Story Elements

Characters

A dynamic character is one who goes through a personality change due to the events in the story.

A static character is one whose personality does not change throughout the story.

Round Characters

A round character is one whose personality, background, motives, and other features are fully described or explained by the author. In general, main characters are round because many insights are given.

Flat Characters

A flat character is one who is not fully described but is useful in carrying out some narrative purpose of the author. They tend to be minor characters.

Dynamic and Round

In most books the main character is both dynamic and round.

Round and StaticCharacters can be round and static. For example, think about the character James Bond. We know a great deal about this character’s personality (round), yet he does not go through an inner personality change from the beginning to the end of the story (static). Often the side-kick in a story is round and static.

Dynamic and Flat

Characters cannot be dynamic and flat, because in a flat character we do not know enough about them to recognize a change.

Dynamic or StaticRound or Flat

Ebenezer Scrooge

from Charles Dickens's

A Christmas Carol

Dynamic and Round

Dynamic or Static Round or Flat

Billy Coleman

from Wilson RawlsWhere the Red Fern Grows

Dynamic and Round

Dynamic or Static Round or Flat

Will Coleman (Billy’s dad)

from Wilson Rawls’Where the Red Fern Grows  

Static and Flat  

Dynamic or Static Round or FlatMayor Cole

from Jeanne DuPrau’s   The City of Ember

Static and Flat

Dynamic or Static Round or Flat

Lina Mayfleet

from Jeanne DuPrau’s   The City of Ember

Dynamic and Round

Dynamic or Static Round or Flat

Robin

from Batman

Static and Round

AssignmentOn your story map list these characters

in The Cay.• Phillip Enright • Timothy • Mrs. Enright (Grace)• Mr. Enright (Phillip)• Henrik van Boven Label each as dynamic or static &

round or flat.

Assignment - Answer Key

• Phillip Enright dynamic round• Timothy static round• Mrs. Enright (Grace) static flat• Mr. Enright (Phillip) static flat• Henrik van Boven static flat

Setting

The setting of a story includes the time and place in which the story takes place. Some stories may have more than one setting.

Setting

What is the setting for Where the Red Fern Grows? 

Setting

Where the Red Fern Grows

Where the Red Fern Grows is set in the Ozark Mountains on Cherokee land in northeastern Oklahoma during the Great Depression.

Setting

What is the setting for The City of Ember?

Setting

The City of Ember is set in an underground city in the future.

Assignment

On your story map fill in the setting box for The Cay.

(Note: List 2 locations.)

Assignment – Answer Key1. February 1942 on the island of Curacao,

then part of the Dutch West Indies.

2. When Phillip is ship-wrecked, the setting shifts to an unnamed cay deep in the Devil's Mouth, the long U-shaped coral banks in the Caribbean. Most of the action takes place between April and August of 1942, although the narrative actually concludes in April of 1943.

First-Person Point of View

In the first-person point of view one character tells the story. This character reveals only personal thoughts and feelings of what s/he sees. The writer uses pronouns such as "I“, "me“, “mine”, or "my".

Example:I woke up this morning feeling terrific. I hopped out of bed excited to start the new day. I knew that today was the day my big surprise would come.

Second-Person Point of View With the second-person point of view the narrator tells the story using the pronoun "you".  The character is someone similar to you.

Example:You wake up feeling really terrific. Then you hop out of bed excited to start the new day. You know that today is the day that your big surprise will come.

This is rarely used in literature. It can be seen in Choose Your Own Adventure books.

Third-Person Point of View

The third-person point of view is the most commonly used in fiction. When writing in the third-person you will use pronouns such as "he", "she", or "it".

Example:Brian woke up feeling terrific. He hopped out of bed excited to start the new day. He knew that today was the day that his big surprise would come.

Group Practice

Using your response cards, determine if each of the following excerpts are written in first, second, or third-point of view.

1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View Excerpt from Woodsong by Gary PaulsenI go up to the front of the team in the darkness and drag them around, realizing we are lost. My clothes have been ripped on tree limbs and my face is bleeding from cuts, and when I look back down the side of the mountain we have just climbed I see twenty-seven head lamps bobbing up the trail. Twenty-seven teams have taken our smell as the valid trail and are following us. Twenty-seven teams must be met head on in the narrow brush and passed and told to turn around.

Excerpt from Woodsong

by Gary Paulsen

First-Person Point of View

1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View Excerpted from Soldier's Heart by Gary PaulsenThere would be a shooting war. There were rebels who had violated the law and fired on Fort Sumter and the only thing they'd respect was steel, it was said, and he knew they were right, and the Union was right, and one other thing they said as well--if a man didn't hurry he'd miss it. The only shooting war to come in a man's life and if a man didn't step right along he'd miss the whole thing.

Charley didn't figure to miss it. The only problem was that Charley wasn't rightly a man yet, at least not to the army. He was fifteen and while he worked as a man worked, in the fields all of a day and into night, and looked like a man standing tall and just a bit thin with hands so big they covered a stove lid, he didn't make a beard yet and his voice had only just dropped enough so he could talk with men.

Excerpted from Soldier's Heart

by Gary Paulsen

Third-Person Point of View

1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View

Excerpted from Father Water, Mother Woods by Gary PaulsenIt started that simply.  At the courthouse or the library there was a large bulletin board, and for a dollar you could sign the board and write down your guess to win the car-through-the-ice raffle.  Of course, you never met anyone who had won, but only those who knew somebody who had won, and therein, in the winning, the simplicity was lost.

Excerpted from Father Water, Mother Woods

by Gary Paulsen

Second-Peron Point of View

1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View Excerpted from Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen        

A

        "Tonight we just do A." He sat back on his heels and pointed. "There it be."

        I looked at it, wondered how it stood. "Where's the bottom to it?"

        "There it stands on two feet, just like you."

        "What does it mean?"

        "It means A--just like I said. It's the first letter in the alphabet. And when you see it you make a sound like this: ayyy, or ahhhh."

        "That's reading? To make that sound?"

        He nodded. "When you see that letter on paper or a sack or in the dirt you make one of those sounds. That's reading."

Excerpted from Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen

       

Third-Person Point of View

1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View Excerpted from Caught by the Sea by Gary Paulsen I drove to California that very day, straight to the coast, then north, away from people, to a small town named Guadalupe, near Santa Maria. There I bought some cans of beans and bread and Spam and fruit cocktail and a cheap sleeping bag and then walked out through the sand dunes, where I could hear the surf crashing. I walked until I could see the water coming in, rolling in from the vastness, and I sat down and let the sea heal me.

Excerpted from Caught by the Sea by Gary Paulsen

First-Person Point of View

1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View Excerpted from Guts by Gary Paulsen I have spent an inordinate amount of time in wilderness woods, much of it in northern Minnesota, some in Canada and some in the Alaskan wilds. I have hunted and trapped and fished and have been exposed to almost all kinds of wilderness animals; I’ve had bear come at me, been stalked by a mountain lion, been bitten by snakes and punctured by porcupines and torn by foxes and once pecked by an attacking raven, but I have never seen anything rivaling the madness that seems to infect a large portion of the moose family.

Excerpted from Guts by Gary Paulsen

First-Person Point of View

1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View Excerpted from Winterkill by Gary Paulsen

And I would like to stop the story of Duda here and tell how he got his divorce and married Bonnie and they adopted me and we bought a farm . . . . That's how it would end in a movie, with Rock Hudson playing Duda and Doris Day playing Bonnie, and that's how it should end, and that's how I dream of it ending almost every night, until I wake up sweating and remember that it isn't a movie and it doesn't end that way.

Excerpted from Winterkill

by Gary Paulsen

First-Person Point of View

Third-Person Point of View

Third-person point of view may be written using several variations.

In the third-person objective the story is told without describing any character's thoughts, opinions, or feelings. Think of this as seeing what a camera can see. A camera can not see what is going on inside someone’s mind.

Third-Person Objective

Third-person objective is rarely used except in easy picture books.

Example

The alarm clock sounded. Brian cut off the clock and jumped out of bed. He had a smile on his face.

Third-Person Point of View

In the third-person omniscient, the reader knows exactly what is going on inside various characters’ heads in regards to their thoughts and feelings.

Joe is sad.

Tim is sneaky. Pete is

in love.

Rob is surprised.

Third-Person OmniscientExample from Woods Runner by Gary PaulsenAlthough Samuel's parents lived in the wilderness, they were not a part of it. They had been raised in towns and had been educated in schools where they'd been taught to read and write and play musical instruments. They moved west when Samuel was a baby, so that they could devote themselves to a quiet life of hard physical work and contemplation. They loved the woods, but they did not understand them. Not like Samuel.  

(Here the reader knows both the parents’ and Samuel’s feelings.)

Third-Person Point of View

In third-person limited, the reader knows only one character's mind, either throughout the entire work or in a specific section. The narration is limited to what can be known, seen, thought, or judged from a single character's perspective.

Sally wondered what the boys were thinking.

Practice with Point of View

http://mrshatzi.com/files/pointofview-ws.pdf

Answer Key ~~ Point of Viewfor http://mrshatzi.com/files/pointofview-ws.pdf

1. From Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli - third person limited

2. From From the Mixed-Up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E. L. Konigsburg - third person limited

3. From The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois - first person

4. From Number the Stars by Lois Lowry - third person limited

5. From Missing May by Cynthia Rylant - first person

6. From The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis - third person omniscient

7. From I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou - first person

8. From The Olympic Games by Theodore Knight - third person limited

9. From “Through the Tunnel” by Doris Lessing - third person omniscient

10.From “Pictures on a Rock” by Brent Ashabranner - third person limited

Assignment

On your story map, fill in the Point of View box for The Cay.

Assignment – Answer Key

first-person

Conflict is the struggle between the opposing forces on which the action in a work of literature depends.

In short stories, there is usually one major conflict. In longer stories, there could be several conflicts.

Conflict

Some forms of conflict include the following:

•Person vs. Person

•Person vs. Self

•Person vs. the Environment

•Person vs. Technology

Conflict

Person vs. Person

A person vs. person conflict is between two forms of like beings.

ExamplesFrom Where the Red Fern Grows - Billy and his dogs are attacked by a mountain lion, and they must do everything they can to survive.From Weasel -Nathan is captured by Weasel, an Indian fighter. Earlier in the book, Weasel had attacked Nathan's pa, had taken away Pa’s riffle, and had killed the farm animals.

Person vs. SelfIn a person vs. self conflict the main character has a problem within him/herself.

ExamplesFrom WeaselNathan spends the winter months struggling with his conscious. Should he go back to Weasel’s cabin to seek revenge or forget about Weasel?

Person vs. the Environment

In a person vs. the environment conflict a character is struggling against the forces of nature.

Example:From Where the Red Fern Grows - Little Ann and Old Dan tree a coon in the tallest tree in the river bottoms.From Where the Red Fern Grows - Billy enters the championship coon hunt and encounters the snowstorm.

Person vs. Technology

In a person vs. technology conflict, a character has a problem with robots or machines.Example

From Hatchet - Brian flying the airplane after the pilot dies.

Response Cards

Use your response cards to show the type of conflict in each of the following slides.

Person vs. Person

Person vs. Technology

Person vs. Person

Person vs. Person

Person vs. Self

Person vs. Technology

Person vs. Person

Person vs. Nature

Person vs. Nature

Person vs. Person

Person vs. Nature

Person vs. Person

Person vs. Nature

Person vs. Person

Person vs. Self

Person vs. Person

Person vs. Person

Person vs. Nature

Assignment

On your story map, fill in the conflict boxes for The Cay.

Assignment Answer KeyConflictPerson vs. The Environment Phillip and Timothy must survive the hot

sun, sharks, and lack of water while on the raft. Later they must live through a hurricane.

Person vs. Self Phillip struggles with his prejudice of black

people. Phillip has to learn to come to terms with his blindness to survive.

Plot

The plot is the story that is told in a novel, play, or movie. The plot has five components.

Plot Structure ComponentsExpositionRising ActionClimaxFalling ActionResolution

Exposition The exposition is the introduction of the story.

It contains the setting, introduces the main characters, and gives background information. It is the information needed to understand a story.

Rising Action

The rising action is the portion of the story where a character tries to solve the conflict. This is the longest part of the story.

Climax

The climax is the tensest moment of the story. It is the turning point in the story that occurs when characters try to resolve the complication.

Falling Action

The falling action is where the characters begin to apply a solution to the conflict and tie up loose ends.

Resolution

The resolution is how everything turns out in the story. It is the set of events that bring the story to a close.

AssignmentComplete the Plot and Plot

Diagram on your Story Map for The Cay.

Assignment – Answer Key

Assignment – Answer Key

Theme

The theme is the insight about life or human nature that the writer shares with the reader. It is usually not stated directly, but must be inferred.

The theme is the message of a story. Ask yourself this question. What should you learn from the story?

Theme Using Hatchet

Theme Proof (Evidence)

Never give up - Determination Brian kept flying the plane and radioing for help after the pilot died.

Brian hunted and searched for food.

Brian built a shelter to protect himself from the elements.

Brian kept working until he was able to get inside the plane to get the emergency pack.

Theme Using Weasel

Theme Proof (Evidence)

Letting Go of Revenge and Anger ~ Moral Choices

Nathan is consumed with anger after he becomes friends with Erza and learns how Weasel has mistreated him.

Nathan struggles when he comes face-to-face with Weasel. ~~~ Weasel is an evil man who has attacked Nathan’s father, killed the animals on his farm, stolen his father’s gun and animals.

Nathan decides to take the law in his own hands only to discover Weasel has already died.

AssignmentComplete Theme section on your

Story Map for The Cay.

Assignment – Answer Key

Theme Proof (Evidence)

Friendship

Acceptance

Transformation

Sacrifie

Phillip does not like Timothy because he has been taught to fear people who are different. When Phillip become blind he can not see the differences and learns to accept Timothy as a person and not someone who is from a different race.

The two form a friendship that is so strong that Timothy is willing to risk his life in order to save Phillip.

Assignment – Answer Key

Theme Proof (Evidence)

Man versus the Environment When the ship Phillip and Timothy explodes they must overcome the following:

Living at sea on a raft

Finding food and shelter on an island

Overcome a hurricane