THE ELEMENT OF FICTION

PLOT

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

CONFLICT

TYPES OF CONFLICT

• Person vs person
• Person vs nature
• Person vs society
• Person vs self

PVP

• One or more individuals battling
• against another person or group
• Example: batman vs penguin

PVN
An individual or group battles
The forces of nature
Example: titanic passengers vs iceberg

PVS

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

PVSELF
An individual battles him or herself
Example: dieting
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

WHOS 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

WHOS 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 3 persons
• Come in 2 varietes:
• 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 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
• Whats 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

SYMBOL EXAMPLES

• Happiness
• Depression
• Fun
• Freedom
• Repetition

SYMBOL EXAMPLES

• Pain
• Anger
• Fortune
• Fear
• Torture

SYMBOL EXAMPLES

• Irritation
• Helplesness
• Life
• Lonliness
• Vastness

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EXAMPLES OF SYMBOLS

• Masculinity
• Hatred
• Femininity
• Androgeny
• Emptiness

EXAMPLES OF SYMBOLS

• Excitment
• Love
• Greatness
• Reluctance
• Excrciating

EXAMPLES(SYMBOLS)

• Wholeness
• Hopeful
• Justice

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Excitement

THEME

THEME

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

EXAMPLES

• Harry Potter: friendship, perserverance
• Star Wars: good and evil
• Ransom of red chief: expectations

DONT CONFUSE WITH

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

EXAMPLE OF THEMES

• Justice
• True love
• Revenge
• Greed
• War

Hope
Family
Friendship
Adventure
Survival
Good and evil
Guilt/ remorse
Mystery/curiosity
Peace
Fitting in
Death
Aging
Growing up
Hatred
History
Drama
Depression
Women
Men
Race
Religion
Helplessness
Loneliness
Choices
Misery/ suffering
Joy
Dreams
Madness
Dystopia/utopia
Happiness
Anger
Betrayal
Cleanliness
Loyalty
Royalty/ class
Clues
Childhood
Wisdom
Nature/ our relationship with
Power