action which follows the Climax. Resolution: The conclusion, the tying together of all of the threads. Exposition: The start of the story. The way things are before the action starts.

Plot Diagram 3 4 2 1 5

1. Exposition • This usually occurs at the beginning of a short story. Here the characters are introduced. We also learn about the setting of the story. Most importantly, we are introduced to the main conflict (main problem).

2. Rising Action • This part of the story begins to develop the conflict(s). A building of interest or suspense occurs.

3. Climax • This is the turning point of the story. Usually the main character comes face to face with a conflict. The main character will change in some way.

4. Falling Action • All loose ends of the plot are tied up. The conflict(s) and climax are taken care of.

5. Resolution • The story comes to a reasonable ending.

Practice With Jack And The Beanstalk • With a partner go to the Jack and the Beanstalk interactive and drag the parts of the story into the right plot element. • Share your results with the rest of the class.

Point of View: Who is telling the story? (Narration) Omniscient Point of View: The author is telling the story. “The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way toward the lagoon. Though he had taken off his school sweater and trailed it now from one hand, his grey shirt stuck to him and his hair was plastered to his forehead. All around him the long scar smashed into the jungle was a bath of heat.” The Lord of the Flies - William Golding

Point of View Limited Omniscient: Third person, told from the viewpoint of a character in the story. “In his black suit he stood in the dark glass where the lilies leaned so palely from their waisted cutglass vase. He looked down at the guttered candlestub. He pressed his thumbprint in the warm wax pooled on the oak veneer. Lastly he looked at the face so caved and drawn among the folds of funeral cloth, the yellowed moustache, the eyelids paper thin. That was not sleeping. That was not sleeping. All the Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarthy

Point of View First Person: Story is told from point of view of one of the characters who uses the first person pronoun “I.” “I have been afraid of putting air in a tire ever since I saw a tractor tire blow up and throw Newt Hardbine’s father over the top of the Standard Oil sign. I’m not lying. He got stuck up there. About nineteen people congregated during the time it took for Norman Strick to walk up to the Courthouse and blow the whistle for the volunteer fire department.” The Bean Trees - Barbara Kingsolver

Theme • The theme of a piece of fiction is its central idea. It usually contains some insight into the human condition. • In most short stories, the theme can be expressed in a single sentence. • In longer works of fiction, the central theme is often accompanied by a number of lesser, related themes, or there may be two or more central themes. • Themes should be stated as a generalization.

Symbolism A symbol represents an idea, quality, or concept larger than itself. A Journey can symbolize life. Water may represent a new beginning. Black can represent evil or death. A lion could be a symbol of courage.

Other Fiction Elements • Allusion: a reference to a person, place or literary, historical, artistic, mythological source or event. • “It was in St. Louis, Missouri, where they have that giant McDonald’s thing towering over the city…”(Bean Trees 15) • Atmosphere: the prevailing emotional and mental climate of a piece of fiction. • Protagonist: The leading character in a literary work. Holden in The Catcher in the Rye, Taylor in The Bean Trees. • Antagonist: The character who opposes the protagonist. • Dialogue: the reproduction of a conversation between two of the characters.

Other Elements Continued • Foreshadowing: early clues about what will happen later in a piece of fiction. • Irony: a difference between what is expected and reality. • Style: a writer’s individual and distinct way of writing. The total of the qualities that distinguish one author’s writing from another’s. • Structure: the way time moves through a novel. • Chronological: starts at the beginning and moves through time. • Flashback: starts in the present and then goes back to the past. • Circular or Anticipatory: starts in the present, flashes back to the past, and returns to the present at the conclusion. • Panel: same story told from different viewpoints. (Lou Ann and Taylor chapters in The Bean Trees.

Elements of Fiction