Elements of the Short Story

Elements of the Short Story Plot, Structure, Character, Setting, Point of View From AHS AP Literature and Composition

Plot and StructureThe development and Organisation of Stories Plot, Motivation, and Causation of Fiction • events precede or follow another, not simply because time ticks away, but because effects follow causes Conflict • the controlling impulse in a connected pattern of causes and effects • conflict causes character to engage in the decisions, actions, and responses and interactions that make up stories

Conflict con’t. • Concrete conflicts (person vs. person) or abstract conflicts (person vs. natural objects, ideas, modes of behaviour, or public opinion) • Characters may find themselves in a dilemma, a difficult or even impossible choice • Conflict is the major element of plot because it arouses curiosity, causes doubt, creates tension, and produces interest Structure • Describes how the writer arranges materials in accord with the general ideas and purpose of the work • Defines the layout of fiction or the way the story is shaped • Placement, balance, recurring themes, true and misleading conclusions, suspense all play a role in the structure of stories

Formal Categories of Structure • Exposition – laying out of main characters, their backgrounds, interests, goals, limitations, potentials; laying out of the setting • Complication – the onset of the major conflict; the event that starts the conflict; sometimes called the ‘inciting incident’ • Crisis – the point at which curiosity, uncertainty, and tension are greatest; often called the ‘turning point’ or ‘climax’ of a story • Falling Action – the events after the crisis that lead to the resolution • Resolution or Denouement – the ‘releasing or untying’; the completing of the story

Actual Structure Stories won’t always follow the formal structure, instead they may have one or both of the following: • Flashback • Double take (think about when you see something and it catches you off guard and you take a ‘double take’ or a second look at it. In fiction, the structure can have a ‘double take’ when, for example, the end of the story produces a new conflict. A ‘double take’ is a more realistic, or less ‘artificial’ means of structuring a story

Writing about Plot • An essay about plot is an analysis of the conflict and its developments • It does not retell the story but stresses the major elements in the conflict; it analyses more broadly in terms of impulses, goals, values, issues, and historical perspective • It analyses how the plot develops the theme(s) of the story • The conclusion of the essay should have a brief consideration of the effect or impact produced by the conflict

Writing about Structure • An essay about structure concerns the arrangement and shape of the story • It doesn’t retell the story but explains why things are where they are and how their placement helps to develop the theme(s) of the story • It discusses why an entire story is arranged the way it is (perhaps to reveal the nature of a character’s situation, tor create surprise, or to bring out maximum humour)

Characters: The People in Fiction Character • A verbal representation of a human being • Characters are portrayed through action, speech, description, and commentary Character Traits • Quality of mind or habitual mode of behavior (ambitious or lazy, serene or anxious, aggressive or fearful, thoughtful or inconsiderate, open or secretive, confident or self-doubting, kind or cruel, quiet or noisy, visionary or practical, careful or careless, impartial or biased, straightforward or underhanded, etc.) Circumstances vs. Traits • A circumstance or situation that a character is in is not a character trait • The character’s response to that circumstance illustrates a traitabout the character

Types of Characters • Round: round characters recognize, change with, or adjust to circumstances; they profit from experience and undergo a change or alteration which may be shown in • an action • The realisation of new strength and affirmation of previous decisions • The acceptance of a new condition • The discovery of unrecognized truths - a round character may be called ‘hero’ or ‘heroine’ or ‘protagonist’ - another term for a round character is dynamic (undergoes change or growth)

Types of Characters con’t. • Flat: flat characters do not grow because they may be stupid or insensitive or lacking in knowledge or insight • Static (another term for flat character) means they end where they begin • They highlight the development of the round characters • Stock: flat characters who are prominent in certain types of literature such as a cowboy or policeman; they are representative of their class or group • Other examples are insensitive father, interfering mother, sassy younger sister or brother, greedy politician, resourceful cowboy or detective, overbearing or henpecked husband, submissive or nagging wife, angry police captain, lovable drunk, town do-gooder • When stock characters possess no attitudes except those of their class, they are labeled stereotypes • Stock characters, like flat characters, are there to highlight the development of the round characters

How is Character Disclosed in Fiction? Writers develop their characters by the following methods: • Action – what the characters do, especially in response to conflict and to other people • Descriptions – both personal and environmental; appearance and environment reveal much about a character’s social and economic status • Statements and thoughts -what the character says and thinks • Statements by other characters – what other characters say about the protagonist (or anyone else) tells a lot about that character • Statements of author speaking as storyteller or observer – sometimes an author will speak through the narrator to make a comment about a character; this is very subtle and sometimes difficult to see Reality and Probability: Verisimilitude* • The actions, statements, and thoughts of characters must all be what human beings are likely to do, say, and think • The reader should distinguish between what characters may possibly do and what they most frequently or most usually do * verisimilitude: the quality or state of appearing to be true or real; the degree to which a work creates the appearance of tuth

Setting Setting is a work’s natural, manufactured, political, cultural, and temporal environment, including everything that characters know and own. Types of Setting • Nature and the outdoors – natural surroundings, living creatures, times, seasons, and conditions in which things happen • Objects of Human Manufacture and Construction – used to reveal or highlight qualities of character and to make narrative lifelike • Cultural Conditions and Assumptions – historical and cultural conditions and assumptions influence characters The Literary Uses of Setting • Used to create meaning • Show divergent views of human life

Important Purposes of Setting – Function of Important Detail • Setting and Credibility – realism or verisimilitude • Setting and Character • Importance of place, circumstances, and time in human growth and change influenced by setting • Way characters respond and adjust to setting can reveal their strength or weakness • Setting and Organisation – shifts in setting; framing or enclosing setting creates a formal completeness • Setting and Symbol – objector scene highlighted or emphasised, may be a symbol • Setting and Atmosphere – setting creates atmosphere and mood (the enveloping or permeating emotional texture within a work) • Setting and Irony

Point of View The Position of Stance of the Narrator or Speaker P.O.V. – refers to the speaker, narrator, persona, or voice created by authors • Involves speaker’s physical position as an observer and recorder AND the ways in which the speaker’s social, political, and mental circumstances affect the narrative • Goal is to make story come alive; authors are like actors in that they impersonate AND create their characters • P.O.V. is the centralising or guiding intelligence in a work • It is the mind that filters the fictional experience and presents only the most important details to create the maximum impact • Determines how we (the reader) look, understand, and respond to the story

An Exercise in P.O.V. • Consider a minor car accident at an intersection. At each corner stands a witness or two. Other witnesses are the two drivers and any passengers in either car. • How many different points of view of what happened will there be? • How will they be similar? • How will they differ? • What aspects of each witness will impact his/her ‘view’ of what happened? Why?

Conditions That Affect P.O.V. • Physical situation of the narrator as an observer: • How close to the action is the speaker? • Is s/he a major participant or no more than a witness, either close or distant? • How accurate and complete are his/her reports? • How do his/her characteristics emerge from the narration? • What are his/her qualifications or limitations as an observer?

Conditions con’t. • Speaker’s intellectual and emotional position: • How might the speaker gain or lose from what takes place in the story? • Are the speaker’s observations and words coloured by theses interests? • Does s/he have any persuasive purpose beyond being a straightforward recorder or observer? • What values does s/he impart to the action? • P.O.V. is NOT synonymous with opinions, ideas, or beliefs • P.O.V. refers to a work’s mode of narration • Opinions and beliefs are thoughts and ideas • A discussion/essay of P.O.V. should emphasise HOW the dramatic situation of a work actually SHAPES and CREATES the work and should consider whether and how ideas affect what the narrator concludes and says about the story’s actions and situations.

Kinds of P.O.V. • First Person (I, we pronouns) • First-hand experience: what they themselves have done, said, heard, and thought • First-hand witness: what they have observed others do and say • Second-hand testimony and hearsay: what others have said to them or otherwise communicated to them. • Inferential information: what they are able to infer or deduce from the information they have found • Conjectural, imaginative, or intuitive information: what they are able to conjecture about how a character or characters might think and act, given their knowledge of a situation Reliable vs. Unreliable narrators • Consider narrator’s position and ability, prejudices or self-interest, and judgment of the readers or listeners • Speakers describing their own experiences are reliable and authoritative • If speakers have interests or limitations that lead them to mislead, distort, or even lie, they are unreliable

Kinds of P.O.V. con’t. • Second-Person (you pronoun) • Least common of the points of view • Four types of uses: • Narrator tells a present and involved listener what he or she has done and said at a past time (narrator knows more about the past event than other character) • Narrator is explaining to another person (the ‘you’) that person’s disputable actions and statements • Narrator is actually referring to him/herself • Narrator is referring toanyone

Kinds of P.O.V. con’t. • Third-Person (he, she, they, it pronouns) • Dramatic or Objective: • Limited only to what is said and what happens • No attempt to draw conclusions or make interpretations • Omniscient (all-knowing) • Presents action and dialogue AND reports the thoughts of characters • Limited or Limited Omniscient • Confines or limits the narration to the actions and thoughts of a major character only Note: Some authors mingle points of view to imitate reality, sustain interest, create suspense, or put the burden of response entirely upon readers. Most narratives rely on the past verb tense: however, many recent writers use present tense to render story as a virtual drama which unfolds moment by moment; and some writers intermingle tenses to show how time itself may be merged with the human consciousness and to show the fusion of past, present, and future within a character’s mind Writing about P.O.V. Goal: to explain how point of view contributes to making the work exactly as it is. Consider language, authority and opportunity for observation, the involvement or detachment of the speaker, the selection of detail, interpretive commentaries, and narrative development.

Elements of the Short Story