• Fiction-This is defined as a series of imaginative facts about truths in human life.
• A. Novel-is a long narrative story divided into chapters and may involve few or
numerous characters.
• B. Short Story- is a short narrative artistic in nature involving one or more characters
that focus on a single plot, one single impression.
• Non-fiction-It is expository in nature that aims to explain an idea, a theory, a point
of view, or maybe an impression.
Reading and Understanding Short Stories
• Myth-is a story invented by primitive people in order to explain the
mysteries of existence and the origins of natural phenomena they
witnessed, aside from the fact that they used the myth to explain and
interpret human motives and passions and their consequences in daily
living.
• Anecdote-is the direct ancestor of the short story which is an illustrative
story and straight to the point.
What is fiction?
• Is any imaginative re-creation and reconstruction of life.
• The short story presents human life into two levels:
• A. the world of the objective reality made up of human actions anf
experiences; and
• B. the world of the subjective reality dealing with human apprehension and
comprehension.
Point of
View
 Is
the time and location where the story
happened.
 There are several aspects of a story’s setting to
consider when examining how the setting
contributes to the story




Place
a geographical location
Time
when the story is taking place
Weather Conditions
Is it rainy, sunny, stormy etc.
Social Conditions
What is the daily life of the characters like? Does the story
contains local colors ( mannerism, speech, custom etc.)
The plot is how the author arranges events to develop
his basic ideas.
 it is the sequence of events in a story or play.
 is a planned, logical series of events having a
beginning, middle and end.
Refers to chain of related events that take place in a
story.
Climax
Rising
Actions
Introduction
Denouement
Ending
Introduction/Exposition-the beginning of the story where the
characters and the setting is revealed
 Rising action-this is where the events became complicated
 Climax-this is the highest point of the interest.
 Falling action-the events and complications begin to resolve
 Denouement-the final out come or untangling of events in the
story

• Linear Plot-when the events are narrated based on the
chronology of occurrence, or through medias res when narration
begins without exposition, that is beginning from the middle using
flashback technique.
• Episodic Plot-when the story is subdivided into several episodes
which narrate chronological events or back-and-forth and said
episodes are unified by the story’s central theme.
CONFLICT
It
is essential to the plot.
It is the opposition of forces which ties one
incident to another.
Conflict is not merely limited to arguments,
rather it is any form of opposition that faces
the main character.
Kinds of Conflict
 EXTERNAL
Is a struggle with a force outside of one’s self.
 INTERNAL
Is a struggle within one’s self, a person must
make some decisions, overcome pain, resist an
urge etc..
Four Types Of Conflict
Man vs
Himself/
herself
Man vs
Circumstanc
es
Man vs
Man
Man vs
Society
Characters
 is
clearly central to the story with all major events.
 Persons
involved in a conflict.
 Protagonist-
hero or heroine also called Main or Major
Character
 Opposer
of the main character is the antagonist or
the villain.
Characters

Characters are the people who are involved in the story. Characters can be major
or minor, and static or dynamic.

Major Characters- are important to the story. They are the people whom the
story is centered around.

Minor Characters-They exists only to highlight or illuminate the major
characters.
Static -These are characters whose attitudes do not change by the end of the
story. They stay the same the whole time.
 Dynamic - These are the characters who have a change in attitude by the end of
the story or character that grows or changes as the plot unfolds is called a
dynamic character.

• Is referred to the development of characters in fiction.
• Techniques an author may employ to help the characters come alive:
a) Physical Description of the character;
b) Description by another character;
c) The character’s speech;
d) Explanation of the character’s thoughts;
e) The character’s actions; and
f) The character’s responses and reactions to the other characters or to situations.
Point Of View
( POV)
is defined as the angle of vision of the
author or the narrator from which the story
is told.
The point at which a story is seen or told.
This answers the question “through whom
does the author tell the story?”
Innocent eye
 the story is told through the eyes of a child
Stream of consciousness

The story is told so that the readers feel as if they are inside the head of one character and
know their thoughts and reactions
First person

the story is told by the protagonist or one of the characters who interact closely with the
protagonist or other characters.
Omniscient

This point of view of telling the story allows the author or the narrator to move from character to character,
event to event having free access to thoughts, feeling, and motivation of his characters.

Is a point of view in which the narrator knows all of the thoughts and feelings of all of the
characters in the story.
THEME

It is the author's underlying main ideas or meaning that he/she trying to
convey.

The central meaning or idea of the story; the moral lesson the story is
trying to teach.

It is a message that gives an opinion about life, humanity or society.
Examples of theme include: love, friendship, good vs evil, the
importance of family, crime is bad, etc.

The title of the short stories usually points to what the writer is saying
and he may use various figures of speech to emphasize his theme such as
simile, metaphor, and allusion etc.
Mood- this is the predominating
atmosphere or tone.

 Style- This is the manner of putting into
language the ideas of the authors