1. Setting Where and when Includes: Questions to ask:
Physical Environment
Social Environment  Societal customs, values, & beliefs
Questions to ask:
Does the time period affect the situations the characters face?
How is the setting used to establish mood?
Is the setting used to reflect a character or certain events?
Is the setting involved in foreshadowing future events?
How does nature, weather, or season contribute to the plot or theme?
Cinderella: Physical Environment—The story takes place a long time ago in a fictional, magical land ruled by a king and a queen. Social Environment—There is a strict social hierarchy, where the rich have the power to oppress the poor. Land and wealth is controlled entirely by men.

2. Point of View Perspective from which the story is told
Cinderella: Told from 3rd person omniscient POV because the narrator knows what everyone is doing and thinking.
Point of View
Perspective from which the story is told
First-person: Use of “I,” “me,” “we,” “our,” or “us” to tell the story.
Second-person: Narrator uses “you,” directly addressing the reader.
Third-person: Narrator describes action from outside the story.
Omniscient: Sees into the minds of multiple characters
Limited: Only has access to the mind of 1 character
Questions to ask:
What advantages and disadvantages does the POV offer?
Is the narrator biased? How do you know?
Is the narrator unreliable? How do you know?
Is the narrator naïve? How do you know? (happens most often with young narrators)
How does age and gender affect the narrator’s POV?

3. Characters Actors in a story’s plot
*Character traits can be openly described by the narrator or shown indirectly through a character’s thoughts and actions
Protagonist: Main character
Antagonist: In conflict with the main character
Stock character: One-dimensional (Ex.: villain)
Static character: Doesn’t grow or change
Dynamic character: Grows, develops, or changes; more complex

4. Characters: Questions to ask
How do a character’s thoughts and actions show personality traits and values?
How does a character’s appearance reflect or contrast his/her personality?
Are a character’s conflicts external (with another character) or internal (with himself)?
What motives drive a character’s actions?
How do characters resolve their conflicts? How might this contribute to larger ideas of the story?
Is a character defined solely by one trait or more complex?
In what ways does a character change throughout the story?
Cinderella: Main characters are: Cinderella, the stepsisters, their mother, the fairy god-mother, and the prince. Most, if not all, are one-dimensional, stock characters who don’t change throughout the story, and thus are static.
Protagonist: Cinderella
Antagonists: The stepsisters, their mother

5. Theme
The central message of the story that can be applied to life and the human condition.
*What the text says about a topic.
Common themes: Insights into human nature, perceptions about life
Stated themes: Directly presented in a story (usually present in a specific line(s) of the story).
Implied themes: Must be inferred via textual clues
Cinderella: The theme is implied. One can infer Cinderella’s message is that if you are in a bad situation, where you are taken advantage of and oppressed, you should just work hard and do the best you can. In the end, justice will prevail and life will become better for you.

6. Theme: Questions to ask
Are there any repeated ideas?
Do any of the characters learn a lesson?
What lesson does the reader learn by the end of the story?
How does this story relate to the real world?
What does the story show about the human condition?
What does the story show about society?
What are the moral conflicts of the story?
Who or what controls the characters’ lives?

7. Plot The sequence of events 5 stages:
Exposition: Introduces the story’s characters and conflict
Rising Action: Develops the conflict with complications and twists
Climax: Emotional high point
Falling Action: Shows what happens to the characters after the climax and brings the story to its conclusion
Resolution: Shows how the conflict is resolved

8. Cinderella: Plot Map CLIMAX FALLING ACTION EXPOSITION RESOLUTION
The stepsisters try to force their feet into the slipper. It fits Cinderella.
Cinderella dances with the prince, but leaves hurriedly at midnight, loses a slipper.
A fairy godmother appears and provides Cinderella with clothes, coach, and footman.
FALLING ACTION
Cinderella lives with her stepsisters and their mother. They make her wear rags and do all the hard work.
Cinderella and the prince marry.
An invitation to a ball at the palace arrives.
The prince says he will marry the woman whom the slipper fits.
Cinderella goes to the ball.
The stepsisters prepare for and go to the ball.
They live happily ever after.
EXPOSITION
RESOLUTION
RISING ACTION