What Are Plot and Setting? Feature Menu Plot Subplots Parallel Episodes Setting as Background Setting as Conflict Setting: Mood Your Turn

Plot Plot is the chain of related events that tells you what happens in a story. Bet I can ride Diamondback Trail faster than you can! EVENT 1 EVENT 2 Jen challenges Rick to a bike race. Jen and Rick meet on the trail. Bet you can’t! What do you think happens next?

Plot How are the two events linked together? cause/effect Jen challenges Rick to a bike race. Jen and Rick meet on the trail. cause/effect Like links in a chain, each event “hooks” our curiosity and pulls us forward to the next event.

Jen challenges Rick to a bike race. Plot: Exposition The story’s exposition introduces characters, settings, and the story’s basic conflict. EVENT 1 Jen’s challenge presents a problem to Rick: Jen challenges Rick to a bike race. Should he try to impress Jen by accepting her challenge? Should he avoid defeat or losing her friendship by choosing not to race? OR

Plot: Rising Action The story’s rising action describes the series of conflicts faced by the main character. Those conflicts may include forces of nature, such as gravity or strong head winds, or a character’s own feelings.

Plot: Rising Action What if we add more events to the chain? Jen challenges Rick to a bike race. Jen and Rick meet on the trail. Rick’s bike chain slips off. Event 3 has made the plot chain more complicated. The outcome of the race is no longer a matter of who can bike faster.

Plot: Rising Action If Rick can’t repair his chain quickly, he will lose the race. If Jen rides off and leaves Rick stranded, she may win the race but lose Rick’s friendship. EVENT 3 Rick’s chain slips off. Event 3 is called a complication because it makes the plot’s conflict more difficult to resolve.

Jen challenges Rick to a bike race. Plot: Rising Action What other complications might Rick or Jen face? EVENT 3 ? ? ? ? ? ? EVENT 1 EVENT 2 Jen challenges Rick to a bike race. Jen and Rick race. What would make the story interesting, exciting, or suspenseful?

Plot: Climax A story’s climax is the point at which the outcome of the conflict is decided—often in a surprising way. Rick’s chain is off his bike. Jen is circling back to check on him. Suddenly, Rick remembers what he learned from his Uncle Eduardo: 1. how to replace a slipped chain 2. how to impress a girl

Plot: Climax Where does a story’s climax fit into the plot chain? The story reaches its climax when the obstacles created by complications are overcome. The climax makes the ending possible.

Plot: Resolution The resolution is the end of the story. It tells how the conflict turned out. How was the conflict in this story resolved? Neither Jen nor Rick won the race, but . . . they took many more bike rides together. [End of Section]

Plot Quick Check Where in the plot would this scene occur? exposition rising action climax resolution Paul packed his last pair of jeans in his duffel bag and carried it out to the car. It was time to leave for college. His mom and dad—and Miranda—were waiting with sad smiles on their faces. Paul placed his lucky bottle cap in Miranda’s hand and climbed into the car after saying goodbye. He was surprised to find a little box on the seat next to him. Inside it, on a cushion of cotton balls, was Miranda’s lucky letter charm—M for miracles. [End of Section]

Rick tries to impress Jen by agreeing to a bike race. Plot: Subplots In addition to the main plot, some stories have subplots. Subplot Rick thinks little of his uncle’s advice—until Rick finds that he really can use it. Main plot Rick tries to impress Jen by agreeing to a bike race. A subplot is a minor plot that is part of the larger story but not as important.

Plot: Parallel Episodes Some plots contain parallel episodes: repeated events in a story. Episode 1 Rick’s chain slips off. Rick replaces the chain, and the race continues. Episode 2 Rick’s front tire goes flat. Rick patches the tire, and the race continues. Episode 3 Jen’s brake cable snaps. Rick invites Jen to his uncle’s bike-repair shop.

Setting: Setting as Background Setting provides a background—a time period and place in which the action occurs.

Setting: Setting as Background Writers carefully select images and details to create a setting that draws us into the story. sight taste hearing the steady beat of the drum three hot-air balloons colored the sky the tart apple

Setting: Setting as Background Writers carefully select images and details to create a setting that draws us into the story. touch smell gritty, wet sand between her toes strong, sweet scent of a rose

Setting: Setting as Background Settings can include the location of a story. Hong Kong

Setting: Setting as Background Settings may also include weather time of day time period (past, present, or future) social customs

Setting: Setting as Background Quick Check She looked across the sea of people as she made her way through the crowd. The busy waterfront bustled with families eager to enjoy a day at the coast. Bouncing beach balls and colorful towels dotted the sunny boardwalk. Which words in the passage help you imagine where the scene takes place? [End of Section]

Setting: Setting as Conflict Sometimes settings are central to a story’s main conflict: The setting may present a character with his or her main conflict.

Setting: Setting as Conflict Quick Check Soon-yi stared at the table. Her grandmother had decorated it carefully, taking great delight in the ancient green tea ceremony. In the center of the table sat the steaming pot of tea, surrounded by delicate cups and saucers the color of pale green jade. Everything was unfamiliar, alien to Soon-yi’s sense of what an American meal should be. Which words that describe the setting help illustrate Soon-yi’s internal conflict? [End of Section]

Setting: Mood Mood is the overall atmosphere or effect of a work of literature. A writer’s word choice and the story’s setting often create mood. balmy foggy stark

Setting: Mood What adjectives might you use to describe each of the moods illustrated below? ice and snow dark, foggy peaceful mysterious warm breezes menacing

Setting: Mood Quick Check At the most remote end of the crypt there appeared another less spacious. Its walls had been lined with human remains, piled to the vault overhead, in the fashion of the great catacombs of Paris. Three sides of this interior crypt were still ornamented in this manner. from “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe What mood is created by the details of this setting? [End of Section]

Analyze Plot and Setting Your Turn Choose a familiar story. It can be from a book, a TV show, or a movie. Use a story map like this one. Describe the key parts of the story’s plot. Make note of any parallel episodes and instances in which the setting affects the plot. Create a new chart for any subplots.

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