Literary Elements
Setting, Theme, Plot, Point of View
I. Setting
A. The time and place of a story, poem, or
play.
B. The setting can help create mood or
atmosphere.
C. The setting can also affect the events of
the plot.
Setting
D. In some stories, the conflict is provided
by the setting. This happens in “The Dog
of Pompeii” when the characters’ lives are
threatened by a volcano.
II. Theme
A. The truth about life revealed in a work of
literature. It is a lesson or moral that the
author wants to teach you through the plot
of the story.
B. A theme is not the same as a subject. A
subject can usually be expressed in a
word or two.
C. A theme is the idea the author wished to
reveal about that subject.
Theme
D. A theme has to be expressed in a full
sentence.
E. A work can have more than one theme.
F. A theme is not usually stated directly in
the work. Instead the reader has to think
about the elements of the work and then
make an inference about what they all
mean.
Theme
• Think about the story “Charlotte’s Web”.
• What theme or themes do you think the
author is trying to get across to the
reader?
III.Plot
A. The series of related events that make up
a story.
B. Plot tells “what happens” in a short story,
novel, play, or narrative poem.
Plot
C. Most plots are built around the following
elements:
1. Introduction = Exposition Rising Action
2. Complications arise as the characters take
steps to resolve the conflict
3. Climax- gives a hint of how the problem will
be solved
4. Falling Action- the part of the story that
follows the climax.
5. Resolution- problems are resolved
IV. Point of View
A. The vantage point from which the a story
is told.
B. There are two common points of view:
1. 1st Person POV – one of the characters from
the story is telling the story. Uses the pronoun
I. All information about the story must come
from this one narrator.
2. 3rd Person POV – the narrator is NOT a
character in the story.
V. Characters
A. Believable personalities in a story
B. They do NOT have to be people or
animals.
VI. Conflict
A. Conflicts are problems that occur in the
story.
External vs. Internal
External
Internal
External Conflict takes place
outside of the body
Internal Conflict takes place
inside of the body/mind
Five Types of Conflict
1. Person vs person (external)
2. Person vs Nature (external)
3. Person vs. Society (external)
4. Person vs. technology (external)
5. Person vs Self (internal)