Short Stories English 112 Mrs. K Prescott

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Short StoriesEnglish 112Mrs. K Prescott
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• A true short-story is something other and
  something more than a mere story which is short.
  A true short-story differs from the novel chiefly
  in its essential unity of impression. . .a
  short-story has unity as a novel cannot have
  it.... A short-story deals with a single
  character, a single event, a single emotion, or
  the series of emotions called forth by a single
  situation.--Brander Matthews, The Philosophy of
  the Short-Story.

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Elements of a Short Story

• Characters (flat, stock, round)
• Static or dynamic
• Setting
• Plot
• - exposition statement
• - inciting incident
• - rising action
• - climax
• - falling action
• - resolution
• Conflict
• Theme

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PLOT DIAGRAM
Climax
Rising Action
Conflict
Falling Action
Exposition
Resolution
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Telling the Story Points of View

• Who tells the story?
• How much does he know?
• To what extent does the author look inside his
  characters and report their thoughts and
  feelings?

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The four basic points of view are

1. Omniscient Narrator The author sees all and
   knows all. He knows the past, present and future
   of all characters and many take the reader into
   their minds to tell what they are thinking. The
   story is written in the third person.

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• 2. Limited Omniscient Narrator The author
  limits his omniscience to only one character. We
  know the thoughts and feelings of only that
  person. The story is written in the third
  person.
• 3. First Person Narrator The author becomes a
  character in the story. He know all about the
  characters past and what is happening to him at
  present, but he cannot predict the future. The
  story is written in the first person.

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• 4. Objective Narrator The author tells the
  story as though he were a combination video
  camera/tape recorder. He tells only what he sees
  and hears. We have no access to the thoughts of
  the characters. The story is written in the
  third person. (like a fly-on-the-wall)

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Literary Terms

• Allegory
• Allusion
• Antagonist
• Anti-hero
• Character foil
• Dilemma
• Flashback

• Foreshadowing
• Irony
• Plot manipulation
• Protagonist
• Symbol
• Theme

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EVOKER Method for Reading Prose, Poetry, and Drama
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• Explore
• Read the entire selection silently to gain a
  feeling for the overall message
• Vocabulary
• Note key words. Look up those words with which
  you are not familiar. Also look up unfamiliar
  places, events, and people mentioned in the
  selection

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• Oral Reading
• Read the selection aloud with good expression
• Key Ideas
• Locate key ideas in order to help you understand
  the authors organization. Be sure to determine
  the main idea or theme of a selection

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• Evaluation
• Evaluate the key words and sentences to their
  contributions to developing key ideas and the
  main idea.
• Recapitulation
• Reread the selection