5 Plot Elements

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5 Plot Elements
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Teaching Plot Structure Through Short Stories
Plot is the literary element that shows the
arrangement of events and actions within a story.
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Types of Linear Plots

• Plots can be told in

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Plot Components
Climax the turning point, the most intense
momenteither mentally or in action
Rising Action the series of conflicts and crisis
in the story that lead to the climax
Falling Action all of the action which follows
the climax
Exposition the start of the story where
characters and the conflict is introduced.
Resolution the conclusion, the tying together of
all of the threads
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Plot in Aladdin
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Conflict

• Conflict is the dramatic struggle between two
  forces in a story. Without conflict, there is no
  plot.

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Types of Conflict
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Setting

• The time and place of a storys events.

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Characters

• The people, animals, or other beings that take
  part in the stories events/plot.
• Protagonist The main character in a story
• Antagonist A character or force in conflict with
  the main character

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Shrek Characters

• Protagonist Shrek
• Antagonist Lord Farquaad (stands in his
  waykills ogres and tries to keep Shrek and Fiona
  apart.
• Some Personality Traits
• Loyal, humorous, selfish, conceited, kind,
  arrogant.
• Personality is revealed through what the
  character says and does. Often, characters grow
  and change in a story.

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Theme

• The message/lesson the
• story conveys
• What are the big ideas? What lesson can be
  learned?
• Shrek accepting oneself, true beauty is not
  external

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Point of view who is telling the story
First person a person inside the story is
telling it
Major or minor a main or minor character is
telling it
Pronouns I, my, we, us, me are clues for a first
person pt. of view told from the character.
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Point of view
Third person a person outside of the story is
telling it
Pronouns He, she, it, they, them, those are
clues for 3rd person since story is from someone
elses perspective.
Limited omniscient we follow around one or two
characters knowing what they do and think. It is
limited because it is not the thoughts of all
characters but one or two.
Omniscient All knowing Reader is told what
all characters think/feel.
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Point of View
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Other terms

• tone the authors attitude toward the work
  (happy, sad, scary, suspenseful)
• mood the emotional effect created by a work
• Edgar Allen Poes stories create a
  scary/intense/feeling in the reader

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Tone Vs. Mood
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Symbolism

• symbol something stands for a concept larger
  than itself
• standard or cultural symbols
• author-created symbols
• Innocence
• America/Democracy/Freedom
• Peace

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More terms

• Foreshadowing hints or clues of what is to come
• Imagery painting pictures with words
• Style/Diction the authors word choice.
• S.E. Hinton uses a lot of slang to make The
  Outsiders more realistic to teenage talk.

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What is foreshadowing?