The Short Story

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The Short Story

• tells about a single event or experience
• fictional (not true)
• 500 to 15,000 words in length
• it has a beginning, middle, and end
• limited number of characters

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Plot Structure

• the series of events and actions that takes place
  in a story
• Chronological starts at the beginning and moves
  through time.
• Flashback starts in the present and then flashes
  back to the past.

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Plot Structure
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Plot Line
Climax the turning point. The most intense
moment (either mentally or in action.
Rising Action the series of conflicts and
complications 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 beginning of the story includes
the setting, characters, and basic situation
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Character

• the people (or animals, things, etc. presented as
  people) appearing in a literary work.
• Protagonist the main character in a literary
  work (for instance, Snow White or Cinderella)
• Antagonist the character who opposes the
  protagonist ( for instance, the wicked stepmother
  in Cinderella)

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Character

• Types
• Round Characterconvincing, true to life.
• Dynamic Characterundergoes some type of change
  in story.
• Flat Characterstereotyped, shallow, often
  symbolic.
• Static Characterdoes not change in the course of
  the story.

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Setting

• the time, place, and period in which the action
  takes place.

The Bean Trees Arizona/Oklahoma 1980s.
Lord of the Flies deserted island, the future.
The Catcher in the RyeNew York, 1940s
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Setting can establish the mood 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
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Conflict

• a struggle between two opposing forces. Without
  conflict, there is no story.
• External Conflict a conflict outside of ones
  self
• Individual vs. Nature
• Individual vs. Society
• Individual vs. Individual
• Individual vs. Machine/Technology
• Individual vs. Supernatural
• Internal Conflict a conflict within ones self
• Individual vs. Self

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Point of View Who is telling the story?
3rd Person Omniscient Point of View the author
is telling the story from third person. He can
see into all the characters minds.
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
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Point of View
3rd Person Limited Omniscient third person, told
from the viewpoint of one 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
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Point of View
First Person the 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
Hardbines father over the top of the Standard
Oil sign. Im 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
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Tone

• the narrators attitude toward the elements in
  the story. Look at word choice, point of view,
  and opinions for clues.

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Theme

• the central idea or message the author is trying
  to communicate. It usually contains some insight
  into the human condition.
• In most short stories, the theme can be expressed
  in a single sentence (for instance, The theme of
  this story is good vs. evil.)

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Practice the plot structure

• http//www.readwritethink.org/materials/plot-diagr
  am/

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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.
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Methods of Characterization

• Character is revealed the following ways
• What a character says (dialogue)
• What a character does (actions)
• What a character thinks (inferred from action,
  dialogue OR revealed by a narrator)
• How other characters respond to this character
  (how others treat a character)
• Physical description of the character

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Methods of Characterization

• Direct he was an old man.. (The Old Man and
  the Sea)
• Indirect
• Characters own words, thoughts, and actions
• Physical appearance
• Reaction of other characters

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Other Fiction Elements

• Allegory an extended metaphor where characters
  take on meanings that lie outside the narrative.
  Characters may personify qualities. Each
  represents something else in addition to the
  story itself.
• Allusion a reference to a person, place or
  literary, historical, artistic, mythological
  source or event.
• ex. It was in St. Louis, Missouri, where they
  have that giant McDonalds thing towering over
  the city(Bean Trees 15)

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Other Elements Continued

• Dialogue the reproduction of a conversation
  between two of the characters.
• Foreshadowing early clues about what will happen
  later in a piece of fiction.
• Irony a difference between what is expected and
  reality.
• Suspense a feeling of tension in the reader.
• Style a writers individual and distinct way of
  writing. The total of the qualities that
  distinguish one authors writing from anothers.