Welcome to our Short Story Unit

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Welcome to ourShort Story Unit
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Author

• The writer of a literary work or document (novel,
  short story, poem, etc.)

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Character

• A person or animal in a story, play, or other
  literary work.

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Characterization

• How an author reveals a characters personality.
  
• As readers we, whether we actually realize it or
  not, build our own perceptions of the characters.

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Direct Characterization

• Direct characterization
• the author directly tells you what the character
  is like
• As we supported him up the steps, the door
  banged open and Cheryl came bursting out of the
  house. She was all smiles and was so obviously
  glad to see Grandpa that I was ashamed of how I
  felt (Sneve 123).

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Indirect Characterization

• The author reveals the characters personality
  through
• 1 What the character says
• 2 What the character does

Bobby picks on his brother whenever his parents
arent looking.
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More Indirect Characterization

• 3 What the character feels or thinks

Bob scowled as he thought to himself Id like to
kick this machine across the room.
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Last but not least.

• 4 How other characters feel or what other
  characters say about the character
• 5 What the character looks like (physical
  appearance and clothing)

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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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Internal Conflict
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Types of External Conflict
Character vs. Fate/Destiny
Character vs. Supernatural
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Foreshadowing

• The use of clues or hints to suggest events that
  will occur later in the plot

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Mood/Atmosphere

• Overall feeling of a piece of literature.
• Can be described with one or two adjectives
  (scary, happy, sad)
• Authors often use word choice, style, and imagery
  to convey a certain feeling for the reader

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Setting

• The time and place of a story.
• Most often, the setting is described in the
  exposition (beginning) of a story.
• Setting often plays an emotional role.
• Contributes to the plot especially in character
  vs. nature conflict.

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Point of View

• The vantage point from which a story is told (who
  is telling the story)
• The three most common points of view are
• Omniscient
• Third-person limited
• First Person

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Omniscient

• The all-knowing point-of-view
• Narrator knows everything about all the
  characters and their thoughts, feelings, and
  motivations
• The omniscient narrator stands apart rather like
  a god
• This narrator is not actually part of the story
  or the action

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Third-Person Limited

• Narrator focuses on thoughts and feelings of only
  one character
• We see the story through this characters eyes
  only
• The narrator has very limited information about
  any other character other than the ONE they are
  focusing on

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First Person

• One of the characters, using the pronoun I
• We only know what this person knows
• Information may not be reliable

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Protagonist/Antagonist

• Protagonist The good guy/ usually the main
  character of the story and the person we are
  generally rooting for
• Antagonist The bad guy/ the character or
  force working against the protagonist

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Short Story

• A short fictional narrative
• Generally only have a few characters and usually
  only one setting
• Usually only one central conflict

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Suspense

• The uncertainty or anxiety that a reader feels
  about what will happen next in a story.
• Suspense is created by mood, as well as the
  following techniques
• Foreshadowing hints of whats to come
• Mystery withholding information from the
  reader unusual or bizarre circumstances
• Reversal good to bad or bad to good
• Dilemma forced to choose between two dangerous
  situations

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Symbol (ism)

• A person, place, thing, or event that has a
  deeper meaning and represents something beyond
  its literal meaning

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Theme

• The general idea or insight about life that a
  work of literature reveals.
• An idea or message the author wishes to convey
  about the subject.
• Most often themes are not stated directly.
• The reader has to think about all the elements of
  the work.

Dont mess with fate.
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Tone

• The attitude a writer takes toward his or her
  subject, characters, and/or audience
• Tone is conveyed through the authors word choice
• Tone is often times dependent upon the authors
  purpose and message
• Types of tone sarcastic, friendly, supportive,
  pleading, bitter/angry, humorous, serious, solemn

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Plot
Plot is the literary element that describes the
structure (a chain of events/the skeleton) of a
story. It shows the cause-effect relationship of
events and actions within a story.
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Plot Components
Climax the turning point, the most intense
momenteither mentally or in action reveals how
conflict will turn out
Rising Action the series of events
(complications) about the conflict in the story
that lead to the climax
Falling Action all of the action which follows
the climax
Exposition the start of the story, the
situation before the action starts setting,
characters, conflict introduced
Resolution the conclusion, the tying together of
all of the threads