THE ELEMENTS OF FICTION

PLOT

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PLOT THE SERIES OF EVENTS THAT MAKE A STORY

• Exposition: the background info, explains the status quo
• Rising action: starts with a problem, gets more exciting
• Climax: a crisis, must solve the problem, most exciting
• Falling action: story calms down, finds new status quo
• Resolution: new normal is reached, all questions are answered

EXAMPLE OF A PLOT STRUCTURE:THE THREE LITTLE PIGS
Exposition: three pigs, three houses (straw,sticks,brick), wolf, countryside, past
Rising action: problem: wolf wants to eat pigs, hide in houses, blows the straw house and the stick house
Climax: brick house, boil wolf
Falling action: celebrate victory
Resolution: live happily ever after

CONFLICT

Conflict: when two forces are working against each other

TYPES OF CONFLICT

• Person vs. Person
• Person vs. Nature
• Person vs. Society
• Person vs. Self

PERSON VS PERSON

• One or more individuals battling
• against another person or group
• Example: Batman vs. Penguin
• Example: Harry Potter vs. Voldemort

PERSON VS. NATURE

• An individual or group battles
• the forces of nature
• Example: Titanic passengers vs. Iceberg
• Example: Touching Spirit Bear

PERSON VS. SOCIETY

• An individual battles an organized
• group such as the government
• Example: Katniss vs. President Snow
• Tip: individuals represent the government
• Look for uniforms and authority

PERSON VS. SELF

• An individual battles him or herself
• Example: dieting, addiction, fear
• Look for reason vs. Emotion or instinct

CHARACTER

5 WAYS TO LEARN ABOUT A CHARACTER

• What they do
• What they say
• What they look like
• What is said about them
• What the author tells us

INFERENCES

• Use clues (evidence) to make deductions about a character
• Takes practice!

POINT OF VIEW

WHO'S TELLING THE STORY

• First person: someone is telling a
• story about themself
• Look for a narrator using the pronouns
• I, me, my, mine, we, us, our, ours

WHO'S TELLING THE STORY

• Second person: someone is
• telling a story about their audience to
• their audience
• Pronouns: you, your, yours
• Second person isn't used very often

WHO'S TELLING THE STORY

• Third person: someone telling a story
• about a third person to an audience
• Pronouns: she, her, him, he, it, they, them, etc.
• This one's used a lot!

HOW MUCH DOES THE NARRATOR KNOW?

• Narrators, 1st, 2nd, or 3rd persons
• come in 2 varieties
• Omniscient and Limited Omniscient

OMNISCIENT NARRATOR

• The omniscient narrator knows EVERYTHING
• about a story: what characters are thinking,
• what has happened before, and what will
• happen next.

LIMITED OMNISCIENT NARRATOR

• This narrator knows somethings,
• but does not know everything.
• Perhaps they do not know some character's
• thoughts

SETTING

DEFINITION

• The description of where and when events take place
• Is much more than a date and a location
• The difference between a story in Nepal, today and...

MOOD

DEFINITION

• The emotional response a story gives a reader
• Driven immediately by the setting, affected by plot and character
• What's the mood of the pic from Nepal?

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SYMBOL

SYMBOL

• An object or person or event represents
• an idea
• Simple example:
• Red octagons=stop, teddy bear=childhood
• Paintbrush=creativity

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THEME

THEME

• A statement about life or
• being human that the text gives
• a reader

EXAMPLES

• Harry Potter: friendship, perserverance, loyalty
• Star Wars: good and evil
• Ransom of Red Chief: expectations

DON'T CONFUSE WITH

• The "moral" of the story
• A lesson to be learned