elements of short stories - shannon hayes--english...
TRANSCRIPT
…ACCORDING TO MS. HAYES AND HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON
Elements of Short Stories
HOW DO YOU DEFINE A SHORT STORY?
A story that is short, right? Come on, you can
do better than that.
It is a piece of prose that can be read at one
time.
What is prose, you may ask. Prose is ordinary
writing, like in a paragraph. It is the opposite of
poetry and doesn’t have rhyme and meter.
Remember: writing is divided into two
categories: poetry and prose.
CHARACTERIZATION Characterization:
the act of creating and
then developing those
characters
Two Types:
Direct
Indirect
DIRECT CHARACTERIZATION
Always a direct comment from the narrator
From “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Poe
TRUE! nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and
am.
From “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry
Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham
Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim's
gold watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's.
The other was Della's hair.
INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION
Judgments by the reader based on a
character’s speech
and actions
Judgments based on how the
character looks and dresses
I will decimate
anyone who
stands in my way!
INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION 2 Letting the reader hear the character’s inner
thoughts and feelings
Revealing what other characters in the story
think or say about a character From Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol:
"I have no patience with him," observed Scrooge's niece. Scrooge's niece's sisters, and all the other
ladies, expressed the same opinion.
"Oh, I have," said Scrooge's nephew. "I am sorry for him; I couldn't be angry with him if I tried. Who suffers
by his ill whims? Himself, always. Here, he takes it into his head to dislike us, and he won't come and dine
with us. What's the consequence? He don't lose much of a dinner."
Nerve, nerve,
nerve…I must
keep my wits.
TYPES OF CHARACTERS
Protagonist
Antagonist
Round
Flat
Dynamic
Static
Subordinate
PROTAGONIST
The main character
Story focuses on this character
Usually a good guy, but not always
ANTAGONIST The character opposite the protagonist
When you antagonize someone you annoy them,
so the antagonist annoys the protagonist or
causes conflict.
Just like the protagonist is not always the good
guy, the antagonist is not always a villain.
BTW--
This is
the old
man
from
“The
Tell-Tale
Heart”.
MORE CHARACTER TYPES
ROUND CHARACTERS FLAT CHARACTERS
These characters show many
different traits.
Usually a major character
Characters we come to know,
like real people
These characters show
only one or two traits.
Commonly stereotypes
The nagging wife
The hyperactive child
The troublemaker
The mean librarian
MORE CHARACTER TYPES
DYNAMIC CHARACTERS STATIC CHARACTERS
Characters who experience
an emotional growth due to
the story’s events
These characters usually
learn a lesson related to the
story’s theme.
These characters, on the
other hand, do not
experience emotional growth
or change.
They stay basically the same.
The story’s events have not
taught them a lesson.
Dying does not count as a
change.
SUBORDINATE CHARACTERS
These are the characters who are needed to
add depth and complication to the plot, but
they are not main characters.
MOTIVATION the driving force behind a character’s actions
SETTING Time and place of story
Season Time, date,
or year
Geographical
location
Time Period
or Era Weather
Economic
Atmosphere
Social or Cultural
Atmosphere
MOOD A story’s atmosphere
The feeling the story evokes in the reader
Strongly influenced by setting
eerie
joyous
peaceful
POINT OF VIEW The relationship of the
narrator to the story and what the reader sees from that vantage point
Types First person
Third person limited
Third person omniscient
Third person objective
FIRST-PERSON NARRATOR •The narrator is a character in
the story.
•The readers sees only what
this character observes and
feels.
•He or she is commonly the
protagonist.
•Refers to himself or herself
with the first-person
pronouns, such as I, me, my,
mine, our(s), we, and us
UNRELIABLE NARRATOR Untrustworthy
As the reader, you are
not sure that you can
believe everything the
narrator tells you.
Especially true with first-
person because the
reader gets one side of
the story
First person narration
includes bias and
opinion.
HOWEVER, some first-person
narrators are reliable; as the
reader, you must decide based on
the evidence in the story.
THIRD-PERSON LIMITED Narrator is outside of the
story.
Narrator is limited to
focusing on the internal
thoughts and emotions of
one character at a time.
Technically, this means the
narration can shift from one
character to another.
Uses the third-person
pronouns he, she, him, or
her
Ernest Hemingway's The Old
Man and the Sea
“Then he looked behind him
and saw that no land was
visible. That makes no
difference, he thought. I can
always come in on the glow
from Havana.”
THIRD-PERSON OMNISCIENT
Omniscient is Latin for all-knowing.
Narrator is outside of the story.
Narrator can focus on the thoughts of many characters and their situations.
Sort of like an eye that can see into any aspect of the story that he or she chooses
THIRD-PERSON OBJECTIVE The narrator is totally outside
of the story and relates only what he sees or hears.
He doesn’t know any of the characters’ thoughts and feelings.
Like a reporter, telling the story without judgment, just giving the facts
Like a fly on the wall
Some literary examples:
“Young Goodman Brown”
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
“The Lottery”
by Shirley Jackson
“Animal Farm”
by George Orwell
TONE The author’s attitude
toward his or her work
Tone is conveyed through
the author’s word choice.
Somber
Sentimental
Optimistic
Nostalgic
Regretful
Gloomy
Critical
Contemplative
Objective
Vengeful
Reminiscent
Thoughtful
Restrained
Ridiculing
Wrathful
Sarcastic
Neutral
Sympathetic
Unsympathetic
PLOT Plot: A series of events through which the writer reveals
what is happening, to whom it happens, and why
Broken down into five major sections:
Exposition
Rising action
Climax
Falling action
Resolution (or to those more refined, the denouement)
PARTS OF THE PLOT Exposition—beginning of the story; background info;
sets scene for characters and conflict; exposition “exposes”
Rising Action—events leading to climax
Climax—moment of greatest emotional intensity; the point during which the conflict will be decided; very close to the end of the story
Falling Action—Results of climax; events leading to resolution
Resolution or Denouement—the outcome of the conflict, i.e. they lived happily ever after
CONFLICT
Conflict: A struggle between opposing forces, be it man, woman, child, beast, crazy townspeople, or a two-ton iceberg
CONFLICTS
Man vs. Man-external
struggle between two or more individuals
Man vs. Himself—internal struggle concerning
emotion and decision
Jack or Cal….Cal or
Jack?
What will I do with that nice
old man who happens to be
blind in one eye?
To be or not to be…
that is the question.
CONFLICT Man vs. Environment
An external struggle between man and an element of his
surroundings (not necessarily nature)
CONFLICT Man vs. society—an external struggle between
man an element of his culture’s traditions, beliefs,
government, values, customs, etc.
SUBJECTS VS. THEMES Subjects are the words that
immediately come to your mind as topics broached in a story.
Subjects are brief, usually one word—for example, love, hate, jealousy, revenge, war, etc.
Subjects are the words that writers use to elaborate upon to create the deeper, more abstract themes of stories.
Theme—the central message the writer is trying to reveal in his or her work;
Always ask yourself as the reader: “What message is this author trying to convey to me?”
Theme shows a generalized truth about human nature.
Theme is not the subject; therefore, theme is written as a complete sentence.
SUBJECT VS. THEME
Subjects
Love
Jealousy
Forgiveness
War
Themes
Love will cause people to do things they
usually wouldn’t. Jealousy causes more harm than good.
Giving forgiveness allows a person who
has been betrayed to move on with his/her life without growing bitter and cynical.
Wars often occur due to the greed of a small number of people though many more innocent people usually die.
IRONY Irony is the contrast between an expectation
and reality.
SITUATIONAL IRONY A contrast between what you would expect to
happen and what really happens
VERBAL IRONY A writer speaks or says one
thing but means something
completely different.
Sometimes verbal irony is very
obvious sarcasm, but not
always.
Other characters may or may not
understand the irony of what
another character is saying.
Yet Brutus says
[Caesar] was
ambitious, and
Brutus is an
honorable man.
Antony says this after
Brutus has killed
Caesar—his best friend.
He really believes Brutus
to be a murderer.
Well, it is so
great to see
you!
…Even though
these two are arch
nemeses.
DRAMATIC IRONY The audience or reader
knows something that
at least one character
does not.
The word “drama” helps
to remember this
because it is often
found in plays and
movies.
THE END
…and now you see what happens when a teacher is stuck at home
for a week due to snow days!