Elements of Literature - Short Stories

Question 1

What is plot?

Answer 1

A series of related events that make up the storyline of a narrative

Question 2

What are the 5 stages of plot?

Answer 2

1. Introduction
2. Rising Action
3. Climax
4. Falling Action
5. Denouement (conclusion/resolution)

Question 3

What is the introduction? (3)

Answer 3

start of the story that describes the background info of the characters and the setting

usually found in the 1st or 2nd paragraph of the story

1.b) Inciting Incident: beginning of rising action; where the story really starts

Question 4

What is the rising action? (3)

Answer 4

Part where complications or problems happen (usually one incident that starts them all)

Complications tend to come in series, each event linked to what happened before and what happened after

Reader excitement builds throughout as plot thickens with complications

Question 5

What is the climax? (3)

Answer 5

The part with a turning point or emotional high

Seems the story is heading in one direction but one event (climax) changes the story and takes it in a completely different direction

Usually the most exciting moment found in the middle of the story

Question 6

What is the falling action? (3)

Answer 6

Part that starts wrapping up loose ends

Conflicts not yet resolved but on their way to it

Characters seem to be working out their problems and an end is in sight

Question 7

What is denouement? (2)

Answer 7

This is the end usually found in the last couple of paragraphs

A good resolution solves the conflict but (especially in modern fiction) it doesn’t necessarily solve everything in the characters’ lives

Question 8

What is setting?

Answer 8

Setting of the story consists of the details about the time in which it occurs and the place where it happens

Question 9

What is setting, in relation with time?

Answer 9

Includes many aspects of time

Specific time (what day, year, hour, minutes, holiday season, time of day, etc)

Universal time (the story and its conflicts could happen in any year and at any time)

Basically all details about when the story takes place

Question 10

What is setting, in relation to place?

Answer 10

Can have many settings

Can take place in a park, a friends house, school, at home and all places mentioned and visited in the story

Question 11

What is atmosphere? (3)

Answer 11

The feeling created by the setting

Not mood, it is strictly the feeling in the air that the author creates, not about how you feel

Atmosphere is created by mood (if author wants to create a mood of happy, she uses sensory detail to create the atmosphere to convey the mood)

Question 12

What is conflict?

Answer 12

A struggle or problem that a character experiences in a short story

Causes complications in the rising action of a story

Question 13

What are the different types of conflict? (5)

Answer 13

Person vs person (physical or psychological problem with another character)

Person vs self (character is struggling with an issue in their head; internal)

Person vs nature (battling something in nature; could be an animal, a tree, a storm, etc)

Person vs group (physical or psychological problem with a group)

Person vs technology (character is struggling with some element of modern technology (something man made))

Question 14

What is a theme?

Answer 14

Some idea or insight about human life and human nature that gives meaning to the story

Often the main idea, the moral of the story, the message the author wants to tell us

Question 15

What is the difference between a theme and a thematic statement?

Answer 15

Theme is usually one word

Theme statement is a sentence that takes a stance on that one word

Question 16

What are characters?

Answer 16

The story’s actors, the people that experience the conflicts

Question 17

What are the 2 ways to reveal character?

Answer 17

Direct characterization: the author tells us outright what a character is like

Indirect characterization: the author hints at what the character is like; reader needs to observe the words and actions of the character to deduce what the character is like

Question 18

What are 5 indirect ways writers can reveal character?

Answer 18

1. By appearance
2. By actions
3. By speech (dialogue)
4. By private thoughts (interior monologue)
5. By the responses of other characters

Question 19

What are the types of characters? (4)

Answer 19

Flat character: like a paper doll with only one surface; we see only one side to their personality and they have only one or two key personality traits

Round character: complex, has many sides to their personality

Static character: personality that does not change much throughout the story; same person at the beginning as they are at the end

Dynamic character: a character that changes as the storyline progresses; personality that has changed from beginning to end

Characters can be different types - there can be a static round character, a flat static character, a round dynamic character etc

Question 20

What is the point of view?

Answer 20

The vantage point or perspective from which a writer tells a story

Question 21

What are the kinds of POV? (4)

Answer 21

1st person: the main character is telling the story from their perspective

2nd person: the narrator tells the story to another character, “you”

3rd person: a character in the story is telling the story but we do not get inside their head

Omniscient: a godlike observer who knows everything that is going on in the story and who can see into each other’s heart and mind; an outsider that is not a character in the story