Setting

1. Setting

2. Setting Setting – the physical “backdrop” of the story; where (place) and when (time) the story takes place. When looking at setting, you must try to be as specific as possible, but describe where the entire story takes place. For example: • “A modern-day city,” “Jerusalem in the Middle Ages,” and “Anchorage, Alaska c. 1950s” are settings. • Night-time on a street, then in a car, then a store” are LOCATIONS within a setting. Generally, the author will leave it to the reader to infer the setting of the story, to some extent.

3. Setting Exercise Return to the short stories we have read so far: • 1. “A Sound of Thunder” • 2. “The Three Little Pigs” • 3. “The Michelle I Know” • 4. “A Conversation of Birds” • 5. “I’ve Got Gloria” • 6. “Two Kinds” For each story, describe the setting as completely as you can in as few words as you can. Return to the first few paragraphs of the story if you do not remember.

4. Setting Group Exercise: • 1. “A Sound of Thunder” • The time safari future and the prehistoric past. • 2. “The Three Little Pigs” • The story takes place in the olden days, in the woods, with big trees. • 3. “The Michelle I Know” • Took place in a modern-day hospital. • 4. “A Conversation of Birds” • A modern day city park. • 5. “I’ve Got Gloria” • Takes place in a small town, specifically at the house of Scott Perkins and the service station in the present day. • 6. “Two Kinds”-- A modern day American city in a small apartment building in the 1970’s

5. Atmosphere

6. Atmosphere Atmosphere – the overall mood or tone of the story. Atmosphere is usually established at the beginning of a story. Any number of things can contribute to the atmosphere, including (but not limited to): • Characters • Clothing • Furniture • Natural surroundings • Light/darkness • Weather Atmosphere has a close connection with setting, because the setting often determines the atmosphere of the story.

7. “The Toll House” As we read, note how the author uses the setting to establish mood and reveal character. Vocabulary: Find the Sentence and Write the Definition. Sovereign (140) Spectres (140) Hobgoblin (140) Sepulchre (141) Balusters (142)

8. The Toll House A. Introduction • Why is the introduction successful in capturing the reader’s interest and in creating suspense? • What purposes in the development of the story are served by the introduction? B. Setting • In what ways does the setting contribute to the creation of mood or atmosphere? • How does the author use setting to reveal character?

9. The Toll House C. Plot 1. Define the central conflict(s) in the story. 2. Where is the climax of the story? Explain why you think so. 3. What is the denouement? Do you think it is a satisfying ending? Why or why not? D. Dialogue • To what extent does the author use dialogue to advance the plot? Give an example. • To what extent does the author use dialogue to reveal character? Give an example.

10. Style

11. Style Style – the ways an author expresses himself/ herself and conveys his/her ideas and central purpose. Style is very personal, like a signature – no two writing styles are identical. In order to examine a writer’s style, we must consider the following six areas: diction, sentence structure, point of view, irony, symbolism, imagery.

12. Style - DICTION Diction – word choice. Diction is what makes the short story an art form; words are chosen specifically to achieve a particular purpose.

13. Style - DICTION There are FOUR main types of diction: Formal diction Informal diction Colloquial diction Slang

14. Style – DICTION Formal diction is usually found in academic texts, academic papers, and formal discourse. Informal diction is “relaxed conversation”, and is found in writing that has a lighter tone and is sometimes humorous.

15. Style – DICTION Colloquial diction is the everyday language use of a particular group of people. For example, we go to the store to buy “a loaf of bread”, but in Cape Breton they buy “a bun of bread”. Colloquial diction varies by geographic area and cultural region. For example, think about how different English is here than in Newfoundland (where colloquialisms abound).

16. Style – Colloquial Diction Can you think of anything that HHS students say that might not be understood by people from other places? Can you think of other colloquialisms? (This might be difficult – sometimes it takes someone from another place to point them out!)

17. Style - DICTION Slang is defined as a newly-coined word not accepted for formal usage yet, and is usually not found in the dictionary. “Ain’t” and “D’oh” are slang, but have made their way into the Oxford English Dictionary.

18. Style – Sentence Structure Sentence structure is indicated by whether or not the sentences are long, short, simple, compound, complex, etc. Some authors’ styles are recognizable by their sentence structure alone.

19. Sentence Variety in your own Works 2. Check one or two of the pieces that you’ve written this year. Do you think you’ve used a variety of sentences? 3. In one of your own works, find an example of each of the following: • A declarative sentence—state something; Bowling is really fun. • An interrogative sentence—question; What is an interrogative sentence? • An exclamatory sentence—exclamation mark; That is a big tree! • A very short sentence—Kittens are for sale. • A very long sentence—Yesterday, I went to the mall and bought lots of junk; the junk I bought was cheap and useless, but I enjoyed my purchases anyway. If you do not have all of these types of sentences, choose sentences and edit them until you do, then write down those examples.

20. Intelligent

21. Style – Point of View Point of view – the vantage point from which the author presents the action of the story. The point of view is presented by the narrator. Every work of fiction has a narrator; the person telling the story is the narrator, NOT the author! In some stories, there is little separation between the narrator and the author, but in others the narrator brings his/her own biases to the telling of the story.

22. Style – Point of View There are two ways to describe point of view: Third person perspective vs. First person perspective AND Limited narration vs. Omniscient narration

23. Style – Point of View Third person narration – The person telling the story is NOT part of the action. The reader/viewer sees the action as if from an external camera. They saw the enemy ahead. Creeping up quietly, John raised his rifle…

24. Style – Point of View First person narration – This is a major, minor, or “silent” character who tells the story. (“Silent” means they play no role in the action of the story, but are present in it.) I saw them there, crouched behind the boxes, and shouted to my team to fire at will!

25. Point of View – Language You can identify a first- or third-person perspective based upon the pronouns used by the narrator. First person narration –I or we are used. Third person narration –He, she, or they are used.

26. Subject and Object Pronouns Basic Sentence Structure: Mary and Iwent to the park. subject verb object Pronouns are words that take the place of nouns in a sentence. There are two types of pronouns: Subject pronouns and object pronouns. Basically, subject pronouns are the “do-ers” of the action in the sentence, and come before the verb. Object pronouns have the verb “acted upon” them.

27. Subject pronouns can only go in the subject position in a sentence; object pronouns can only go in the object position! Subject Pronouns I You (s.) He/She/It We You (pl.) They Object Pronouns Me You (s.) Him/Her/It Us You (pl.) Them (+ others, e.g. himself, herself, etc.)

28. A COMMON MISTAKE! NOTE THIS! You probably would not say: “Me went to the park.” Little children talk this way, because they have not absorbed language rules yet. When used in public speaking (for example), it is a mark of a lack of education. You would not do this because “me” is an object pronoun – not to be used in the subject position! Likewise, then, you should not use the following: Mary and me are going out tonight. Me and him are gonna get together after school. DON’T COPY

29. Style – Point of View Limited narration – The narrator’s knowledge is limited to the direct knowledge of the narrator/character. This is the point of view that is most like “real life”, and provides an immediacy to the action. For example, you do not know exactly what is happening behind each of the walls of the classroom you are in. Likewise, a limited narrator would only know what he/she could perceive.

30. Style – Point of View Omniscient narration – The narrator knows everything about the characters and events, and can “enter the mind” of any character at will. Omniscient narration is useful for stories with several characters of equal importance, or for letting the viewer see the antagonist’s point of view as well as the protagonist’s. Omniscient narration sacrifices immediacy of action.The omniscient narrator is often confused with the author.

31. Style – Point of View When you describe the narration in a story, you must describe the various aspects of the point of view. There are FOUR basic points of view: • First person omniscient • First person limited • Third person omniscient • Third person limited

32. Style – Point of View First Person Limited Omniscient Third Person

33. Point of View – Some Examples/Don’t Copy • “The Three Little Pigs” is written from the third person omniscient perspective. We can see what each of the pigs is doing inside the houses, and what the wolf does outside as well. • The Outsiders is written from the first person limited perspective. We only see what Ponyboy sees, and events are interpreted for us by Ponyboy. (Cue for Treason is the same, with Peter being the narrator.) • The “Harry Potter” series is written mostly in the third person limited perspective. The only action that we see happen is when Harry is present; the rest is reported to the reader by other characters. (Most suspense novels are written from this point of view, to maintain suspense by keeping the reader guessing.) Occasionally, the author allows us to see the teachers talking, and on one or two occasions lets us see the villains scheming (switching narrative perspectives).

34. Point of View – Exercise Complete the following exercise in your notebook: • Choose two novels you have read in the recent past, or are reading now. Include your independent reading selection for class! • For each, identify the narrative point of view and the verb tense employed. Why do you think the author deliberately chose these elements?

35. Shoplifting Read the three short short stories on shoplifting.

36. Point of View Short Story Exercise Choose one of the short stories on shoplifting. Choose a character or object from the story. For example, you might choose one of the thieves, a store clerk, or an object that was stolen (e.g. toothpaste tube). Choose a tense for the story. You can write it as a past-tense story about what happened, or as a present tense “in the moment” story. Without changing any of the facts of the story, and following the same plot as much as possible, re-tell the story from the first-person point of view of the character/object you chose. Your draft should be 250-500 words in length (or more).

37. Style - Foreshadowing Foreshadowing – a literary device in which an author drops subtle hints about plot developments to come later in the story. • An example of foreshadowing might be when a character displays a gun or knife early in the story. Merely the appearance of a deadly weapon, even though it is used for an innocuous purpose — such as being cleaned or whittling wood — suggests terrible consequences later on. (taken from Wikipedia.org)

38. Style – Symbolism Symbolism – A literary symbol means something itself in the story, but also suggests a wealth of meaning beyond what it actually is. Objects, situations, and actions can all be symbols.

39. Style – Imagery Imagery – There are two types of imagery: i) Sensuous imagery – Images that appeal to the five senses: visual (sight), auditory (hearing), tactile (touch), gustatory (taste), and olfactory (smell). ii) Figurative imagery – metaphor, simile, personification, etc.

40. Style - Irony Irony – 1) a literary device in which there is a gap between what a speaker or writer says and what is understood. 2) incongruity between what is expected and what actually occurs Dramatic irony – the audience knows more about a character's situation than the character does, foreseeing an outcome contrary to the character's expectations, and thus ascribing a sharply different sense to some of the character's own statements.

41. Theme “When I write a novel, I feel rather like a juggler trying to keep a dozen themes spinning up there in the air. In my [short] stories, on the other hand, there tends to be one central theme.” Margaret Laurence

42. Theme Theme – The theme of a story represents what the protagonist (main character) and/or reader learns about life. It is the “message” that the author is sending through the story – the story is the medium for the message. Author Short Story Reader Also recall the three purposes of a short story: To entertain, to teach, and to raise questions.

43. “The Crystal Stars Have Just Begun to Shine” Crossroads 10 pp. 60-66. Complete “Responding to the Story” a., c., d., and e. Write the next line of the story from the father’s perspective. Father’s thinking as he leaves the store after they look up at the shining stars. In 3rd person limited POV.

44. “The Crystal Stars Have Just Begun to Shine” – Analyze Theme The subject of this story is how a daughter tries to make her father happy by finding him a partner. The theme is what the main character and/or the reader discovers about life or people by the end of the story. In your notebook, write what you think is the theme of the short story. We will be sharing these as a class.

45. “The Crystal Stars Have Just Begun to Shine” – Analyze Theme Group Assignment Get into groups of 4-5. In your group, discuss what you think is the theme of “The Crystal Stars Have Just Begun to Shine”. Try to agree on ONE central theme. (If you can’t agree, that is okay.) You have five minutes for this. On the blackboard, write the name of your team and the central theme of the story. If you could not agree, write all options. We will discuss these as a class.