Short Stories
Short Story
Terms
Short Story: A relatively brief
make-believe story.
Characteristics
 Usually
less than 10,000 words, but more
than 500
 Deals with a single event or problem
 Usually focuses on one main character
 Events in the story are usually told in a
specific sequence or in chronological
order
 Has a definite beginning, middle and end
PLOT
 The
collection of events that take place in
a story.
 Includes:
Introduction
Trigger Incident
Rising Action
Climax
Resolution
Plot Graph
Climax
Rising
Action
Introduction
Trigger
Incident
Resolution
Introduction
Introduction: the beginning of the story where readers meet
characters and establish the setting
Introduction: The readers are introduced to Arnold Spirit Jr.
“I was born with water on the brain”
(page 1)
Trigger Incident

Trigger Incident: the event or problem that starts the
story

Trigger Incident: When Junior gets his geometry
textbook and it is so old that his mother had it 30 years
ago
“And let me tell you, that old, old, old, decrepit
geometry book hit my heart with the force of a
nuclear bomb.”(pg. 31)
Rising Action
 Rising
Action: increasingly exciting and
 Rising
Action: Junior goes to Reardan, Junior
suspenseful events in the story
deals with Roger, Junior makes friends with Gordy,
Junior goes to the school dance, Junior plays
basketball etc.
Climax
 Climax:
the most exciting and suspenseful
moment in the story, near the end, a
turning point for the main character

Climax: When Arnold finally wins the basketball
game against Wellpinit
“We beat Wellpinit by 40 points.
Absolutely destroyed them” (pg.
194).
Resolution
 Resolution:
the ending in which all loose
ends are tied up
 Resolution:
Rowdy and Junior make up
“I would always love Rowdy.
And I would always miss him too.”
(pg. 230)
Major Characters
 Protagonist:
the main character in a story.
He/she is often the hero, the leader, or the
main cause of events. The reader
identifies/sympathizes with him/her the
most.
Major Characters
 Antagonist:
the character who opposes or
is against the protagonist/main character.
The antagonist usually tries to prevent the
protagonist from reaching his/her goals.

Rowdy – discourages Junior from going to a new
school, knocks him out during the basketball
game etc.
Minor Characters
 they
interact with the Protagonist or
Antagonist and reveal their characters
We can describe characters in
different ways:
1.
2.
3.
How they look
What they do
What others say about them or how
others act towards them
Conflict
 1.
Person VS. Person
-
Two people/ characters fighting or in
opposition
-
Ex. Junior and Rowdy fight when Junior
goes to Reardan
Conflict
 2.
Person VS. Self
-
One character torn between 2 decisions or
is fighting against him/herself
-
Ex. Junior has to figure out his identity (white
vs. indian)
Conflict
 3.
Person VS. Nature
-
A character trying to survive against the
elements of nature
-
Ex. Junior is sometimes unable to go to
school because it is too far
Conflict
 4.
Person VS. Society
-
Main character fights against an organized
group or institution
-
Ex. Everyone in Wellpinit is against Junior because
they feel betrayed, so when Reardan goes to
Wellpinit for the basketball game, the Indians all
turn their backs on Junior.
Setting
 Includes
the location and the time, date
or time period of the story

Ex. Wellpinit/ Reardan, Spokane. 30 years ago.
Foreshadowing
 Is
a hint about what will happen later in
the story
 Ex. “Yeah Dad is a drunk and Mom is an ex-drunk,

but they don’t want their kids to be drunks” (pg.
46)
Junior talks about his parents and how Indians are
drunks, which is an early hint to the deaths of
Eugene, grandma, and his sister.
Flashback
A

replayed memory set in an earlier time
Ex. Junior remembers the time when he and
Rowdy climbed the tree – near the end of the
novel
Point of View
 First
“I”
Person: the story is told by one character, using
 Third
Person Limited: the reader sees the actions of
the characters and hears their words but not their
thoughts
 Omniscient: the reader sees the thoughts and
actions of everybody
Suspense
A
feeling of fear or excitement about
what will happen next

Ex. Increasingly exciting when Junior’s basketball team
has a rematch against his home town team.
Atmosphere/Mood
 Emotion
in a scene created by music
(movie) or description (book)

Ex. Junior’s mother holds him tightly after his sister
died (sadness, grief) and then she tells him never
to drink and slaps him (anger, grief)
Simile
 Comparison
 Ex.

using “like” or “as”
“I’m as serious as a tumor,” (51)
Junior is telling Rowdy that he is going to Reardan
tomorrow and Rowdy does not believe him, so
Junior uses a comparison to explain that he is
positive he is going to Reardan.
Metaphor
A
comparison that does not use “like” or
“as”
 Ex.
“If those Andruss brothers had punched
a hole in the aquarium of my skull, I might
have flooded out the entire powwow,” (21)

After the Andruss brothers beat on Junior Rowdy
makes sure that Junior did not get hit on his head
because he has with hydrocephalus. Junior is
creating a picture of what would happen if the
water on his brain was drained out.
Personification
 Giving
something inanimate (not alive)
human or animal characteristics
 Ex.
“Poverty only teaches you how to be
poor,” (pg.13)
Imagery
 Using
the senses of touch, taste, sight,
sound and smell to describe something to
a reader



Ex. “Hell, he fought the weather. He’d throw punches at
rain.” (18)
Ex. “Rowdy stopped screaming with his mouth but he
kept screaming with his eyes” (pg.53).
Ex. “My nose bled like a firework” (pg. 53).
Symbols
 Something
solid (tangible) that represents
something intangible (can’t touch it)


Ex. The apple (Indian on the oustide but white on the
inside.)
Ex. the road between Wellpinit and Reardan (Junior’s
journey)
Irony
 When
the opposite of what is expected
happens

Ex. “Plenty of drunken Indians have killed other drunken
Indians. But my grandmother had never drunk alcohol in
her life!” (158)
 Dramatic
Irony: the reader or viewer
knows something that a character
doesn’t

Ex. The reader knows why Arnold cannot pay for
Penelope at the diner after the dance but since
Penelope is in the story she does not know until he tells
her