Literary Elements Setting, Theme, Plot, Point of View Standards • RL 6.9 I can identify types of genres • RL 6.3 I can identify parts of plot • RL 6.2 I can identify the theme of a text Setting • The time and place of a story, poem, or play. • The setting can help create mood or atmosphere. • The setting can also affect the events of the plot. Setting • In some stories, the conflict is provided by the setting. This happens in “The Dog of Pompeii” when the characters’ lives are threatened by a volcano. Theme • A truth about life revealed in a work of literature. A life lesson the author tries to teach through the text. • A theme is not the same as a subject. A subject can usually be expressed in a word or two – live, childhood, death. • A theme is the idea the author wished to reveal about that subject. Theme • A theme has to be expressed in a full sentence. • A work can have more than one theme • A theme is not usually stated directly in the work. Instead the reader has to think about the elements of the work and then make an inference about what they all mean. Theme • Think about the story “Charlotte’s Web”. • What theme or themes do you think the author is trying to get across to the reader? Plot • The events in the story. • Plot tells “what happens” in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem. Plot • Most plots are built around the following elements: – Exposition (learn characters, setting and conflict) – Rising Action- when the complications (problems ) occur – Climax- gives a hint of how the problem will be solved- the turning point of the story. – Falling Action- the part of the story that follows the climax. – Resolution (characters’ problems are resolved and the story ends) Point of View • The position from which the a story is told. • There are two common points of view: – 1st Person POV – the person telling the story I is involved in the story. – 3rd Person POV – the person telling the story is not in the story Characters • People, animals or creatures in a story Conflict Conflicts are problems that occur in the story. External vs. Internal External Internal External Conflict takes place outside of the body Internal Conflict takes place inside of the body/mind Five Types of Conflict Person vs person Person vs Nature Person vs. Society Person vs Self Person vs. technology