NINTH GRADE ENGLISH

Plot

Setting

Characterization

Point of View

Theme

Irony

Includes three basic elements…

Characters

Setting

Main conflict is revealed

Usually lasts for the several paragraphs in a short story…

Hooks you into a story, book, or a movie

Characters try to resolve main conflict only to be met with more conflicts

Types of conflict…

Internal Conflict---a conflict that occurs within a character’s own self…usually a decision the person is trying to make

Examples: man vs. self

External Conflict---a conflict between a character and anything or anyone else

Examples: man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. machine, man vs. society, man vs. supernatural

Highest point in the story

Most exciting point in the story

Shortest part of the story

Ties up all loose ends of the story

Is shorter than the other parts of the story

This is added to a mystery

Reveals the outcome of the mystery

Where and when a story takes place

Created by using images…words that appeal to your fives senses

Provides the story with background…a place for the characters to live and act in

A good setting makes the story real and believable

Reveals a lot about the characters themselves

A good setting lets you know what kind of characters you have

Supplies atmosphere or mood (which affects our feelings)

Midnight in a lonely house vs. noon in a crowded house changes how we feel about a story

Two types of characterization…

Direct characterization---the author tells the reader exactly what a character is like

“He was a tall man past middle age, for his hair was a vivid white; but his thick eyebrows and pointed military moustache were as black as the night from which Rainsford had come. His eyes, too, were black and very bright. He had high cheekbones, a sharp-cut nose, a spare, dark face, the face of a man used to giving orders, the face of an aristocrat.”

Indirect Characterization---author shows us what a character is like and allows us to interpret for ourselves the kind of person we are meeting

Authors use five ways to indirectly characterize

1. Character’s own speech

2. Character’s appearance

3. Character’s private thoughts

4. Character’s actions

5. How others feel about them

The person the author has chosen to tell the story

Narrator is NOT the author

Three types of Point of View

Very important in how a story is told

an “all knowing” narrator

is able to tell us everything about every character in the story

narrator is NOT a character in the story

will refer to characters in the story as “he” and “she”

is able to tell us everything about ONE character in the story

narrator is NOT a character in the story

will refer to characters in the story as “he” and “she”

Is only able to tell us what he or she sees or hears about events in the story

narrator is a character in the story

will refer to him or herself as “I”

Theme…the central idea of the story

Subject…simply the topic of the story (can be stated in one or two words)

Examples…love, war, growing up

1. It usually REVEALS A TRUTH about human nature.

2. It is usually NOT DIRECTLY STATED in the story.

3. It is NOT a MORAL.

4. It shows INSIGHT INTO HUMAN BEHAVIOR.

5. It must be stated in at least ONE COMPLETE SENTENCE.

Check the TITLE…Does it hold a special meaning for the story?

Does the main character CHANGE from the beginning to the end of the story?

Are any IMPORTANT STATEMENTS made about LIFE within the story?

And then…TEST YOUR STATEMENT and be sure it applies to the ENTIRE story and not just PARTS of it.

Irony is surprise

The difference between what we expect to happen and what actually happens

There are three types of irony in literature.

Verbal

Situational

Dramatic

Say one thing and mean something else

Doing it with a bitter tone---sarcasm

A situation that we expect to happen actually happens oppositely

Example: a preacher is supposed to be a good guy but turns out to be a murder

Example: Movie and play Arsenic and Old Lace

The audience knows something that the characters on stage or in the book/story do not know