Elements+of+the+Short+Story


 * Elements of the Short Story**

• **Main Characters:** the most important characters in the story. • **Protagonist:** the hero of the story; the character who the story centers around. • **Antagonist:** the character whose actions are directed against the protagonist; the villain in the story.
 * Characters:** the people and animals in the story.


 * Setting:** where and when the story takes place.

• **Introduction:** comes at the beginning of the story. This is when we meet the characters, learn the setting, and see the beginning of the conflict. • **Conflict:** the problem faced by the character or characters, and the struggle to overcome the problem. • **Rising Action:** the part in the story when the struggle grows more intense. Events add to the problem and the struggle. • **Climax:** the turning point in the story. The problem has reached the highest point, now events will start to happen that will work towards the solution of the problem and the ending of the story. • **Falling Action:** the part in the story when the events follow their logical course to the end. Events help to solve the problem and the struggle.
 * Plot:** the arrangement of the series of events in a story.
 * • Resolution:** all loose ends are tied up, the problem is solved, and the story ends. Resolution is also called denouement.
 * • Theme:** the message that the author is attempting to convey, the moral of the story.

Character is perhaps the most important of all the elements of the short story. Almost invariable, it is the people in stories that interest most.

Characters are defined by the qualities that make them think, feel\\, and act in certain ways. To understand each character completely, try looking at him or her from different angles:
 * Understanding Characters:**
 * • Values:** What people, places, or things are most important in the character’s life? What does he or she value the most?
 * • Feelings:** what emotions does the character feel most strongly? Anger? Fear? Love? Hate?
 * • Goals:** What are the character’s greatest hopes? What is he or she working to accomplish?
 * • Problems:** what other characters or circumstances are keeping the character from achieving his or her goal?

Characterization involves the various methods used by authors to communicate their characters to the reader. Even though she was younger, Sarah was the smartest of all her sisters. At report card time, Sarah was the only daughter in the Thompson family who always brought home straight A’s. Author’s Characterization Tools: Authors use many clues to communicate characters to their readers, including: • The character’s name • The character’s physical appearance • How the character is dressed • The character’s occupation • What the character’s home and surrounding look like • The character’s habits and actions • What other characters say about him or her
 * Techniques of Characterization:**
 * Direct Characterization:** The author tells the reader information about characters directly.
 * Indirect Characterization:** The author shoes the character in actions and lets reader make their own interpretation.

All stories are built on conflict. It provides the cental source of tense and drama that makes stories interesting to read. The Story Problem: To figure out the main conflict in a story, try to state the central problem of the story in one sentence. (E.g., Jack London’s “To build a Fire” is a story about a man’s desperate struggle to keep himself alive in the wilderness.) Categories of Conflict: Conflict in stories often falls into one of five major categories: • **Character vs. Character:** involves conflicts between people – suc as family conflict, trouble with a bully, difficulties in romance, etc.
 * Conflict**
 * • Character vs. Society:** involves conflict between an individual and larger groups – such as the outsider in a strange culture, a poor character’s struggle to “make it” in the business world, etc.
 * • Character vs. Nature:** involves conflict between an individual and the natural world – such as fighting a powerful hurricane, surviving after a plane crash in the desert, etc.
 * • Character vs. Self :** involves character’s psychological conflicts with themselves – such as overcoming a drug habit or alcoholism, grieving over the loss of a loved one, etc.
 * • Character vs. Fate:** involves conflict a character confronts simply because of the chance happening of a certain event or events that do not fall within the realm of the previous categories – such as the death of a loved one, being born into extreme poverty, etc.

The setting of a story serves different functions in the action and the emotional effect it has on the reader. In some stories the setting might almost be considered a “character” itself.
 * Setting:**

Setting works in many important ways in the short story: • **Provides a backdrop for the action:** First, setting provides a physical backdrop for the action of the story – such as on an ocean liner at sea, in a remote jungle, or on a farm in New England. • **Establishes atmosphere:** setting often sets a mood for the story – such as the romantic mood created by a full moon, the alienation of a busy city, or the exoticness of a foreign land. • **Shapes character and action:** Setting can also provide a background environment that shapes the attitudes and actions of the characters in the story – such as the country boy seeing the “big city” for the first time, or the rich character who suddenly finds himself lost in a tough neighborhood. • **Reflects character psychology:** In some cases, the setting even symbolically reflects the inner feelings of the characters or the working of the story conflict – such as the thunderstorm that parallels a character’s inner turmoil, of the summer heat wave that accompanies the rising tension in the story.
 * How Setting Functions in a Short Story**

Two powerful techniques that authors use to create settings are the use of details and sense images.
 * How Authors Create Setting:**
 * • Details:** By building their description of settings with realistic details, authors make their story seem more believable – such as using actual street names when setting a story in a real city, or choosing authentic details to depict a setting set in a foreign country.
 * • Sense Images:** By describing settings in images that appeal to the reader’s senses, the author creates a vivid atmosphere that readers can associate with settings in their own experience – such as the smell of bread baking in a farmhouse, the feel of swimming in cool lake water, of the sound of rain falling on a tin roof.


 * Point of View**
 * Voice:** the acknowledged or unacknowledged source of the words of the story; the speaker; the person telling the story


 * ALSO CALLED**


 * Point of View:** the perspective from which a story is told. To determine a story’s point of view, ask yourself, “Who is telling the story?”

Although there are many options available, short story writers usually stick to a single point of view within one story.

A short story’s theme can be defined as the lesson or the moral that the story teaches – the problems or issues that the story explores.
 * Theme**

When trying to discover the theme(s) of a story, remember that a theme is not a summary of the plot. A theme is a universal idea suggested by the specifics of the story. It is stated in general terms. The true themes of a story hold true for the whole story – not just a part of it. They are central ideas that state the essential meaning of the story. Most stories, however, are not as easily reduced to a single simple lesson. They are likely to have more than one important theme imbedded in the story itself. • The struggle between good and evil • The differences between nature and civilized society • The conflict between the individual and the community • The differences between country and city life • The conflict between human free will and fate • The difference between outward appearance and inner worth
 * What is a Theme?**
 * Explicit vs. “hidden” themes:** It’s easy to state the theme of stories that have been written deliberately to communicate a specific lesson or moral(for example, Aesop’s fable of the Tortoise and the Hare, which ends with the explicit moral: “Slow and steady wins the race.”)
 * Some traditional story themes:** Although a story’s themes are specifically linked to the story that explores them, authors draw on common theme patterns that have appeared in stories throughout the history of literature. As follows are some that are commonly used.

A story communicates its central theme or themes in a variety of ways. In looking for themes, consider some of these possible clues: • The title of the story • Important images or symbols in the story • General observations made by the author, narrator, or characters in the story • Any “moral” suggested by the outcome of the conflict
 * Recognizing Themes in a Short Story**

Sometimes tone is more complex, expressing a mixture of attitudes that may even seem to contradict themselves; for instance, the tone could be humorous, but with an undercurrent fo sadness; serious, but with overtones of playfulness. The effect of tone on the reader. The author’s tone has a direct impact on how the reader response to the story. Different tones can cause readers to experience varying emotions such as pity, fear, horror, or humor. If the author’s tone is distant, for example, readers are les likely to feel as close to the characters than if the tone were more sympathetic.
 * Tone and Irony**
 * Tone:** The tone of a story is like the author’s “tone of voice” – it expresses the writer’s own attitude toward his or her characters, setting, conflict, and other elements of the story.
 * Varieties of tone.** An author’s tone cane be as varied as “tone of voice” can sound in real life. It can be silly or thoughtful, chatty or formal, comic or tragic.

Irony is a particular kind of tone. By communicating opposite ideas at the same time, authors use irony for humorous or serious effects. They do this by contrasting the way characters feel about a situation with how a more objective observer might view it.
 * Irony**
 * Verbal irony.** Speakers use verbal irony when the meaning they wish to communicate is different from, or actually opposite to, what their actual words seem to say. \
 * Hyperbole** is an exaggerated statement used to make a strong effect; an example would be “I’ll never get this fish line untangled in a million years.”
 * Understatement** is the opposite of hyperbole, and involves saying less than you really feel for an ironic effect – such as saying, alter almost having been hit by a bus, “Well, now that that little excitement is over, how about some tea?”
 * Uses of irony:** Sometimes by expressing an idea indirectly, speakers can say more than if they communicate their feeling more directly.