Story Elements
_________
_________
_________
_____________________________________________
_________
Characters
A dynamic character:
a. changes
b. does not change
A static character:
a. changes
b. does not change
Round Characters
A round character
a. many insights are given.
b. Few insights are given
Flat Characters
A flat character
a. many insights are given.
b. Few insights are given
In most books the main character is
both _______ and _______.
a. Dynamic
b. Round
b. Static
c. Flat
Setting
The setting of a story
includes the
__________________________
in which the story takes
place. Some stories may have
more than one setting.
Setting
THE LION AND THE MOUSE by Aesop
A lion asleep in his den was wakened by a mouse running over his face. Losing his
temper, he seized it with his paw and was about to kill it. The mouse, terrified,
pleaded to the lion to spare its life. "Please let me go," it cried, "and one day I will
repay you for your kindness." The idea of so small a creature ever being able to do
anything for him amused the lion so much that he laughed aloud and let it go. But
the mouse's chance came after all. One day the lion got tangled in a net. The
mouse heard the lion’s roars of distress and ran to help. Without hesitation it set
to work to gnaw the ropes with its teeth and succeeded before long in setting the
lion free. "There!" said the mouse, “You laughed at me when I promised I would
repay you, but now you see that even a mouse can help a lion."
What is the most likely setting for this fable?
A.
B.
C.
D.
a zoo
a savannah
a desert
a swamp
First-Person Point of View
In the first-person point of view one
character tells the story. This character reveals
only personal thoughts and feelings of what
s/he sees. The writer uses pronouns such as
"I“, "me“, “mine”, or "my".
Example:
I woke up this morning feeling terrific. I
hopped out of bed excited to start the new
day. I knew that today was the day my big
surprise would come.
Second-Person Point of View
With the second-person point of view the
narrator tells the story using the pronoun
"you". The character is someone similar to
you.
Example:
You wake up feeling really terrific. Then you
hop out of bed excited to start the new day.
You know that today is the day that your big
surprise will come.
This is rarely used in literature. It can be seen
in Choose Your Own Adventure books.
Third-Person Point of View
The third-person point of view is the most
commonly used in fiction. When writing in the
third-person you will use pronouns such as
"he", "she", or "it".
Example:
Brian woke up feeling terrific. He hopped out
of bed excited to start the new day. He knew
that today was the day that his big surprise
would come.
1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View
Excerpt from Woodsong by Gary Paulsen
I go up to the front of the team in the
darkness and drag them around, realizing we
are lost. My clothes have been ripped on tree
limbs and my face is bleeding from cuts, and
when I look back down the side of the
mountain we have just climbed I see twentyseven head lamps bobbing up the trail.
Twenty-seven teams have taken our smell as
the valid trail and are following us. Twentyseven teams must be met head on in the
narrow brush and passed and told to turn
around.
1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View
Excerpted from Soldier's Heart by Gary Paulsen
There would be a shooting war. There were rebels who
had violated the law and fired on Fort Sumter and the
only thing they'd respect was steel, it was said, and he
knew they were right, and the Union was right, and one
other thing they said as well--if a man didn't hurry he'd
miss it. The only shooting war to come in a man's life and
if a man didn't step right along he'd miss the whole thing.
Charley didn't figure to miss it. The only problem was that
Charley wasn't rightly a man yet, at least not to the army.
He was fifteen and while he worked as a man worked, in
the fields all of a day and into night, and looked like a
man standing tall and just a bit thin with hands so big
they covered a stove lid, he didn't make a beard yet and
his voice had only just dropped enough so he could talk
with men.
Excerpted from Soldier's Heart
by Gary Paulsen
Third-Person Point of View
Practice
Number your paper from 1 – 10.
1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View
1. Excerpted from Father Water, Mother
Woods by Gary Paulsen
It started that simply. At the courthouse or the
library there was a large bulletin board, and for a
dollar you could sign the board and write down
your guess to win the car-through-the-ice
raffle. Of course, you never met anyone who had
won, but only those who knew somebody who
had won, and therein, in the winning, the
simplicity was lost.
1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View
2. Excerpted from Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen
A
"Tonight we just do A." He sat back on his heels and pointed.
"There it be."
it?"
I looked at it, wondered how it stood. "Where's the bottom to
"There it stands on two feet, just like you."
"What does it mean?"
"It means A--just like I said. It's the first letter in the alphabet.
And when you see it you make a sound like this: ayyy, or ahhhh."
"That's reading? To make that sound?"
He nodded. "When you see that letter on paper or a sack or in
the dirt you make one of those sounds. That's reading."
1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View
3. Excerpted from Caught by the Sea by Gary
Paulsen
I drove to California that very day, straight to the
coast, then north, away from people, to a small
town named Guadalupe, near Santa Maria. There
I bought some cans of beans and bread and
Spam and fruit cocktail and a cheap sleeping bag
and then walked out through the sand dunes,
where I could hear the surf crashing. I walked
until I could see the water coming in, rolling in
from the vastness, and I sat down and let the sea
heal me.
6. Choose the sentence that is written using a first
person point of view.
A. While walking home, he tripped and fell into a puddle
of water.
B. I believe that it’s important for students to be involved
in after school activities.
C. The City Council should reconsider its recent vote on a
tax increase.
D. Citizens need to exercise their right to vote in the next
election.
1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View
4. Excerpted from Guts by Gary Paulsen
I have spent an inordinate amount of time in
wilderness woods, much of it in northern
Minnesota, some in Canada and some in the
Alaskan wilds. I have hunted and trapped and
fished and have been exposed to almost all kinds
of wilderness animals; I’ve had bear come at me,
been stalked by a mountain lion, been bitten by
snakes and punctured by porcupines and torn by
foxes and once pecked by an attacking raven, but
I have never seen anything rivaling the madness
that seems to infect a large portion of the moose
family.
1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View
5. Excerpted from Winterkill by Gary Paulsen
And I would like to stop the story of Duda here
and tell how he got his divorce and married
Bonnie and they adopted me and we bought a
farm . . . . That's how it would end in a movie,
with Rock Hudson playing Duda and Doris Day
playing Bonnie, and that's how it should end, and
that's how I dream of it ending almost every
night, until I wake up sweating and remember
that it isn't a movie and it doesn't end that way.
7. Choose the sentence that is written using a third
person point of view.
A.Several of their players have signed scholarships to play
college football.
B. You should know better than to send a text message
while driving!
C. We need to take our time on this project; we could
both use a good grade.
D. The red car with the black convertible top is mine.
8. Choose the sentence that is written using a first
person point of view.
A.You need to do your best on the English test tomorrow.
B. Would you please pass the mashed potatoes?
C. Softball is my favorite sport, but soccer is a close
second.
D. Darrell went to the movies with John this weekend.
9. Determine the point of view of the following
passage.
Walking home, I heard someone running behind
me. I was frightened. A tall man ran by me. He
raced to an emergency police phone and frantically
began pushing buttons. The man brushed sweat
from his forehead and then noticed me standing
there. “Hurry,” he began, “we need to get out of
here quickly. There’s been an accident at the plant.”
What point of view is used in this passage?
A.first person
B. second person
C. third person
D. fourth person
10. Read the following excerpt from O. Henry’s
The Ransom of Red Chief and determine the point
of view.
“IT LOOKED like a good thing: but wait till I tell
you. We were down South, in Alabama -- Bill
Driscoll and myself -- when this kidnapping idea
struck us. It was, as Bill afterward expressed it,
"during a moment of temporary mental apparition";
but we didn't find that out till later.”
A.first person
B. second person
C. third person
D. fourth person
Answer Key with Point of View
1. From Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli - third person limited
2. From From the Mixed-Up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E. L.
Konigsburg - third person limited
3. From The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois - first person
4. From Number the Stars by Lois Lowry - third person limited
5. From Missing May by Cynthia Rylant - first person
6. From The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis - third person
omniscient
7. From I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou - first person
8. From The Olympic Games by Theodore Knight - third person limited
9. From “Through the Tunnel” by Doris Lessing - third person omniscient
10. From “Pictures on a Rock” by Brent Ashabranner - third person limited
Conflict
Conflict is the struggle between the
opposing force.
Some forms of conflict
include the following:
•Person vs. _______
•Person vs. _______
•Person vs. _______
•Person vs. _______
1. A person vs. person conflict is
between two people.
2. In a person vs. self conflict the
main character has a problem within
him/herself.
3. In a person vs. the environment
conflict a character is struggling
against the forces of nature.
4. Person vs. Technology- In a person
vs. technology conflict, a character has a
problem with robots or machines.
Practice
Number your paper from 1 – 10.
Plot
The plot is the story that is told in a novel, play,
or movie. The plot has five components.
Plot Structure Components
Exposition
Rising Action
Climax
Falling Action
Resolution
Exposition
The exposition is the introduction of the story.
It contains the _______ _______ _______
_______ _______ _______ _______. It is
the information needed to understand a story.
Rising Action
The rising action is the portion of the story
where a _______ _______ _______. This is
the longest part of the story.
Climax
The climax is the _______ moment of the
story. It is the _______ _______ in the story
that occurs when characters try to resolve the
complication.
Falling Action
The falling action is where the characters
begin to _______ _______ to the conflict
and _______ _______ _______.
Resolution
The resolution is _______ _______
_______ _______. It is the set of events that
bring the story to a close.
Theme
The theme is the insight _______________
_____________________________________
______________________the writer shares
with the reader. It is usually __________
directly, but must be __________.
The theme is the __________. Ask yourself
this question. What should you learn from the
story?
Practice with Theme
THE LION AND THE MOUSE
by Aesop
A lion asleep in his den was wakened by a mouse running over his face. Losing
his temper, he seized it with his paw and was about to kill it. The mouse,
terrified, pleaded to the lion to spare its life. "Please let me go," it cried, "and
one day I will repay you for your kindness." The idea of so small a creature ever
being able to do anything for him amused the lion so much that he laughed
aloud and let it go. But the mouse's chance came after all. One day the lion got
tangled in a net. The mouse heard the lion’s roars of distress and ran to help.
Without hesitation it set to work to gnaw the ropes with its teeth and succeeded
before long in setting the lion free. "There!" said the mouse, "you laughed at me
when I promised I would repay you; but now you see that even a mouse can
help a lion."
What is the theme of the story "The Lion and the Mouse?"
A. hunter's net cannot hold a lion for long.
B. A mouse is good at chewing things.
C. Lions and mice make good pets.
D. Size doesn't matter when doing a good deed.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (excerpt)
L. Frank BaumDorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with
Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer's wife.
Their house was small, for the lumber to build it had to be carried by wagon
many miles. There were four walls, a floor and a roof, which made one room;
and this room contained a rusty looking cookstove, a cupboard for the dishes, a
table, three or four chairs, and the beds. Uncle Henry and Aunt Em had a big
bed in one corner, and Dorothy a little bed in another corner.
What is the theme of the passage?
A.
B.
C.
D.
the plain life of a prairie farm family
the things found in a home on the prairie
building a prairie home
living away from your parents
“The Fox and the Goat” by Aesop (paraphrased)
One day a fox fell into a deep well and could not escape. A goat, very thirsty,
came to the same well. When the goat saw the fox, he asked if the water was
good. The fox, hiding his unfortunate problem by being cheerful, said the water
was excellent. He encouraged the goat to jump down. The goat, paying
attention to only his thirst, jumped down without thinking. Just as he drank, the
fox told him of the difficulty they were both in and suggested an idea for their
escape. "If," said he, "you will place your front feet upon the wall and bend your
head, I will run up your back and escape, and will help you out afterwards." The
goat gladly agreed, and the fox leaped upon his back. Steadying himself with
the goat's horns, he safely reached the mouth of the well and made off as fast
as he could. When the goat scolded the fox for breaking his promise, the fox
turned around and cried out, "You foolish old fellow! If you had thought before
you jumped into the well, you would never have gone down before you knew
how to get back up, and you would not have exposed yourself to dangers from
which you had no means of escape."
Choose the best answer. What is a universal theme in this story?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Look before you leap.
Be kind to your enemy.
Slow and steady wins the race.
Do not attempt too much at once.
Theme Using Number the Stars
Theme
Do anything to help a friend.
Proof (Evidence)
Annemarie…