Literary Elements

Literary Elements Because your understanding of these elements is necessary for you to further build your reading and literary interpretation skills, you will be assessed frequently on their application.

Literary Elements • Setting • Characterization • Plot (Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Resolution) • Conflict • Point of View • Mood

Setting Setting is the time (year, season, era) and the place (general or main location even though other sites may enter the story briefly). Lord of the Flies: deserted island, the future. The Bean Trees: Kentucky/Arizona/Oklahoma, 1980s The Catcher in the Rye: New York, 1940s

Setting can help in the portrayal of a 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

Action is so closely related to setting that in some works of fiction, the plot is directed by it. “The new man stands, 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 Nurse Ratchet

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

A setting may be one of two types: 1. backdrop – not essential to plot 2. integral – essential to plot

Writing Connection Select a story idea from your Writing Notebook. Decide on a backdrop or an integral setting. Justify your choice.

SETTING QUIZ

Identify the setting in the following passage. “Crime and despair stalked the streets of east St. Louis, Illinois, one of the most impoverished cities in the United States. But when Jacqueline Joyner was born, her grandmother insisted that she be named after Jacqueline Kennedy, America’s glamorous First Lady.” ~ Jackie Joyner-Kersee Olympic Athlete

“Crime and despair stalked the streets of east St. Louis, Illinois, one of the most impoverished cities in the United States. But when Jacqueline Joyner was born, Her grandmother insisted that she be Named after Jacqueline Kennedy, America’s glamorous First Lady.” ~ Jackie Joyner-Kersee Olympic Athlete

CharacterizationMethods an Author May Use • By directly stating that the character “was an old man…” • By using the character’s own words and actions • By the reaction of other characters to a character • By the character’s physical appearance • By the character’s own thoughts

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

Dimensions of Character Character is the identity of an individual. The total character has three areas: • Outer Person • Social Person • Inner Person

Outer Person These are the physical characteristics. This is how the character looks, his age, sex, weight, height, clothing, posture, etc.

Social Person The social aspects of the character are the general and personal relationships the character has with other characters. This may include things like family structure, friendships, enemies, occupation, financial standing, and community reputation.

Inner Person The inner person reveals the emotional and moral composition of the character. Inner Characteristics include being honest, happy, quick-tempered, or wise.

Writing Connection Brainstorm several characters for your story (the one for which you have already chosen a setting). Brainstorm the outer, social, and inner person characteristics for each of your characters.

CHARACTERIZATION QUIZ

Identify each of the following characteristics as Outer, Social, or Inner. • Tall 7. Generous • Wise 8. Bald • Middle child of three 9. Student • Spoiled 10. Red hair • Stout 11. Wealthy • Mother 12. Jealous

Key • Outer 7. Inner • Inner 8. Outer • Social 9. Social • Inner 10. Outer • Outer 11. Social • Social 12. Inner

The plot is the plan of the events in a story, or the sum of all the action in a story. Plot

Plot Structure A plot's structure is the way in which the story elements are arranged. Writers vary structure depending on the needs of the story. It shows the causal arrangement of events and actions within a story.

Plot Components Climax: the turning point, the most intense moment—either mentally or in action Rising Action: the series of conflicts and crises in the story that lead to the climax Falling Action: all of the action which follows the climax Exposition: the start of the story, the situation before the action starts Resolution: the conclusion, the tying together of all of the threads

Ab ovo – from the egg or ab initio (from the beginning or in chronological order) Analepsis (Flashback - an interjected scene that takes the reader back in time) In medias res or medias in res (into the middle of things) when the story starts in the middle of the action without exposition Types of Linear Plots Plots can be told in

Writing Connection It’s a piece of cake!

Brainstorm a plot using a plot line for the setting and characters you have previously brainstormed.

PLOTQUIZ

Label the plot line.

Conflict Conflict is the dramatic struggle between two forces in a story. Without conflict, there is no plot. (A story may have both internal and external conflict.

Person vs. Person(External) This is a conflict or contest between the protagonist and one or more other people.

Person vs. Nature(External) This is a contest between the protagonist and the environment.

Person vs. Society(External) This is a struggle involving social issues such as class, race, or social order.

Person vs. Self (Internal) This is a conflict that centers around an inner struggle between the protagonist and his or her feelings.

Writing Connection Brainstorm the conflict or conflicts that your characters may face.

CONFLICTQUIZ

Identify the conflict(s) in the following excerpt. Explain your choice. Chandra shares a bedroom with her older sister Thuma who has hung a gauzy red curtain from the middle of the ceiling to divide the room into two sides. Whenever Chandra wants to see herself, she has to push through that thin curtain and cross into her sister’s territory.

Point of View: Who is telling the story?

First PersonThe story is told from the point of view of one of the characters. “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

Second Person Second person refers to the person spoken to directly and is recognized by the singular and plural you. It directly addresses the reader. Examples of 2nd person writing would be “choose your own adventure” books, many computer games, cook books, and how-to manuals.

Third Person In third person both the speaker and the person spoken to are unidentified. Third person is recognized by the use of such indefinite singular pronouns as it, he, she, her, his, and him, and indefinite plural pronouns like they, them, and their. Third person may be limited or omniscient.

Third Person Omniscient The author (or narrator) 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

Third Person Limited A character in the story is telling 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

Scene: A person “cuts” into a long line of waiting people. As the author, how would you express the character’s feelings in third person omniscient point of view?

Writing Connection Choose a point of view and write a first paragraph for your story. Explain why you chose that point of view.

POINT OF VIEW QUIZ

Using the numbers 1, 2, and 3, assign person to each of the following: • ____ yourself j. ____ their • ____ she k. ____ mine • ____ I l. ____ you’re • ____ they m. ____ his • ____ you n. ____ ours • ____ her o. ____ himself • ____ we p. ____ they • ____ themselves q. ____ ourselves • ____myself r. ____ he

Scene Two: There is a 75% off sale at Best Buy. As the author, how would you express the character’s feelings in 1st Person and 3rd person omniscient? Scene One: A car runs out of gas on a lonely road.

KEY • 2 j. 3 • 3 k. 1 • 1 l. 2 • 3 m. 3 • 2 n. 1 • 3 o. 3 • 1 p. 3 • 3 q. 1 • 1 r. 3

Mood Mood is the emotional feeling in a piece of writing.

Literary Elements