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

2. 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?

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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?

9. 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

10. 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.

11. 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]

12. 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]

13. Plot Quick Check Where in the plot would this scene occur?
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.
This scene would occur during the resolution. Paul and Miranda part as friends when he leaves for college.

14. 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.

15. 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.

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

17. 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

18. 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

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

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

21. 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]

22. 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?
The boldface words describe what can be seen in this setting.

23. 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.

24. 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]

25. 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?
The boldface words describe a setting with which Soon-yi feels unfamiliar.

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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]

29. 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?
The details create a somber, frightening mood.

30. 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.

31. The End