Reading Fiction… by Mrs. Henson
Elements of
Short Stories
Fiction…
2 Major types of fiction:


Short stories – brief works that can usually be read
in one sitting
Novels – longer and generally more complex
narratives
Literary Elements in ALL FICTON (both novels and
short stories)
 plot, character, setting, theme, point of view
What is a plot?
plot – chain of related events that take
place in a story
 In most plots, events are set in motion
by CONFLICTS
 Conflict – struggle between or within
characters
What are the stages of a plot?
ELEMENT
DEFINITION
exposition
Provides needed
background information
The part of the plot in
which the conflict
intensifies
Turning point of the
action, when the reader’s
interest is at its highest
point
The action after the
climax, in which the
conflict is often resolved
Rising action
climax
Falling action or
denouement
Your Turn…
What types of conflicts have we
encountered in “The Interlopers”?
(Discuss)
2. Open your textbook to page 17.
3. Read the passage on plot that begins “A
famous lawsuit…”
4. What conflict is introduced?
1.
Your turn (continued)
The passage introduces a conflict
between three generations of two
families over the ownership of a
woodland. The conflict is intensified
by a lawsuit, scandals, and poaching.
Characters
Characters are the individuals, real or
imaginary, who take part in the action of
stories





Main characters – characters who are at the
center of a story’s action
Minor characters – less important characters
Dynamic characters – characters who grow or
change as the plot unfolds
Static characters – characters who remain
unchanged
Characterization – development of characters in
fiction
Your turn…
1.
2.
3.
4.
Check out page 17 in your textbook.
Read the short passage on the right labeled
“character.”
In this passage, what techniques of
characterization has Saki used?
Discuss!
Your turn (continued)
The techniques of characterization Saki uses
in the passage are a character’s actions
and a narrator’s comments.
SETTING!
The setting of a story is the time and place
in which the events occur.
 Place can be real or imaginary
 Time can be a particular time of day, a
season, a period of history, or even the
future
 Setting plays an important part in some
stories, but in other stories settings are
only backdrops
THEME
A theme is a central idea or message in a
work of literature
 NOT the work’s subject
 It is a perception about LIFE or HUMAN
NATURE that the writer wants to
communicate
 Themes are rarely stated directly;
usually they must be inferred
Your Turn…
Turn to page 18 of your book.
2. Read the passage on the right of your
page under “theme.”
3. From the passage, what can you infer
about a possible theme of the story?
Hint: To “infer” means to “guess” or judge
from evidence
1.
Your turn (continued)
You can infer that the theme will be a
variation on the passage’s last clause:
“there are better things in life than
getting the better of a boundary dispute.”
Point of View
The term point of view refers to the
relationship between a narrator and the
events he or she describes.
 First-person
 Third-person
 Third-person omniscient
 Third-person limited
Point of View (continued)


First-person point of view – a story’s narrator
is a character participating in the story’s action
Third-person point of view – a narrator outside
the action describes the events and characters
 Third-person omniscient – the narrator is “all-
knowing”
 Third-person limited – the narrator perceives events
only as an observer or only through the eyes of one
character
Your Turn…
1.
2.
3.
Still on page 18 of your textbook,
please read the section on the right
labeled “point of view”
What clues in this passage can help
you identify the point of view from
which the story is told?
Discuss!
Your Turn (continued)
Clues that help identify the third-person
limited point of view are the use of thirdperson pronouns (his, he) and the
awareness of Ulrich’s thoughts but not
the man’s.
Writing Workout
(Please copy these instructions before you begin)
1.
2.
3.
Write down the names of 2 characters
you’ve encountered in books you’ve
read.
Jot down a list of reasons why you
designated these characters as
“favorites.”
Make a list of what you remember
about how the author(s) developed
these characters.