Elements of the Short Story

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Elements of the Short Story
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Voice

• A story is only as strong as the voices telling
  it The only voice a story never needs is the
  authors . Characters need to speak for
  themselves in their own distinct voices
  Particularly in a short story, every word they
  speak needs to sounds like the speaker and move
  the story along.
• - Richard Peck (1936-)

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Point of View

• The angle or perspective from which the story is
  told
• Who is telling the story?
• For instance, is it a player on the home team or
  someone watching the game?
• How do we know what is happening?
• For instance, does a character tell us?

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First Person Point of View

• Told from the viewpoint of one of the characters,
  using the first person pronoun I.
• Innocent Eye The story is told through the eyes
  of a child (his/her judgment being different from
  that of an adult).
• Stream of Consciousness The story is told so
  that the reader feels as if they are inside the
  head of one character and knows all their
  thoughts and reactions.

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• The thousands of injuries of Fortunato I had
  borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon
  insult I vowed revenge. You, who so well know the
  nature of my soul, will not suppose, however,
  that I give utterance to a threat.
• The Cask of Amontillado
• by Edgar Allan Poe

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Third Person Point of View

• The story is told using a narrator who is located
  outside of the action of the story and uses third
  person pronouns such as he, she, his,
  her, they etc.
• Third Person Point of View can be broken up into
  three different types
• Omniscient
• Limited Omniscient
• Objective

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Omniscient Point of View

• The narrator has the power to show the reader
  what is happening though a number of characters
  eyes.
• Myop carried a short knobby stick. She struck
  out at random at chickens she liked, and worked
  out the beat of a song on the fence around the
  pigpen. She felt light and good in the warm sun.
  She was ten, and nothing existed for her but her
  son, the stick she clutched in her dark brown
  hand, and the tat-de-ta-ta-ta of accompaniment.
• The Flowers by Alice Walker

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Limited Omniscient Point of View

• Third person, told from the viewpoint of a
  character in the story.
• They all laughed, and while they were laughing,
  the quiet boy moved his bare foot on the sidewalk
  and merely touched, brushed against a number of
  red ants that were scurrying about on the
  sidewalk. Secretly his eyes shining, while his
  parents chatted with the old man, he saw the ants
  hesitate, quiver, and lie still on the cement. He
  sensed they were cold now.
• Fever Dream by Ray Bradbury

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Objective Point of View

• Third person, told as if from a camera that
  follows the characters. Only what is said and
  done is recorded. The reader is never allowed
  into any of the characters minds, nor given any
  of their feelings or emotions.
• The officers of artillery, in smart blue
  uniforms faced with black velvet and gold, were
  solidly banked across one end of the audience
  hall, with flashing new swords and their
  gilt-braided hats stiffly held under their arms.
  From the door of that chamber, around the
  gallery, down the state staircase, across the
  grandiose inner court of the palace, and out
  through the imposing gates to the street, stood a
  double line of soldiers, with their rifles at
  present arms. Four regimental bands grouped in
  one wedged in the crowd. The people of the
  capital were massed in solid thousands on the
  Plaza de Armas before the palace..
• from Insurgent Mexico, by John Reed

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Characters

• Characters can be
• Human
• Animals
• Inanimate objects
• A short story only has room for a few characters

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Two Types of Characterization

• 1) Direct Characterization The author develops
  the personality of a character by direct
  statements.

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Direct Characterization

• 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
  one the extrovert. Jack was too shy around
  girls to say much at all.
• Furlough 1944 by Harry Mazer

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• 2) Indirect Characterization Revealing a
  characters personality through
• The characters thoughts, words, and actions
• The comments of other characters
• The characters physical appearance

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Indirect Characterization through Thoughts

• Moonbeam closed his eyes and pretended to sleep
  the rest of the way to Bamfield. He couldnt
  believe what he had gotten himself into. How had
  this happened? Hed never held a gun in his life,
  much less gone hunting for animals.
• Moonbeam Dawson and the Killer Bear
• by Jean Okimoto

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Indirect Characterization through Words

• It was Kenny Griffen, smiling complacently.
  Miss Bird sent me after you cause you been gone
  six years. Youre in trouble yer constipated!
  Kenny chortled gleefully. Waitll I tell
  Caaathy!
• Here There Be Tygers by Stephen King

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Indirect Characterization through Actions

• The boy held his breath he wondered whether
  his father would hear his heart beating Through
  a crack in the counter he could see his father
  where he stood, one hand held to his high stiff
  collar
• I Spy by Graham Greene

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Indirect Characterization through Appearance

• Miss Kinney was young and blonde and bouncy and
  had a boyfriend who picked her up after school in
  a blue Camaro.
• Here There Be Tygers by Stephen King

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Setting

• The setting is the place and time where the story
  takes place.
• In a short story, the setting is often set in one
  central place and happens over a brief period of
  time.

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SettingCan be used to tell readers about the
characters

• That evening T.J. smelled the air, his nostrils
  dilating with the odor of the earth under his
  feet. Its spring, he said, and there was
  gladness rising in his voice that filled us all
  with the same feeling.
• Its mighty late for it, but its spring We
  were all sniffing at the air, too, trying to
  smell it the way that T.J. did, and I can still
  remember the sweet odor of the earth under our
  feet. It was the first time in my life that
  spring and spring earth had meant anything to me.
  

Antaeus by Borden Deal
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SettingCan be used to set the atmosphere for the
story

• During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless
  day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds
  hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been
  passing alone, on horseback, though a singularly
  dreary tract of country.
• The Fall of the House of Usher
• by Edgar Allan Poe

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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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Conflict

• Protagonist The central character
• Antagonist A villain or anyone who stands in the
  protagonists way and must be defeated.

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Conflict

• A short story cant afford to have any subplots
  or sub-conflicts because it doesnt have the
  space to develop them. It has one conflict that
  it follows through to the end.
• There are two types of conflict
• 1) External - A struggle with a force outside
  one's self.
• 2) Internal - A struggle within one's self a
  person must make some decision, overcome pain,
  quiet their temper, resist an urge, etc.

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Conflict

• There are four kinds of conflict 1) Human vs.
  Human (physical) - The leading character
  struggles with his physical strength against
  other men, forces of nature, or animals.
• 2) Human vs. Circumstances (classical) - The
  leading character struggles against fate, or the
  circumstances of life facing him/her.
• 3) Human vs. Society (social) - The leading
  character struggles against ideas, practices, or
  customs of other people.
• 4) Human vs. Himself/Herself (psychological) -
  The leading character struggles with
  himself/herself with his/her own soul, ideas of
  right or wrong, physical limitations, choices,
  etc.

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Plot

• Plot is how the author arranges events to
  develop his/her basic idea. It is the sequence of
  events in a story or play. The plot is a planned,
  logical series of events having a beginning,
  middle and end.

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Plot Components

• Introduction The start of the story, the
  situation before the action starts
• Rising Action The series of conflicts and crisis
  in the story that lead to the climax
• Climax / Turning Point The most intense moment
  either mentally or in action the reader wonders
  what will happen next will the conflict be
  resolved or not?
• Falling Action The events and complications
  begin to resolve themselves. (The events between
  the climax and the resolution)
• Resolution The untangling of events in the story
• Conclusion Leaves the reader with a feeling of
  completion and satisfaction and in some cases
  brings the reader back to the beginning (full
  circle)

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Mood

• The atmosphere or feeling in a work of fiction is
  its mood
• The writer creates the mood through setting,
  characters, and descriptive details
• Ex. funny, frightening, romantic, or adventurous
• Short stories usually only have one mood

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Theme

• The theme of a short story is simply its meaning.
  It is the main idea explored in the story by the
  writer. It answers the question What did you
  learn about the human condition or human nature?
• The writer can EXPLICITLY write about the theme
  through the story idea, or the writer can
  IMPLICTLY suggest the theme through the setting,
  plot, conflict, change in the mind or actions of
  the main character.

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• Some techniques to use in narratives.

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SymbolismA symbol represents an idea, quality,
or concept larger than itself.

• A lion can be
• a symbol of courage
• A red rose
• can
• represent
• love

• A journey can symbolize life
• Water may represent cleanliness
• and renewal

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Flashback

• This is a writers technique in which the author
  interrupts the plot of the story to recreate an
  incident of an earlier time (goes back in time
  like giving the reader a memory).  This device is
  often used to provide additional information to
  the reader.

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Foreshadowing

• This is a writers technique in which the author
  provides clues or hints as to what is going to
  happen later in the story.  Its like the music
  in a scary movie when we know that something bad
  is about to happen.