The Elements of Fiction

1
The Elements of Fiction

• Ms. Botelho
• Adapted from
• http//www.readwritethink.org/materials/lit-elemen
  ts/overview/

2
What is fiction?

• Narrative stories.
• Can be based on fact or can be entirely imagined.
• Novels, short stories, and even some poems.

3
Elements of Fiction

• Any piece of fiction has all of the following
  elements (6ish)
• Setting
• Characters
• Plot
• Point of View
• Theme
• (Symbolismusually, but not always)

4
Setting

• The where and when of a story.
• This includes the time period, geographic
  location, socio-economic characteristics of the
  location, and specifics about the location.

5
Setting

• Used to tell the readers about the characters.
• Used to set the atmosphere for the story.
• At the most remote end of the crypt there
  appeared another less spacious. Its walls had
  been lined with human remains, piled to the vault
  overhead, in the fashion of the great catacombs
  of Paris. Three sides of this interior crypt were
  still ornamented in this manner. From the fourth
  side the bones had been thrown down, and lay
  promiscuously upon the earth, forming at one
  point a mound of some size.
• From The Cask of Amontillado

6
Characters

• People, animals, or things appearing as
  characters (such as the sea or a storm)
  in a literary work.
• Round characters convincing, true to life. Many
  different, and sometimes contradictory,
  personality traits.
• Dynamic characters undergo some type of change
  or development in the story, often because of
  something that happens to them.

7
Characters

• Flat characters shallow, stereotypical, often
  symbolic. Have only 1 or 2 personality traits.
• Static characters do not change through the
  course of a story.
• Protagonist main character in a literary work
  (usually, but not always, the good guy).
• Antagonist character who opposes the
  protagonist.

8
Methods of Characterization

• Direct author develops the personality of a
  character through direct statements.
• Jack had been in basic training in Florida and
  Dottie was there on vacation with her parents.
  Theyd met on the beach and struck up a
  conversation. Dottie was the talker, the
  outgoing onethe extrovert. Jack was too shy
  around girls to say much at all.
• From Furlough1944 by Harry Mazer

9
Methods of Characterization

• Indirect revealing a characters personality
  through the characters thoughts, words, or
  actions, the characters physical description, or
  what others say about the character.
• Earlier that day, dressing in his own dwelling,
  he had practiced the kind of jaunty, self-assured
  walk that he hoped he could make to the stage
  when his turn came. All of that was forgotten
  now. He simply willed himself to stand, to move
  his feet that felt weighted and clumsy, to go
  forward
• From The Giver, by Lois Lowry

10
Plot

• Literary element that describes the structure of
  the story.
• Shows arrangement of events and actions within a
  story.
• Components (5)
• Exposition
• Rising Action
• Climax
• Falling Action
• Resolution

11
Plot

• Each plot has some type of conflict.
• 4 types
• Man vs. man (external)
• Man vs. society (external)
• Man vs. nature (external)
• Man vs. himself (internal)

12
Point of View

• Perspective from which the story is told.
• 3 types
• 3rd Person/ Omniscient (all-knowing)
• Author is telling the story (them, they) .
• 2nd Person/ Limited Omniscient
• A character involved in the plot is telling the
  story (we, you).
• 1st Person
• Told by one of the characters, seen only through
  his/her eyes (I, me, us).

13
Theme

• The central idea or message in the story.
• Sometimes referred to as the moral of the
  story.
• Usually tells something about humans and life.
• Can be stated directly or implied through
  events/actions in the story.
• Common themes love, death, hate, war, beauty,
  nature, etc.

14
Symbolism

• A symbol represent an idea, quality, or concept
  larger than itself.
• Can be objects, colors, or even people.
• Redlove, anger, blood/death
• Red roselove, passion
• Whiteclean, new, innocence
• White dovepeace White snownewness, innocence
• Butterflies, flowerslife, nature, renewal
• Swordbattle, strength, courage