1. Elements of a Short Story

2. OBJECTIVES Identify elements of a short story
Define elements of a short story
Demonstrate mastery of short story elements

3. OVERVIEW
Short stories often contain structural and character elements that should be familiar to you. These elements can be used as guides to help you think about the actions, themes, and contexts of the story.

4. Elements of a Short Story
Plot
- exposition statement
- rising action
- climax
- falling action
- resolution
Theme
Setting
Characters
Conflict
Characterization

5. THEME
The main idea of a literary work, usually expressed as a generalization and in sentence form.
Example: “Forgiveness is the key to true happiness.”
SETTING
The time and place in which the story is set.

6. “Characters in the plot connect us with the vastness of our secret life, which is endlessly explorable.” – Eudora Welty
CHARACTERS
Subjects in a story (humans, animals, etc..) The point of writing stories: telling us what human beings are like.
Characters allow readers to “see” life from different perspectives and to “meet” new (or familiar) people.

7. “STEAL” CHARACTERIZATION
The description of the personalities of the characters in the story and the ways in which authors reveal their personalities:
Speech
Thoughts
Effect on other characters
Action
Looks
“STEAL”

8. PLOT
The sequence or order of events in a story, each event connected to the next like a chain. Each event in a plot “hooks” our curiosity and pulls us forward to the next event.
Suspense builds as the series of related events hook our curiosity.
The plot includes the following (4) parts:

9. Types of Linear Plots Chronological Flashback
In media res (in the middle of things): when the story starts in the middle of the action without an exposition.

10. CHRONOLOGICAL PLOT DIAGRAM
Climax
Rising Action
Conflict
Falling Action
Exposition
Resolution

11. 1. Basic Situation/Exposition
Exposition Statement – This is the part of the plot that tells how the story begins. The character, conflict, and setting are usually introduced.
Example ~ Cinderella
The basic situation shows us Cinderella, a beautiful and good heroine, in a conflict with her evil stepmother and nasty stepsisters.

12. 2. Rising Action/Complication
The part of the story in which the main character takes some action to resolve the conflict and meets with problems or complications: danger, fear, hostility, etc.
Example ~ Cinderella
Cinderella wants to go to the ball. Her stepmother says “No,” but a Fairy Godmother promises to get her to the ball if she obeys one rule: “Be home by midnight.” Cinderella goes to the ball, the Prince falls in love with her, she flees at midnight, and she loses one of her glass slippers.

13. 3. Climax Climax: the KEY scene of the story
That tense or exciting moment when we realize what the outcome of the conflict is going to be.
Example ~ Cinderella
The Prince makes a house-to-house search for the foot that fits the slipper and finds that foot on Cinderella.

14. 4. Falling Action(s) All of the action which follows the climax
Example ~ Cinderella:
Cinderella and the prince make preparations for their wedding.

15. 5. Resolution/Denouement
The final part of the story. (The French word, denouement, means “unraveling the knot”).
You learn how the conflict is resolved and what happens to the characters.
Example ~ Cinderella
Cinderella marries the Prince and they live happily ever after. In the original Girmm story, you also learn that ravens peck out the eyes of the evil stepmother.

16. Conflict = Struggle

17. Conflict External Conflict:
Conflict between a character and another person OR a character and something non-human.
- Man vs. Man
- Man vs. Society
- Man vs. Nature

18. Conflict Internal Conflict:
Conflict takes place inside a character’s mind
Man vs. Self (fears, self-doubts, etc.)