Honors 9 Lecture Notes

1
Plot, Setting, Characterization

• Unit 1
• Honors 9 Lecture Notes

2
Review of Plot

• Plot
• Sequence of related events that make a story hang
  together.
• Includes characters who experience some conflict
  or problem.
• Details are filled in before, during and after
  the problem takes place.
• The story takes place within a specific span of
  time.
• A plot has five basic parts
• Exposition
• Rising Action
• Climax
• Falling Action
• Resolution

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Parts of a Plot

• Exposition
• Also called the Basic Situation
• Opening / Introduction
• Introduces a main character who wants something
  very much and who encounters a problem or
  conflict while trying to get it.
• Rising Action
• Otherwise known as the complication
• The writer develops the elements of conflict
  further, and new complications or problems arise.
  

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Parts of a Plot

• Climax
• High point of the plot
• The most exciting or suspenseful moment in the
  story
• The climax is when something happens that decides
  the outcome of the conflict.
• Falling Action
• The after-effect of the climax
• The story just begins to wind down however, the
  problems are not necessarily solved yet.
• Resolution
• Sometimes called the denouement
• The problems are resolved and the story ends.

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Plot Timing

• Sequence of events in a plot
• Most common
• Chronological Order start at the beginning and
  tell the story in the order that it happened
• However
• Other techniques can be used to manipulate time
  and control the readers feelings.
• These other techniques may help create suspense
  or dramatize a moment as well.
• Slowing time down can help accomplish this.

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Plot Timing

• Other techniques used to manipulate time
• Flashback the present action is interrupted
  with a scene or scenes from the past
• Can reveal the past life of a character or
  explain why someone is in a current situation
• Flash-forward visiting a characters future
• Foreshadowing a writer plants clues that hint
  at something that will happen later in the plot

7
Review of Setting

• Setting
• Where and when a story takes place
• Is it possible for an interesting story to have
  no setting no indication of where or when the
  action takes place?
• Yes!
• If the characters and situations are strong
  enough, they will hold our attention in empty
  space, just as a play presented on a bare stage
  could hold our interest.

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The Importance of Setting

• In real life, events occur somewhere so, fiction
  specifies a setting most of the time.
• Think of how crucial setting would be in
• a story about a prisoner
• a story about a castaway on the Pacific
• a story about a colony on Mars
• What details would you need in the setting to
  make each of the above stories a success?

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Setting, Mood, and Tone

• Setting can contribute to a storys emotional
  effect.
• Mood the storys atmosphere
• gloomy, cheerful, etc.
• A setting in the spring can give a sense of hope
  or rebirth. / A setting in the winter can give a
  sense of death.
• Tone the writers attitude toward a subject or
  character (like a tone of voice)
• mocking, tender, joyful, vindictive, etc.
• Setting details can help to reveal the tone.

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Setting and Images

• To create a believable setting or one that can
  make us feel joy, mystery, or fear, the writer
  must select the right details or images.
• Images - words or phrases that call forth a
  response from our senses (sight, smell, touch,
  hearing, and taste).
• When the writer supplies a few right images, the
  reader will fill in the rest through their
  imagination.

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Setting, Character, and Conflict

• Setting can help reveal character.
• Characters affect environment
• If the author wishes to portray an untidy
  character, he/she may show us a setting from the
  mess in their room.
• Sometimes, the setting can provide the main
  conflict.
• A group of tourists get lost in the Arctic or in
  the jungle a fight for survival.

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A Story and its Characters

• A good story
• tells us more about ourselves about how human
  beings feel and behave in any situation
• For examplewe can imagine how if feels to be a
  woman who has lived all her life on the prairie
  or, how it feels to be a soldier lying wounded on
  a battlefield.
• We connect mentally and emotionally with others
  in an attempt to understand them completely. In
  the end, we may sympathize or we may not.
• Characters
• The storys actors
• Influence of characters on readers
• When characters in a story behave in convincing
  ways, then we (the reader) believe in them,
  leading us to potentially love them or even hate
  them.
• Characterization
• Method used by a writer to develop a character

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Creating a Character

• How do writers create characters?
• Writers must decide upon the traits (special
  qualities) they want their characters to possess.
  
• Writers reveal the characters traits directly or
  indirectly.
• Direct characterization a writer simply tells
  us directly what the character is like.
• Danielle was the most serious person in the
  school. She longed for fun but was afraid of
  disappointing her very serious aunt.
• Indirect characterization a writer does not
  reveal traits directly. The reader my have to
  infer based on evidence. The writer reveals a
  characters traits in five unique ways
• Appearance
• Dialogue
• Private Thoughts
• Actions
• Effects

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Indirect Characterization

• Revealing a characters traits through
  appearance
• Danielle, tall and thin, wore her mouse-brown
  hair pulled tightly back into a ponytail. She
  always dressed in a gray skirt and blouse and
  never wore jewelry.
• This description of her appearance reveals a lot
  about Danielle. We imagine her as a quiet,
  serious, and perhaps shy person.
• Revealing a characters traits through dialogue
• Hey, Danielle, want to come with us to the
  movies tonight? Jim asked.
• Oh no, Danielle sighed. My aunt would never
  allow it. She says I have to work on my research
  paper all weekend.
• We learn even more by listening to her speak to
  other characters. She is clearly studious,
  serious, and afraid of upsetting her aunt.

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Indirect Characterization

• Revealing a characters traits through private
  thoughts
• Why cant I be like the other kids? Danielle
  moped. She pressed her nose against the window.
  Id like to be out there with everybody else
  laughing, skating and going to movies, just
  belonging.
• We learn from these private thoughts how lonely
  and isolated Danielle feels not being able to
  have fun with friends.
• This technique is especially effective if the
  narrator is the main character discovering what
  the main character wants, fears, worries about,
  etc. Its like we are eavesdropping on them
  throughout the story.

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Indirect Characterization

• Revealing characters traits through actions
• That afternoon, John ran to catch up to Danielle
  as she walked home. Hey, he called excitedly
  and tapped her on the shoulder. She flinched
  then looked away, blushing.
• By simply reading or observing these actions, we
  receive more evidence that Danielle is shy,
  slightly isolated, and lonely. She clearly is
  afraid of talking to others.
• Revealing characters traits through effects
• John, puzzled, wondered why Danielle was so upset
  by his friendly gesture.
• This reveals that Danielles actions have
  affected others around her. In this case, its
  John that is also now affected and slightly
  upset.

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Types of Characters

• Flat Character
• Two-dimensional with only one or two key
  personality traits
• Extremely stubborn
• Round Character
• Three-dimensional qualities of real life people
  with many traits and complexities
• Many times, writers include flat characters
  instead because too many round characters can be
  distracting.
• Stock Character
• Fits our preconceived notions about a
  stereotype
• As soon as we encounter a well known trait of
  theirs, we can imagine the rest of their
  personality on our own
• The mad scientist / cruel-looking villain
  twirling his waxed mustache
• Unlike real people... due to the fact that real
  people are often complex and unpredictable

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Types of Characters

• Static Character
• Does not change during the course of the story
• Are exactly the same at the beginning of the
  story and they are at the end
• Almost always subordinate characters
• Dynamic Character
• This character changes in some important way as a
  result of the storys action.
• Gained a new understanding, made an important
  decision, or taken crucial action
• The change must be believable, not some
  miraculous, magic-wand transformation that
  happens and neatly wraps up the plot.
• The change will provide a key to understanding
  the character and lend a clue to the storys
  theme (meaning).
• Capable of growing, learning or changing. The
  protagonist is almost always dynamic.

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Types of Characters

• Protagonist
• the main character that the story is focused on
• Often realistic, complicated human beings with
  just enough strengths, weaknesses and
  contradictions to remind us of ourselves.
• Propels a storys plot by wanting something and
  then setting out to get it done.
• Antagonist
• character or force that blocks the protagonist
  from achieving his/her goal.
• Not necessarily evil
• Protagonists and antagonists do not make up the
  whole story. A story will contain other
  subordinate characters (neighbors, family members
  or passing strangers) may help reveal the
  character of the protagonist or antagonist and
  may help develop the storys conflict.

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Character Interactions

• Conflict between the protagonist and the
  antagonist is what hooks the readers interest,
  creates suspense and moves along most stories
• Review
• External conflict struggle between the
  protagonist and some outside force (possible
  another character, outside force, society or a
  force of nature)
• Man vs. Man
• Man vs. Nature
• Man vs. Society
• Internal conflict protagonist wrestles with
  his/her own fear or worry or the need to make a
  decision
• Man vs. Self

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Character Interactions

• Motivations
• what makes the character tick the needs,
  reasons or conflicts that drive a character
• Conflict and Motivation work together!
• When a character is motivated to fulfill a
  certain desire and is prevented from doing to,
  conflict occurs.
• Conflict often arises when people are strongly
  motivated to influence one another

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Character Interactions in Poetry or Drama

• Dramatic Monologue
• Found in poetry
• Features a single character who addresses one or
  more silent listeners, reflecting on a specific
  problem or situation.
• From what this character says and the way it is
  said, we can infer his or her personality traits.
  
• Soliloquy
• Found in a play
• A character speaks his or her thoughts aloud
  while alone on stage often to the audience
• Shakespeares plays are filled with soliloquies.