Elements of Plot

Antagonist

• The Antagonist is a character or force in conflict with a main character, or protagonist.

Protagonist

• The Protagonist is the main character in a literary work • Can you name some famous Protagonists that are found in literature?

Plot • Plot is the sequence of events. The first the plot involves both characters and a central conflict. • The plot usually begins with an exposition that introduces the setting, the characters, and the basic situation.

PLOTLINE

Climax Exposition Conflict Introduced Resolution

Exposition

The Exposition is the introduction. It is the part of the work that introduces the characters, setting, and basic situation.

Rising Action

Rising Action is the part of the plot that begins to occur as soon as the conflict is introduced. The rising action adds complications to the conflict and increases reader interest.

Climax

The Climax is the point of greatest emotional intensity, interest, or suspense in the plot of a narrative. The climax typically comes at the turning point in a story or drama.

Falling Action

Falling Action is the action that typically follows the climax and reveals its results.

Resolution

The Resolution is the part of the plot that concludes the falling action by revealing or suggesting the outcome of the conflict.

Conflict

Conflict is the struggle between opposing forces in a story or play. There are two types of conflict that exist in literature.

External Conflict External conflict exists when a character struggles against some outside force, such as another character, nature, society, or fate.

Man vs. Man Man vs. Nature

Internal Conflict

Internal conflict exists within the mind of a character who is torn between different courses of action.

Man vs. Himself

Flashback

• A flashback is a literary device in which an earlier episode, conversation, or event is inserted into the sequence of events.

Flashback continued… The movie Titanic flashback. is told almost entirely in a What are some other films that contain flashback to help tell stories?

Holes Willy Wonka Think of some more…

Foreshadowing

• Foreshadowing is the author the story. ’ s use of clues to hint at what might happen later in • Writers use foreshadowing to build their readers ’ expectations and to create suspense. This is used to help readers prepare for what is to come.

Suspense

Suspense is the growing interest and excitement readers experience while awaiting a climax or resolution in a work of literature. It is a feeling of anxious uncertainty about the outcome of events. Writers create suspense by raising questions in the minds of their readers.

Point of View

Point of View is the perspective, or vantage point, from which a story is told. It is the relationship of the narrator to the story.

First-person is told by a character who uses the first-person pronoun “ I ” .

Third-person limited point of view is the point of view where the narrator uses third-person pronouns such as “ he ” and “ she ” to refer to the characters.

Setting

The setting of a literary work is the time and place of the action. The setting includes all the details of a place and time – the year, the time of day, even the weather. The place may be a specific country, state, region, community, neighborhood, building, institution, or home. Details such as dialect, clothing, customs, and modes of transportation are often used to establish setting. In most stories, the setting serves as a backdrop – a context in which the characters interact. The setting of a story often helps to create a particular mood, or feeling.

Style

Style is the distinctive way in which an author uses language.

Word choice, phrasing, sentence length, tone, dialogue, purpose, and attitude toward the audience and subject can all contribute to an author ’ s writing style.

Theme

The theme of a literary work is its central message, concern, or purpose. A theme can usually be expressed as a generalization, or general statement, about people or life. The theme may be stated directly by the writer although it is more often presented indirectly. When the theme is stated indirectly, the reader must figure out the theme by looking carefully at what the work reveals about the people or about life.

Tone

Tone is a reflection of a writer ’ s or speaker through words and details that express particular emotions and that evoke and emotional response from the reader. ’ s attitude toward a subject of a poem, story, or other literary work. Tone may be communicated For example, word choice or phrasing may seem to convey respect, anger, lightheartedness, or sarcasm.

Figures of Speech

A figure of speech is a specific device or kind of figurative language, such as hyperbole, metaphor, personification, simile, or understatement.

Figurative language is used for descriptive effect, often to imply ideas indirectly. It is not meant to be taken literally. Figurative language is used to state ideas in vivid and imaginative ways.

Metaphor

A Metaphor is a type of speech that compares or equates two or more things that have something in common. A metaphor does NOT use like or as .

Example: Life is a bowl of cherries.

Simile

A Simile is another figure of speech that compares seemingly unlike things. Simile ’ s DO use the words like or as .

Example: Her voice was like nails on a chalkboard.

Oxymoron

An Oxymoron is a figure of speech that is a combination of seemingly contradictory words. Examples: Same difference Pretty ugly Roaring silence

Personification

Personification is a figure of speech in which an animal, object, force of nature, or idea is given human qualities or characteristics. Example: Tears began to fall from the dark clouds.

Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of sounds, most often consonant sounds, at the beginning of words. Alliteration gives emphasis to words.

Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers