Story Elements

⮚ Setting
⮚ Characters
⮚ Plot
⮚ Conflict
⮚ Resolution
⮚ Point of View
⮚ Theme
 Setting

• Setting is the “where and when”

of a story. It is the time and place
during which the story takes place.
 Setting
Time and place are where the action
occurs
Details that describe:
✔ Furniture
✔ Scenery
✔ Customs
✔ Transportation
✔ Clothing
✔ Dialects
✔ Weather
✔ Time of day
✔ Time of year
 The Functions of a Setting
⮚ To create a mood or
atmosphere
⮚ To show a reader a
different way of life
⮚ To make action seem
more real
⮚ To be the source of
conflict or struggle
⮚ To symbolize an idea
 Mood
• Mood is the feeling that the author tries to convey
throughout the story. The atmosphere or emotional
condition created by the piece, within the setting.
Does the author want the reader to be frightened
or sad, or does the story make the reader laugh
and think happy thoughts?
• To figure out mood, examine how you feel while
reading the story. Often mood is conveyed by the
story’s setting.
 Characters
• The person,
animals, and
things
participating
in a story
 Characters
• Protagonist and antagonist are used to
describe characters.
• The protagonist is the main character of the
story, the one with whom the reader identifies.
This person is not necessary “good”.
• The antagonist is the force in opposition of the
protagonist; this person may not be “bad” or
“evil”, but he/she opposes the protagonist in a
significant way
 Plot (definition)
• Plot is the organized
pattern or sequence of
events that make up a story.

• Plot is the literary element

that describes the structure
of a story. It shows
arrangement of events and
actions within a story.
 Parts of a Plot
⮚ Exposition - introduction; characters, setting and
conflict (problem) are introduced
⮚ Rising Action- events that occur as result of
central conflict
⮚ Climax- highest point of interest or suspense of a
story
⮚ Falling Action - tension eases; events show the
results of how the main character begins to resolve
the conflict
⮚ Resolution- loose ends are tied up; the conflict is
solved
 Plot Diagram
3

4
2
1
5
 1. Exposition
• This usually occurs at the beginning of a short story.
Here the characters are introduced. We also learn
about the setting of the story. Most importantly, we
are introduced to the main conflict (main problem).
 2. Rising Action
• This part of the story begins to develop the conflict(s). A
building of interest or suspense occurs and leads to the
climax. Complications arise
 3. Climax
• This is the turning point of the story. Usually the main
character comes face to face with a conflict. The main
character will change in some way. This is the most intense
moment.
 4. Falling Action
• Action that follows
the climax and
ultimately leads to
the resolution
 5. Resolution
• The conclusion; all loose
ends are tied up.
• Either the character
defeats the problem,
learns to live with the
problem, or the problem
defeats the character.
Special Techniques used in a Story
⮚ Suspense- excitement, tension, curiosity
⮚ Foreshadowing- hint or clue about what will
happen in story
⮚ Flashback- interrupts the normal sequence of
events to tell about something that happened in the
past
⮚ Symbolism – use of specific objects or images to
represent ideas
⮚ Personification – when you make a thing,
idea or animal do something only humans do
⮚ Surprise Ending - conclusion that reader
does not expect
Conflict
Conflict is the dramatic struggle
between two forces in a story. Without
conflict, there is no plot.
 Conflict
⮚ Conflict is a problem that must be solved; an
issue between the protagonist and antagonist
forces. It forms the basis of the plot.
⮚ Conflicts can be external or internal
✔External conflict- outside force may be
person, group, animal, nature, or a
nonhuman obstacle
✔Internal conflict- takes place in a character’s
mind
 Types of External Conflict

Character vs Character

Character vs Nature

Character vs Society

Character vs Fate
 Type of Internal Conflict
Character vs. Self
 Point of View
• First Person Point of View- a
character from the story is telling the
story; uses the pronouns “I” and “me”
• Third Person Point of View- an
outside narrator is telling the story;
uses the pronouns “he”, “she”, “they”
 Types of Third-Person
Point of View
• Third-Person Limited • Third-Person Omniscient
• The narrator knows the • The narrator knows the
thoughts and feelings thoughts and feeling of
on only ONE character ALL the characters in a
in a story. story.
 Theme
⮚ The theme is the central, general
message, the main idea, the controlling
topic about life or people the author wants
to get across through a literary work
⮚ To discover the theme of a story, think big.
What big message is the author trying to
say about the world in which we live?
⮚ What is this story telling me about how life
works, or how people behave?
 The Theme is also
• the practical lesson ( moral) that we learn
from a story after we read it. The lesson that
teaches us what to do or how to behave
after you have learned something from a
story or something that has happened to
you.
Example: The lesson or teaching of the
story is be careful when you’re offered
something for nothing.
 Figurative and Literal Language
Literally: words function exactly as defined
The car is blue.
He caught the football.
Figuratively: figure out what it means
I’ve got your back.
You’re a doll.
^Figures of Speech
 Simile
Comparison of two things using “like” or “as.”

Examples
The metal twisted like a ribbon.
She is as sweet as candy.
 Important!
Using “like” or “as” doesn’t make a simile.

A comparison must be made.

Not a Simile: I like pizza.

Simile: The moon is like a pizza.

 Metaphor
Two things are compared without using “like” or
“as.”

Examples

All the world is a stage.

Men are dogs.
Her heart is stone.
 Personification
Giving human traits to objects or ideas.

Examples

The sunlight danced.

Water on the lake shivers.
The streets are calling me.
 Hyperbole
Exaggerating to show strong feeling or effect.

Examples
I will love you forever.
My house is a million miles away.
She’d kill me.
 Understatement
Expression with less strength than expected.
The opposite of hyperbole.

I’ll be there in one second.

This won’t hurt a bit.

 Onomatopoeia
• A word that “makes” a sound
• SPLAT
• PING
• SLAM
• POP
• POW
 Idiom
• A saying that isn’t meant to be taken
literally.
• Doesn’t “mean” what it says
• Don’t be a stick in the mud!
• You’re the apple of my eye.
• I have an ace up my sleeve.
 Pun
• A form of “word play” in which
words have a double meaning.
• I wondered why the baseball was
getting bigger and then it hit me.
• I’m reading a book about anti-
gravity. It’s impossible to put it
down.
• I was going to look for my
missing watch, but I didn’t have
the time.
 Proverb

• A figurative saying in which a bit of

“wisdom” is given.
• An apple a day keeps the doctor away
• The early bird catches the worm
 Oxymoron
• When two words are put together that
contradict each other. “Opposites”
• Jumbo Shrimp
• Pretty Ugly
• Freezer Burn
 Elements of Poetry
•What is poetry?
•Poetry is not prose. Prose is the ordinary
language people use in speaking or writing.
•Poetry is a form of literary expression that
captures intense experiences or creative
perceptions of the world in a musical
language.
•Basically, if prose is like talking, poetry is like
singing.
•By looking at the set up of a poem, you can
see the difference between prose and poetry.
Distinguishing Characteristics of
Poetry
• Unlike prose which has a narrator,
poetry has a speaker.
• A speaker, or voice, talks to the reader.
The speaker is not necessarily the poet.
It can also be a fictional person, an
animal or even a thing
Example
But believe me, son.
I want to be what I used to be
when I was like you.
from “Once Upon a Time” by Gabriel
Okara
Distinguishing Characteristics of
Poetry
• Poetry is also formatted differently
from prose.
– A line is a word or row of words that may
or may not form a complete sentence.
– A stanza is a group of lines forming a
unit. The stanzas in a poem are
separated by a space.
Example
Open it.

Go ahead, it won’t bite.

Well…maybe a little.
from “The First Book” by Rita
Dove
 Figures of Speech
• A figure of speech is a word or expression
that is not meant to be read literally.

• A simile is a figure of speech using a word

such as like or as to compare seemingly
unlike things.
Example
Does it stink like rotten meat?
from “Harlem” by Langston
Hughes
 Figures of Speech
• A metaphor also compares
seemingly unlike things, but does not
use like or as.
Example
the moon is a white sliver
from “I Am Singing Now” by Luci Tapahonso

• Personification attributes human like

characteristics to an animal, object,
or idea.
Example
A Spider sewed at Night
from “A Spider sewed at Night” by Emily Dickinson
 Figures of Speech
• Hyperbole – a figure of speech in
which great exaggeration is used for
emphasis or humorous effect.
Example
“You’ve asked me a million times!”

• Imagery is descriptive language that

applies to the senses – sight, sound,
touch, taste, or smell. Some images
appeal to more than one sense.
 Sound Devices
• Alliteration is the repetition of
consonant sounds at the beginning
of words.
• Assonance is the repetition of
vowel sounds within a line of
poetry.
• Onomatopoeia is the use of a word
or phrase, such as “hiss” or “buzz”
that imitates or suggests the
 Rhyme
• Rhyme is the repetition of the same
stressed vowel sound and any
succeeding sounds in two or more
words.
• Internal rhyme occurs within a line of
poetry.
• End rhyme occurs at the end of lines.
• Rhyme scheme is the pattern of end
rhymes that may be designated by
assigning a different letter of the
 Rhythm and Meter
• Rhythm is the pattern of sound
created by the arrangement of
stressed and unstressed syllables in
a line. Rhythm can be regular or
irregular.
• Meter is a regular pattern of stressed
and unstressed syllables which sets
the overall rhythm of certain poems.
Typically, stressed syllables are
marked with / and unstressed
syllables are marked with ∪ .
• In order to measure how many
syllables are per line, they are
 Iambic Pentameter
• The most common type of meter is
called iambic pentameter
• An iamb is a foot consisting of an
initial unstressed syllable followed
by a stressed syllable. For
example, return, displace, to love,
my heart.
• A pentameter is a line of verse
containing 5 metrical feet.
 Significance of Iambic
Pentameter
• Iambic Pentameter is significant to
the study of poetry because
• 1. It is the closest to our everyday
speech
• 2. In addition, it mimics the sound of
heart beat; a sound common to all
human beings.
• 3. Finally, one of the most influential
writers of our times uses iambic
pentameter in all that he writes –
 Connotation and
Denotation
Connotation - the emotional and
imaginative association surrounding
a word.

Denotation - the strict dictionary

meaning of a word.

Example: You may live in a house, but

we live in a home.
 Elements of Poetry
When we explore the connotation and
denotation of a poem, we are looking
at the poet’s diction.

Diction – the choice of words by an

author or poet.

Many times, a poet’s diction can help

unlock the tone or mood of the poem.
 Elements of Poetry: Tone and
Mood
Although many times we use the words mood
and tone interchangeably, they do not
necessarily mean the same thing.
Mood – the feeling or atmosphere that a poet
creates. Mood can suggest an emotion (ex.
“excited”) or the quality of a setting (ex.
“calm”, “somber”) In a poem, mood can be
established through word choice, line length,
rhythm, etc.
Tone – a reflection of the poet’s attitude toward
the subject of a poem. Tone can be serious,
sarcastic, humorous, etc.
 Narrative Poetry
• Narrative poetry is verse that tells a
story.
• Two of the major examples of narrative
poetry include:
• Ballads – a song or poem that tells a story.
Folk ballads, which typically tell of an
exciting or dramatic event, were composed
by an anonymous singer or author and
passed on by word of mouth for
generations before written down. Literary
ballads are written in imitation of folk
ballads, but usually given an author.
• Epics – a long narrative poem on a great
and serious subject that is centered on the
actions of a heroic figure
 Dramatic Poetry
• Dramatic poetry is poetry in which
one or more characters speak.
• Each speaker always addresses a
specific listener.
• This listener may be silent (but
identifiable), or the listener may be
another character who speaks in
reply.
• Usually the conflict that the speaker is
involved with is either an intense or
 Lyric Poetry
• Lyric poetry is poetry that
expresses a speaker’s personal
thoughts and feelings.
• Lyric poems are usually short and
musical.
• This broad category covers many
poetic types and styles, including
haikus, sonnets, free verse and many
others.
 Haikus
• The traditional Japanese haiku is
an unrhymed poem that contains
exactly 17 syllables, arranged in 3
lines of 5, 7, 5 syllables each.
• However, when poems written in
Japanese are translated into
another language, this pattern is
often lost.
• The purpose of a haiku is to
capture a flash of insight that
 Sonnets
• Background of Sonnets
• Form invented in Italy.
• Most if not all of Shakespeare’s
sonnets are about love or a theme
related to love.
• Sonnets are usually written in a series
with each sonnet a continuous subject
to the next. (Sequels in movies)
 Structure of Sonnets
The traditional Elizabethan or
Shakespearean sonnet consists of
fourteen lines, made up of three
quatrains (stanzas of 4 lines
each) and a final couplet (two line
stanza). Sonnets are usually
written in iambic pentameter.
The quatrains traditionally follow
an abab rhyme scheme, followed
by a rhyming couplet.
 Free Verse
• Free verse is poetry that has no
fixed pattern of meter, rhyme, line
length, or stanza arrangement.
• When writing free verse, a poet is
free to vary the poetic elements to
emphasize an idea or create a
tone.
• In writing free verse, a poet may
choose to use repetition or similar
grammatical structures to