1. The Short Story

2. What is a Short Story?
A short fictional narrative; the plots are generally brief and uncomplicated.

3. What is the Plot?
Plot: Series of related events that make up a story (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution)

4. Characterization
The creation and development of a character(s); often the reader learns about the character through description, dialogue, actions, or reactions

5. Characterization Direct Characterization Indirect Characterization
The author directly tells/states what the character’s personality is like or what the character looks like. Example: cruel, kind
Indirect Characterization
The author shows a character’s personality through his/her actions, thoughts, feelings, words, appearance or other character’s observations or reactions

6. Character Character – a person in a story, poem, or play
Main Character- the most important character in a story, often called the protagonist
Minor Character- the other characters in a story who interact with the main character and help move the story along

7. Character Types of Characters:
Round- a character who is fully developed, has many different character traits (dynamic)
Flat- a character who is often stereotyped, one-dimensional, few traits (static)
Static – a character who does not change (flat)
Dynamic – a character who changes as a result of the story's events (round)

8. Character Types of Characters (continued):
Stock- a type of flat character who falls into an immediate recognizable category or type (absent-minded professor, dumb blonde)
Secondary- a supporting character; while not prominent the character is important to the events in the story
Tragic- a character who posses a flaw or commits an error in judgment which leads to his or her downfall or reversal of fortune

9. Protagonist
The hero or main character of the story; he or she will often go through a change- death is not a change
the most important character
changes and grows because of experiences in the story

10. Antagonist A major character who opposes the protagonist
the antagonist does not change
Types of antagonists:
people
nature
society

11. Exposition
Section of a story which introduces the characters, the setting, and the conflict(s)

12. Conflict
A struggle between two opposing forces. It produces tension and drives the action of the plot
Types
Internal – takes place within a character
Man vs. Him(Her)self
External – a character struggles against an outside force
Man vs. Man
Man vs. Nature
Man vs. technology, progress
Man vs. Society
Man vs. Supernatural

13. Setting
When and where a story takes place

14. Rising Action
A series of complications which reveals the problem or conflict in a story
These occur when the main characters take action to resolve their problems and are met with further problems:
Fear
Hostility
Threatening situation

15. Climax
The turning point in the story: the high point of interest and/or suspense
Climax
Rising Action or Complications
Falling Action

16. Falling Action
All events following the climax or turning point in the story. These events are a result of the action taken at the climax.

17. Resolution
The end of the central conflict: it shows how the situation turns out and ties up loose ends
Also called the Denoument

18. Point of View Vantage point from which a story is told
First person- Told by a narrator who is a character in the story and uses the pronoun “I”
First person unreliable- a narrator who is biased and doesn’t give an accurate picture of the events due to youth, madness, or inexperience
Second person- Rarely used, the story is told using the pronoun “you,” which casts the reader as a character in the story

19. Point of View
Third person limited- Told by the narrator who uses third person pronouns (he, she, it). This narrator usually is privy to the thoughts and actions of one character
Third person omniscient- told by the narrator using third person pronouns. This narrator is privy to the thoughts and actions of all the characters
Objective narrator- a narrator/character who recounts only what characters say and do offering no insight to their thinking or analysis of events

20. Theme
The central idea or lesson about life that an author conveys in a piece of literature; sometimes the them is obvious, in most stories the them is not directly stated. It is conveyed through the character’s thoughts, actions, or sequence of events.

21. Flashback
A scene in a narrative that is set in the present but is interrupted to a previous time. Allows the reader to see actions that occurred in the past that may or may not have effected a character’s behavior.

22. Foreshadowing A plot device in which future events are hinted at
The writer puts clues in the story to give the reader a hint of what is to come

23. Symbol
An object, person, or event that functions as itself, but also stands for something more than itself
Example: A scales function is to weigh things,
but they are also a symbol
of our justice system

24. Figurative Language
Involves some imaginative comparison between two unlike things:
Simile – comparing two unlike things using like or as
“I wandered lonely as a cloud”
Metaphor – comparing two unlike things (not using like or as)
Life is a roller coaster, it has lots of ups and downs

25. Figurative Language
Personification – Giving human qualities to non-human things
“The wind howled”

26. Irony
A contrast between appearances and reality- usually one in which reality is the opposite of what is expected; to say one thing but mean another

27. Irony
Verbal Irony – occurs when a speaker says one thing but means something else; sarcasm
Situational Irony – A contradiction between what we expect to happen and what really does happen in a story
Dramatic Irony – occurs when the reader knows something important that the characters in the story do not know

28. Allusion
A reference in a story or poem to another work of literature, art, history, current event, famous person, or place.

29. Suspense
A literary device that uses tension to make the plot more exciting; uncertainty or anxiety the reader feels about what is going to happen next in a story

30. Imagery Language that appeals to the senses, a mental picture Touch
Taste
Sight
Sound
Smell