…ACCORDING TO MS. HAYES, MRS. DUER, AND HOLT, RINEHART AND
WINSTON

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A story that is short, right? Come on, you can do better than that.
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It is a piece of prose that can be read at one time.
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What is prose, you may ask. Prose is ordinary writing, like in a paragraph. It is the opposite of poetry and doesn’t have rhyme and meter.
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Remember: writing is divided into two categories: poetry and prose.

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Characterization:
 the act of creating and then developing those characters
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Two Types:
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Direct
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Indirect

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Always a direct comment from the narrator
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From “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Poe
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TRUE! nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am.
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From “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry
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Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham
Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's.
The other was Della's hair.

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Judgments by the reader based on a
I will decimate anyone who stands in my way!
character’s speech and actions
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Judgments based on how the character looks and dresses

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Letting the reader hear the character’s inner thoughts and feelings
Nerve, nerve, nerve…I must keep my wits.
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Revealing what other characters in the story think or say about a character
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From Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol :
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"I have no patience with him," observed Scrooge's niece. Scrooge's niece's sisters, and all the other ladies, expressed the same opinion.
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"Oh, I have," said Scrooge's nephew. "I am sorry for him; I couldn't be angry with him if I tried. Who suffers by his ill whims? Himself, always. Here, he takes it into his head to dislike us, and he won't come and dine with us. What's the consequence? He don't lose much of a dinner."

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Protagonist
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Antagonist
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Round
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Flat
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Dynamic
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Static
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Subordinate

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The main character
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Story focuses on this character
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Usually a good guy, but not always

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The character opposite the protagonist
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When you antagonize someone you annoy them, so the antagonist annoys the protagonist or causes conflict.
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Just like the protagonist is not always the good guy, the antagonist is not always a villain.
BTW--
This is the old man from
“The
Tell-Tale
Heart”.

ROUND CHARACTERS FLAT CHARACTERS
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These characters show many different traits.
Usually a major character
Characters we come to know, like real people
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These characters show only one or two traits.
Commonly stereotypes
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The nagging wife
The hyperactive child
The troublemaker
The mean librarian

DYNAMIC CHARACTERS STATIC CHARACTERS
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Characters who experience an emotional growth due to the story’s events
These characters usually learn a lesson related to the story’s theme.
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These characters, on the other hand, do not experience emotional growth or change.
They stay basically the same.
The story’s events have not taught them a lesson.
Dying does not count as a change.

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These are the characters who are needed to add depth and complication to the plot, but they are not main characters.

 the driving force behind a character’s actions

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Time and place of story
Season
Time, date, or year
Geographical location
Time Period or Era
Weather
Social or Cultural
Atmosphere
Economic
Atmosphere

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A story’s atmosphere
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The feeling the story evokes in the reader
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Strongly influenced by setting joyous eerie peaceful

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The relationship of the
narrator to the story and what the reader sees from that vantage point
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Types
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First person
Third person limited
Third person omniscient
Third person objective

• The narrator is a character in the story.
• The readers sees only what this character observes and feels.
• He or she is commonly the protagonist.
• Refers to himself or herself with the first-person pronouns, such as I, me, my, mine, our(s), we, and us

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Untrustworthy
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As the reader, you are not sure that you can believe everything the narrator tells you.
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Especially true with firstperson because the reader gets one side of the story
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First person narration includes bias and opinion.
HOWEVER, some first-person narrators are reliable; as the reader, you must decide based on the evidence in the story.

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Narrator is outside of the story.
Narrator is limited to focusing on the internal thoughts and emotions of one character at a time.
Technically, this means the narration can shift from one character to another.
Uses the third-person pronouns he, she, him, or her
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Ernest Hemingway's The Old
Man and the Sea
“Then he looked behind him and saw that no land was visible. That makes no difference, he thought. I can always come in on the glow from Havana.”

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Omniscient is Latin for all-knowing.
Narrator is outside of the story.
Narrator can focus on the thoughts of many characters and their situations.
Sort of like an eye that can see into any aspect of the story that he or she chooses

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The narrator is totally outside of the story and relates only what he sees or hears.
He doesn’t know any of the characters’ thoughts and feelings.
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Like a reporter, telling the story without judgment, just giving the facts
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Like a fly on the wall
Some literary examples:
“Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
“Animal Farm” by George Orwell

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The author’s attitude toward his or her work
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Tone is conveyed through the author’s word choice.
 Somber
 Sentimental
 Optimistic
 Nostalgic
 Regretful
 Gloomy
 Critical
 Contemplative
 Objective
 Vengeful
 Reminiscent
 Thoughtful
 Restrained
 Ridiculing
 Wrathful
 Sarcastic
 Neutral
 Sympathetic
 Unsympathetic

 Plot: A series of events through which the writer reveals what is happening, to whom it happens, and why
 Broken down into five major sections:
 Exposition
 Rising action
 Climax
 Falling action
 Resolution (or to those more refined, the denouement)

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Exposition—beginning of the story; background info; sets scene for characters and conflict; exposition “exposes”
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Rising Action—events leading to climax
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Climax—moment of greatest emotional intensity; the point during which the conflict will be decided; very close to the end of the story
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Falling Action—Results of climax; events leading to resolution
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Resolution or Denouement—the outcome of the conflict, i.e. they lived happily ever after

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Conflict: A struggle between opposing forces, be it man, woman, child, beast, crazy townspeople, or a two-ton iceberg

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Man vs. Man-external struggle between two or more individuals
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Man vs. Himself—internal struggle concerning emotion and decision
Jack or Cal….Cal or
Jack?
What will I do with that nice old man who happens to be blind in one eye?
To be or not to be… that is the question.

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Man vs. Environment
An external struggle between man and an element of his surroundings (not necessarily nature)

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Man vs. society—an external struggle between man an element of his culture’s traditions, beliefs, government, values, customs, etc.

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Subjects are the words that immediately come to your mind as topics broached in a story.
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Theme—the central message the writer is trying to reveal in his or her work;
Subjects are brief, usually one word—for example, love, hate, jealousy, revenge, war, etc.
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Always ask yourself as the reader: “What message is this author trying to convey to me?”
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Theme shows a generalized truth about human nature.
Subjects are the words that writers use to elaborate upon to create the deeper, more abstract themes of stories.
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Theme is not the subject; therefore, theme is written as a complete sentence.

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Subjects
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Love
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Jealousy
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Forgiveness
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War
Themes
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Love will cause people to do things they usually wouldn’t.
Jealousy causes more harm than good.
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Giving forgiveness allows a person who has been betrayed to move on with his/her life without growing bitter and cynical.
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Wars often occur due to the greed of a small number of people though many more innocent people usually die.

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Irony is the contrast between an expectation and reality.

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A contrast between what you would expect to happen and what really happens

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A writer speaks or says one
Yet Brutus says thing but means something
[Caesar] was ambitious, and completely different.
Brutus is an honorable man.
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Sometimes verbal irony is very obvious sarcasm, but not always.
Antony says this after
Brutus has killed
Caesar —his best friend.
He really believes Brutus to be a murderer.
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Other characters may or may not understand the irony of what another character is saying.
Well, it is so great to see you!
…Even though these two are arch nemeses.

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The audience or reader knows something that at least one character does not.
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The word “drama” helps to remember this because it is often found in plays and movies.