Lesson 3: Elements of Short Story
Cards (6)
- Setting:
- Place: Where the story takes place
- Time: When the story takes place
- Weather conditions: Is it rainy, sunny, etc.?
- Social conditions: What is the daily life of the characters like? Does the story contain local color?
- Mood or atmosphere: What feeling is created at the beginning of the story?
- Plot:
- The plot is how the author arranges events to develop the basic idea
- It is a planned, logical series of events with a beginning, middle, and end
- Introduction: Reveals characters and setting
- Rising Action: Events become complicated and conflict is revealed
- Climax: Highest point of interest and turning point
- Falling Action: Events and complications begin to resolve
- Denouement: Final outcome or untangling of events
- Conflict:
- Opposition of forces that ties incidents together and moves the plot
- External conflict: Struggle with a force outside oneself
- Internal conflict: Struggle within oneself
- Four kinds of conflict: man vs man, man vs circumstances, man vs society, man vs him/herself
- Character:
- Includes the protagonist and antagonist
- Protagonist: Central character with all major events having importance to them
- Antagonist: Opposer of the main character
- Characteristics of a person:
- Physical appearance
- Thoughts, feelings, dreams
- Actions
- Others' opinions and reactions
- Characters are convincing if they are consistent, motivated, life-like, individual, developing, or static
- Point of View:
- The angle from which the story is told
- Types of Point of View: Innocent Eye, Stream of Consciousness, First Person, Omniscient (Limited and Objective)
- Theme:
- Controlling idea or central insight
- Author's underlying meaning or main idea
- Author's thoughts about a topic or view of human nature
- The title of the short story usually points to the theme
- Various figures of speech can be used to emphasize the theme, such as symbol, allusion, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, or irony