plot basic situation conflict complications climax resolution your turn

Plot

Basic Situation

Conflict

Complications

Climax

Resolution

Your Turn

Plot and Setting

Feature Menu

Setting

Details

Atmosphere

Conflict

Plot is the series of events in a story.

Plot answers the question “What happened?”

Plot

Most plots have four parts.

Plot

Basic situation

Complications

ClimaxResolution

You can diagram a plot like this:

Plot

These events are the complications.

The climax is the “high point” of the story.

The resolution usually wraps up the “loose ends” of the story.

The basic situation usually answers two questions:

The first part of the plot tells you about the story’s basic situation.

PlotBasic Situation

Who is the main character?

What is the character’s problem, or conflict?

[End of Section]

A conflict is a struggle.

another character

or a situation.

PlotConflict

In an external conflict, a character clashes with an outside force:

PlotConflict

An internal conflict is a struggle that takes place within a character.

The character might struggle to overcome fear, to exercise self-control, or to gain confidence.

When the conflict involves a setting, the setting is often extreme or life threatening.

PlotConflict

[End of Section]

As the characters try to solve their problems, complications arise.

Complications are new problems that come up. They often make us worry about what will happen and what a character will do.

Complications create suspense in the story. [End of Section]

PlotComplications

When a story reaches its climax, it has reached its most exciting point.

At the climax, you find out how the conflict will be resolved. [End of Section]

PlotClimax

In the final part of the plot, the resolution, the main character’s problem is resolved.

In a fairy tale . . .

the clues are explained.

In a mystery . . .

they all live happily ever after. [End of Section]

In an adventure . . .

the survivors may be rescued.

PlotResolution

Quick Check

As the hot July sun slipped below the horizon, a cooling darkness filled Central Valley.

Lisa had just fallen asleep when the windows of the trailer rattled like a snake giving warning. The trailer swayed back and forth. Lisa could hear the baby crying. Papa yelled, “Outside! Get out! Get out! It’s an earthquake!”

Plot

1. Who do you think the main character is?

2. What do you predict the external conflict will be?

Quick Check

The earth groaned, and a river of mud slid down the canyon. The family huddled together in the dark.

Mama tore up a sheet to make a sling for Papa’s broken arm. Papa shined his flashlight on the wreck that used to be the trailer. “It could explode,” he warned. “Don’t get any closer.”

Plot

This passage takes place a little later in the story.

3. What complications have come up?

Quick Check

The baby kept crying. Lisa’s mother said, “I have nothing to feed him. What are we going to do?”

Suddenly the earth rumbled again. Lisa looked back at the trailer and saw fallen electric wires dangling all over it.

Plot

4. What new complications have come up?

5. What do you predict the family will decide to do? Why?

Quick Check

Lisa stumbled down the side of the canyon. She could hear a siren coming closer. The lights of a helicopter shone on her like a spotlight. “Stop! Help us!” she cried, frantically waving her arms. The copter drifted to the ground.

Plot

This passage takes place later in the story.

6. Why is this event probably the climax of the story?

7. Write a resolution for this story. What happens to the family?

to Lisa?to the baby?to the mother?to Papa?

[End of Section]

The setting is where and when a story’s action takes place.

Some stories, like trickster tales, can take place almost anywhere.

Setting

The settings may differ, but they have little effect on each story.

Coyote

Brer Rabbit

However, in many stories, settings play an important role.

Setting

The setting in each of these stories controls the action. The story can’t take place in another kind of setting.

The Arctic

A rain forest

A big city

Setting and Details

Details help make the setting seem real. You can imagine

• how people live and dress

• what they eat and where they work

[End of Section]

Relaxed

Somber

Creepy

Setting and Atmosphere

Writers often use setting to create an atmosphere or mood.

[End of Section]

In some stories, characters are in conflict with their settings:

a person marooned in a small boat in the middle of the ocean

Setting and Conflict

animals trapped by a raging forest fire

people surviving on a cold mountain with no food

Why do you think these kinds of settings are used in so many movies?

[End of Section]

Setting

Quick Check

Which words in the passage help you imagine where the scene takes place?

The smell of pine made Ben dizzy—or perhaps it was the height. Either way, he and Tara had lost the desire to chat.

Squirrels scampered and chattered in the limbs that supported the heavy wooden floor. Birds flew in close by to have a look at them, and all around them the long arms of pine trees waved in approval of the old hideout.

Setting

Quick Check

Using the details of this setting, tell when the story takes place.

With just enough kerosene to last until the next wagon to the fort, Mama turned down the lamp and set it on the hearth. It was Josh’s turn to poke at the coals and make the room glow.

Jenny was outside tightening the wire door around the henhouse. In another week, they could fill out a form for claiming their little part of the new territory.

Setting

Quick Check

The elevator opened onto a dark, narrow hallway. One after the other, identical-looking doors lined the long corridor.

From behind one of the doors came a faint scratching sound. Glowing dimly, a sign at the end of hall probably said EXIT, but cobwebs almost completely covered the letters.

What mood is created by the details of this setting?

[End of Section]

Choose a book, movie, or other story that you know well.

Analyze Plot and Setting

• Draw a plot diagram like the one shown here.

• Add labels describing the key parts of the story’s plot.

Your Turn

The End