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Elements of a Short Story. Setting. The time and place of a story In most cases this is given to you by the author The geographical location For example: London, Cairo, Halifax, Vancouver The time period For example: 1865, during WWII, today
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Setting • The time and place of a story • In most cases this is given to you by the author • The geographical location • For example: London, Cairo, Halifax, Vancouver • The time period • For example: 1865, during WWII, today • The socio-economic characteristics of the location • For example: wealthy suburbs • The specific building, room etc. • For example: a prep school, a log cabin, a bus, a military base
Setting • Setting the mood of a story (scary, sad, funny, etc.) “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, though a singularly dreary tract of country.” “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe • Characters’ likes and dislikes
Characters • The people (or animals, things, etc. presented as people) appearing in a literary work. • Protagonist – main character “heroic” figure • Antagonist – the character who opposes the protagonist (which results in conflict) • Anti-hero – someone who is incapable of fitting into traditional “heroic” moulds concerning protagonist
Characterization • Flat character – one or two personality traits; they are often symbolic and stereotyped. Has no real depth. • Round character – convincing and real. They often have several traits that at times contradict each other. Has depth of character – they are evolved. • Dynamic character – someone that undergoes an obvious change within the story due to surrounding circumstances. • Static character – their personality is fixed and stays consistently similar throughout the story.
Direct & Indirect Characterization • Direct – the author overtly states the personality traits of a character. • Ex: Alicia was an outgoing girl with a lot to say. Patrick was a quiet kid, with no real interests besides videogames. • Indirect – expose a characters’ traits through: • A character’s physical appearance • The thoughts and words of other characters • A character’s personal thoughts, words or actions
Introduction: The start of the story, the situation before the action starts Rising Action: The series of conflicts and crisis in the story that lead to the climax Climax / Turning Point: The most intense moment – either mentally or in action – the reader wonders what will happen next; will the conflict be resolved or not? Falling Action: The events and complications begin to resolve themselves. (The events between the climax and the resolution) Resolution (denouement): The conclusion, the untangling of events in the story
Plot: Conflict • Without conflict, there is no plot. It is essential to the storyline as it establishes character traits and moves the plot along. • Stories may contain one major conflict or several throughout the text. • There are two types of conflict: • External • Internal
Four kinds of conflict • Man vs. Man (physical) –strength against other characters, animals, forces of nature, etc. • Man vs. Circumstances (classical) – struggle against fate or life circumstances • Man vs. Society (social) – struggle against ideologies, practices, others’ customs • Man vs. Self (Psychological) – struggle with him/herself, ideas, limitations, choices, etc.
Point of view • The perspective a story is told in (the angle) • First person p.o.v. • Innocent eye (through the eyes of a child) • Consciousness (you get inside their head) • Third person p.o.v. • Omniscient • Limited omniscient • Objective
Omniscient • The narrator has the power to show the reader what is happening though a number of characters’ eyes. • The narrator can also translate what characters are feeling at any given time. • Ex: Veronica shook her head slowly. Her heart was breaking at having to tell him this news.John stood up and banged his fist against the wall, hard, once, but that did nothing to disperse the fury coursing through him. He still couldn’t believe it. “I’ll have to leave now,” he said, thinking that he couldn’t bear to stay there another moment.
Limited Omniscient • In 1966, Andy Dufresne escaped from Shawshank prison. All they found of him was a muddy set of prison clothes, a bar of soap, and an old rock hammer, damn near worn down to the nub. I remember thinking it would take a man six hundred years to tunnel through the wall with it. Old Andy did it in less than twenty. Oh, Andy loved geology. I imagine it appealed to his meticulous nature. An ice age here, million years of mountain building there. Geology is the study of pressure and time. That's all it takes really, pressure, and time. That, and a big goddamn poster. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWi1fgJ5Wl8
Objective • Third person, from a perspective that only follows the action that can be observed. • No notion of their own thoughts enter the action. • You cannot guess what they are thinking as you can with third person omniscient.
Theme • The central idea or thought that can be used to sum up the story as a whole. • The reason for writing a story is because a writer has a conflict in his/her mind that they wish to get out. Without the theme, the story has little substance. • A theme may be outwardly or overtly mentioned, or it can be more subtle, based on major events in the story.
