Short Story Elements

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Short Story Elements

• English 9

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Protagonist

• The principle character in a literary work.
• Usually a good guy or hero but doesnt have to
  be.

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Antagonist

• One that contends with or opposes.
• Usually the bad guy the character that opposes
  the protagonist.

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Static Character

• A static character is one that does not change
  during the course of a story.

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Dynamic Character

• A dynamic character is one that develops and
  grows over the course of a story.

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Point of View

• The point of view from which a story is told
• First person when a character in the story tells
  the story
• Third person when a voice outside the story
  tells the story omniscient narrators are all
  knowing

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Setting

• The time and place of the action of a story.
• May include a city or state, season, year, or
  time of day.

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Conflict

• A struggle between opposing forces
• Can be internal or external
• External conflict is a struggle with an outside
  force (society, nature, another character)
• Internal conflict is a struggle a character has
  with him or herself

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Plot

• The sequence of events in a story
• Exposition
• Rising Action
• Climax
• Falling Action
• Resolution
• Plot diagram

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Theme

• A theme is a broad idea in a story, or a central
  message or lesson conveyed by a work. This
  message is usually about life, society or human
  nature.

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Foreshadowing

• Foreshadowing is a literary device in which an
  author drops subtle hints about plot developments
  to come later in the story.
• An example of foreshadowing might be when a
  character displays a gun or knife early in the
  story. Merely the appearance of a deadly weapon,
  even though it is used for an innocuous purpose
  such as being cleaned or whittling wood
  suggests terrible consequences later on.

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Symbolism

• A symbol is a person, place, thing, or action
  that stands for itself and for some other more
  complex meaning or significance. Symbols have
  literal and figurative meanings
• A watch that a character wears is literally a
  watch.
• A watch that a character wears and constantly
  plays with can figuratively represent that
  character's obsession with time.

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Irony

• Irony is a literary or rhetorical device in which
  there is a gap or incongruity between what a
  speaker or a writer says and what is generally
  understood (either at the time, or in the later
  context of history).
• Example Romeo and Juliet

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Metaphor

• Metaphors are comparisons that show how two
  things that are not alike in most ways are
  similar in one important way. Metaphors are a way
  to describe something.
• Example
• Jordan was a wall, keeping the defense from
  reaching Tyler.

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Simile

• A comparison of two or more things.
• Similes are typically marked by use of "like" or
  "as" or "than", or "resembles".
• Example
• Nates passion for music is like an obsession,
  demanding all of his time.

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Imagery

• Imagery is descriptive language that deals with
  any of the five senses (sight, touch, smell,
  hearing, and taste.)

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Mood

• Mood is the feeling created in the reader while
  reading a story.
• Scared, happy, anxious, etc
• Remember Tell-Tale Heart from 8th grade?

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The End!

• Remember to save all of your work throughout the
  short story unit. It may come in handy