PLOT
 The sequence of events in a story.
 Plot is also a pattern of actions, events and
situations
 Plot includes
 exposition
 exciting force/inciting incident
 rising action
 climax
 falling action
 denouement
Think of the Parts of a Story like a Peak…
Climax
Rising Action
Falling Action
Inciting Incident or
Exciting Force
Exposition
Denouement
Definitions
 Exposition: opening portion of a narrative or drama, it sets
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the scene, introduces the main characters, and discloses
necessary background
Exciting force/inciting incident: sets the action in motion
Rising action: part of the narrative, including the
exposition, in which events start moving toward a climax.
Climax: the turning point, moment of greatest intensity
Falling action: the events that follow the climax and bring
the story to its conclusion
Denouement: resolution or conclusion of narrative
CONFLICT
Conflict is a struggle
between opposing forces
Conflict can be
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Internal– person vs. self
External
 person vs. person
 person vs. nature
 person vs. society
 man/woman vs.
machine
 man/woman vs.
supernatural
Setting
The four elements of setting are:
1) Time (When does it take place? Think era and time
of day/week)
2) Place (Where does it take place?)
3) Mood (What is the overall feeling of the story?)
4) Circumstance (What is going on around the
characters in the story? Ex: War, depression,
technological era, etc.)
Characters
1.
static (stay the same) vs. dynamic (change)
2.
flat (one-sided) vs. round (many-sided)
3.
major/minor/functional
Protagonist – main character
Antagonist – in conflict with/opposes
protagonist
Theme
 A generally recurring subject or idea conspicuously
evident in a literary work
 Longer works may have multiple themes
 The theme is not necessarily a moral or a lesson
 The theme is the center, the moving force, the
unifying vision
Theme is developed through motifs.
 A motif is an element that recurs significantly throughout a
narrative. It can be a/an
 image
 idea
 situation
 action
 Example: motifs in the Harry Potter books include
 loyalty
 lying
 blood
 abandonment
Characterization
 The techniques a writer uses to create, reveal, or
develop the characters in a narrative.
 Direct: author states directly what a character is like
 Indirect: reader must infer what a character is like
through description, dialogue, action, and how other
characters treat him/her
 Most often, writers reveal/develop characters through
what they say (dialogue) and what they do (action).
 Characters are motivated by desires, temperament and
moral character.
Point of view
 The perspective from which a story is told
 First person
 The narrator is “I” and he/she is a participant in the
action
 Third person
 Narrator is a nonparticipant in the action
 Omniscient: narrator can move freely through the mind
of any character, and has complete knowledge of all the
events in the story
 Limited: the narrator sees into the minds of some, but
not all, of the characters; typically, one major or minor
character
Symbol
 An object, character, or
event that suggests
meanings beyond its
literal sense
 A symbol adds meaning
 In fact, a symbol can add
multiple meanings
Metaphor? Symbol?
So what’s the difference?
 How does a symbol differ from a metaphor?
 A metaphor
 is a statement that one thing is something else, which,
in a literal sense, it is not
 creates a close association between the two things,
underscoring some important similarity between them
 Examples:
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Richard is a pig.
She’s a doll.
“I will speak daggers to her, but use none.” (Hamlet)
How can I recognize a symbol?
Symbols are
 Not abstract terms (love, truth) but perceptible objects
 Sometimes people and events are symbolic
 Frequently given particular emphasis (repetition)
 May supply the title
 Lead us to the author’s theme
Tone
Attitude the author is trying to convey about the
subject
Tone is the net result of the various elements the
author uses to create the work
Tone plays an important role in establishing the
reader’s relationship to the characters and ideas
Irony
 Literary device in which the actual meaning is masked
by the surface language
 Three main types of irony:
 Verbal: say one thing but mean another
 Situational: something happens that is not what we (or
the character) expects
 Dramatic: the audience knows or understands
something that the characters on stage do not
Other Techniques
 Suspense: enjoyable anxiety and/or curiosity about the
outcome of an event
 Foreshadowing: hints at what may happen in a story
 Flashback: a scene relived in a character’s memory;
gives information about something that happened
before the current narrative began