Story%20Element%20Notes

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Story Element Notes
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Plot

• The process of the resolution of conflict.
• Requires a conflict.
• Character in action.

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Conflict

• The main problem of the story
• Does not always have to be a bad thing
• Characters in opposition to each other.

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Types of External and Internal Conflict

• Character vs. character
• Character vs. society
• Character vs. fate, destiny, or God
• Character vs. nature
• Character vs. self

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Plot Chart
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Character

• People or animals who take part in the action of
  a literary work.

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Character created by

• What they say (dialogue)
• What they do (actions)
• What they think (interior monologue)
• What others say about them
• Authors direct statement

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Types of Characters

• Flat--author emphasizes a single important trait
• Round--author presents a complex, fully-rounded,
  three-dimensional character
• Static--a character that changes little over the
  course of a narrative
• Dynamic--a character that does change over the
  course of a narrative

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Setting

• The historical time and place and the social
  circumstances that create the world in which
  characters live.
• Global vs. immediate setting

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Setting Revealed Through

• Geographic location
• Cultural backdrop/social context/time period
• Artificial environment
• Props

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Irony

• A literary device that uses contradictory
  statements or situations to reveal a reality
  different from what appears to be true

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Types of Irony

• Situational--an incongruity between what is
  expected to happen and what actually happens.
• Verbal--when a person says one thing but means
  the opposite.
• Sarcasm--a form of verbal irony meant to hurt or
  criticize
• Dramatic--when a reader or audience understands
  something that a character does not

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Point of View

• The perspective from which the author tells the
  story (Who is telling the story?)
• Author vs. narrator

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1st Person POV - Participant

• First person pronouns are used to tell the story.
  (I, me, my, we, us, our)
• The narrator could be the major character in the
  story (the story is told by and is mainly about
  the narrator)
• The narrator as a minor character (the narrator
  tells a story that focuses on someone else, but
  the narrator is still a character in the story.

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3rd Person POV Non participant

• Third person pronouns are used to tell the story.
  (He, him, she, her, they, them.)
• Omniscient narrator The author can enter the
  minds of all the characters.
• Limited Omniscient The author limits his
  omniscience to the minds of a few characters.
• Objective Narrator The author does not enter a
  single mind.

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Symbolism

• The use of any object, person, place, or action
  that has a meaning in itself while standing for
  something larger than itself, such as a quality,
  attitude, belief, or value.

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Types of Symbols

• Universal--a symbol that is common to all mankind
  
• Contextual--a symbol used in a particular way by
  an individual author.

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Tone Mood

• Tone the speakers or authors attitude toward
  the subject, which is revealed by the authors
  choice of diction, imagery, figurative language,
  details, and syntax.
• Mood the feeling the writer creates for the
  readers

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Theme

• The message of a literary work the idea that the
  author wishes to convey about a subject and
  expressed as a sentence or general statement
  about life or human nature.