Short Stories

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Short Stories

• Literary Terms for Study

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Fiction

• Stories that are made up
• Not true
• Usually written in prose

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Prose

• Standard form of spoken or written English used
  for writing
• Everything except poetry
• Has no rhythm or rhyme

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Short Story

• Fictional work usually less than 40 pages
• Deals with a single conflict and theme

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Plot

• Sequence of events in a story
• The pattern in which a conflict is resolved

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Exposition

• Beginning of story
• Introduces setting, characters, and conflict

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Conflict

• Struggle between two forces in a story
• Types of conflict
• Man vs. Man
• Man vs. Nature
• Man vs. Supernatural
• Man vs. Society
• Man vs. Self (internal conflict)

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Rising Action

• When the events become more complicated in a
  work
• Leads to the climax

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Climax

• Point of highest action or emotional intensity
• Turning point of the conflict
• The nature of the conflict will change as a result

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Falling Action

• Events after the climax
• Ties up loose ends of the story
• Is a result of the climax
• Leads to final end of story

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Resolution/Denouement

• The final outcome of the story
• Tells how things end for the character(s)

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Protagonist

• Main character of the story
• Is followed by the action of the story
• Is not always the good guy

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Antagonist

• The person or force causing problems for the main
  character
• May be human, animal, storm, etc.
• Stories with internal conflict will have no
  antagonist

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Characterization

• Methods used by an author to reveal the looks,
  beliefs, motivations or personality of a
  character
• Two types of characterization
• Direct characterization author comes out and
  tells you exactly what the character is like
• Indirect characterization you must decide about
  the character based on characters words and
  actions

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Character traits

• Qualities of a characters personality or
  appearance
• Blonde hair, blue eyes (appearance)
• Honest, fun-loving (personality)

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Types of Characters

• Static character- does not change in the story.
• Dynamic character- changes as the result of the
  storys event.
• Round character- has many different character
  traits, which may contradict one another. (Like a
  real person)
• Flat character- has only one or two traits.

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Foreshadowing

• The subtle revealing of clues that hint to events
  that will occur later in the story

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Setting

• The time and place of the story
• Words or phrases that describe the time and place
  of the story reveal its setting
• Can affect actions and attitudes of characters

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Tone

• The attitude a narrator feels toward the subject
  of which he is speaking
• The voice the narrator uses to talk about the
  character
• Example When your moms angry with you, you can
  tell by the tone of her voice and the words that
  she uses to talk to you or about you.

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Situational Irony

• When you get the opposite of what you expect in a
  situation
• Surprise ending of a story

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Verbal Irony

• When a character says something that can have
  multiple meanings
• An intentional, but true, statement that will
  mislead other characters.

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Dramatic Irony

• When the audience is aware of information that
  the characters are unaware of
• (When we (the readers) know something a character
  doesnt know)

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Theme

• The central message or lesson of a story (the
  main idea)
• Should be something the reader can apply to their
  own lives

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Symbol/Symbolism

• Using an object or repetitive theme to represent
  a larger idea
• (An object that stands for something else)
• Example
• Wedding rings
• A cross
• Skull and crossbones

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Point of view

• The perspective from which a story is told
• Whose voice is telling the story?
• How do they feel about the story theyre telling?
• What is their relationship to the events of the
  story?

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First Person Point of View

• Story told from the view of someone involved in
  the storys events
• Will use I, Me, My, We and Us to refer
  to his or her own involvement

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Third Person Point of View

• When a story is told from the view of someone who
  did not take an active role in the story
• Two types of third person POV
• Limited can only give perspective with thoughts
  and feelings of one character
• Omniscient an all-knowing, God-like
  perspective can tell thoughts and feelings of
  all characters at any time past or present

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Genre

• Different types of literature

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Allusion

• A reference to something famous or familiar from
  history, culture, literature, music, etc.
• Can be a direct mention or an indirect reference
  to

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Mood

• Vibe or feeling you get from the story
• Can be determined by descriptions of the settings
  and characters or the authors choice of words

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Flashback

• A scene that interrupts the present action of the
  plot to flash backward and tell what happened at
  an earlier time.