Literary Elements

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Story Elements
Lisa Campbell Lilburn Elementary
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Parts of a story

• Setting
• Exposition (history)
• Characters
• Sequence
• Plot
• Conflict (problem)
• Climax (decisive moment)
• Resolution (solution)

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Setting

• Era
• Scenery
• Time of Day
• Time of Year
• Weather
• Mood

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Why bother with setting?

• Create a mood
• Make action seem more real
• Begin forming a source of conflict

Taken from The Day the Sun Came Out by D.
Johnson
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Exposition

• This is the background information on the
  characters and setting explained at the beginning
  of the story
• It is information about things that happened
  before the story began

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Characters

• Characters can be
• people
• animals
• major characters
• minor characters

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Elements of Character

• Major character (the I guy)
• You know lots about him, and what makes him
  tick.
• Minor character (friends, relatives)
• You dont know much about them or their
  motivations

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Analyzing Characters

• appearance
• personality
• background/personal history
• motivation
• relationships
• conflict

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Sequence
The sequence is the order of events in a story
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Plot

• all the events in story

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Parts of a Plot

• Introduction, or opening situation
• Exposition, Setting
• Development of conflict
• Climax or highest point of interest or suspense
  of story
• Resolution- when conflict ends

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Diagram of Plot
Climax
Development/Rising Action
Resolution
Introduction
Opening situation
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Techniques of Plot

• Suspense- excitement or tension
• Foreshadowing- hint or clue about what will
  happen in story
• Flashback- interrupts the normal sequence of
  events to tell about something that happened in
  the past
• Surprise Ending- conclusion that reader does not
  expect

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Conflict

• Conflict is a struggle between opposing forces
• Every plot must contain some kind of conflict
• Stories can have more than one conflict

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External orinternal conflict

• External conflict
• outside force may be person, group, animal,
  nature, or a nonhuman obstacle
• Internal conflict
• takes place in a characters mind

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Climax

• The turning point in the story
• The most exciting part, when the plot changes

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Resolution

• The resolution is the end of the story
• It is when you learn what happens to the
  characters after the conflict is resolved

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Bibliography

• http//www.learner.org/interactives/story/cinderel
  la.html
• http//members.tripod.com/dscorpio/images/literary
  _elements.ppt