Bell Ringer�Define the following terms in your journal:

• Setting
• Character
• Plot
• Conflict
• Point of View
• Mood
• Theme
• Tone
• Figurative Language
• Stanza
• Meter
• Beat
• Rhyme

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Elements of a Story

What you need to know!

Story Elements

• Setting
• Characters
• Plot
• Conflict
• Resolution
• Point of View
• Theme

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Setting�

• Setting is the “where and when” of a story. It is the time and place during which the story takes place.

Setting

Details that describe:

• Furniture
• Scenery
• Customs
• Transportation
• Clothing
• Dialects
• Weather
• Time of day
• Time of year

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Time and place are where the action occurs

The Functions of a Setting

• To create a mood or atmosphere
• To show a reader a different way of life
• To make action seem more real
• To be the source of conflict or struggle
• To symbolize an idea

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Mood

• Mood is the feeling that the author tries to convey throughout the story. The atmosphere or emotional condition created by the piece, within the setting. Does the author want the reader to be frightened or sad, or does the story make the reader laugh and think happy thoughts?
• To figure out mood, examine how you feel while reading the story. Often mood is conveyed by the story’s setting.

Characters

• The person, animals, and things participating in a story

Characters

• Protagonist and antagonist are used to describe characters.
• The protagonist is the main character of the story, the one with whom the reader identifies. This person is not necessary “good”.
• The antagonist is the force in opposition of the protagonist; this person may not be “bad” or “evil”, but he/she opposes the protagonist in a significant way

Plot (definition)

• Plot is the organized pattern or sequence of events that make up a story.
• Plot is the literary element that describes the structure of a story. It shows arrangement of events and actions within a story.

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Parts of a Plot

• Exposition - introduction; characters, setting and conflict (problem) are introduced
• Rising Action- events that occur as result of central conflict
• Climax- highest point of interest or suspense of a story
• Falling Action - tension eases; events show the results of how the main character begins to resolve the conflict
• Resolution- loose ends are tied up; the conflict is solved

Plot Diagram

2

1

3

4

5

1. Exposition

• This usually occurs at the beginning of a short story. Here the characters are introduced. We also learn about the setting of the story. Most importantly, we are introduced to the main conflict (main problem).

2. Rising Action

• This part of the story begins to develop the conflict(s). A building of interest or suspense occurs and leads to the climax. Complications arise

3. Climax

• This is the turning point of the story. Usually the main character comes face to face with a conflict. The main character will change in some way. This is the most intense moment.

4. Falling Action

• Action that follows the climax and ultimately leads to the resolution

5. Resolution

• The conclusion; all loose ends are tied up.
• Either the character defeats the problem, learns to live with the problem, or the problem defeats the character.

Putting It All Together

1. Exposition

2. Rising Action

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3. Climax

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4. Falling Action

5. Resolution

Beginning of Story

Middle of Story

End of Story

Diagram of Plot

Setting, characters, and conflict are introduced

Introduction/ Exposition

Development/�Rising Action

Climax

Falling Action

Resolution

Special Techniques used in a Story

• Suspense- excitement, tension, curiosity
• Foreshadowing- hint or clue about what will happen in story
• Flashback- interrupts the normal sequence of events to tell about something that happened in the past
• Symbolism – use of specific objects or images to represent ideas
• Personification – when you make a thing,

idea or animal do something only humans do

• Surprise Ending - conclusion that reader

does not expect

Conflict

Conflict is the dramatic struggle between two forces in a story. Without conflict, there is no plot.

Conflict

• Conflict is a problem that must be solved; an issue between the protagonist and antagonist forces. It forms the basis of the plot.
• Conflicts can be external or internal
• External conflict- outside force may be person, group, animal, nature, or a nonhuman obstacle
• Internal conflict- takes place in a character’s mind

Types of External Conflict�

Character vs Fate

Type of Internal Conflict

Character vs. Self

Point of View

• First Person Point of View- a character from the story is telling the story; uses the pronouns “I” and “me”
• Third Person Point of View- an outside narrator is telling the story; uses the pronouns “he”, “she”, “they”

Types of Third-Person �Point of View

• Third-Person Limited
• The narrator knows the thoughts and feelings on only ONE character in a story.

• Third-Person Omniscient
• The narrator knows the thoughts and feeling of ALL the characters in a story.

Theme

• The theme is the central, general message, the main idea, the controlling topic about life or people the author wants to get across through a literary work
• To discover the theme of a story, think big. What big message is the author trying to say about the world in which we live?
• What is this story telling me about how life works, or how people behave?

The Theme is also

• the practical lesson ( moral) that we learn from a story after we read it. The lesson that teaches us what to do or how to behave after you have learned something from a story or something that has happened to you.

Example: The lesson or teaching of the story is be careful when you’re offered something for nothing.

Any questions?

Figurative Language

“Figuring it Out”

Figurative and Literal Language

Literally: words function exactly as defined

The car is blue.

He caught the football.

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Figuratively: figure out what it means

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I’ve got your back.�

You’re a doll.

^Figures of Speech

Simile

Comparison of two things using “like” or “as.”

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Examples

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The metal twisted like a ribbon.

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She is as sweet as candy.

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Important!

Using “like” or “as” doesn’t make a simile.

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A comparison must be made.

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Not a Simile: I like pizza. �

Simile: The moon is like a pizza.

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Metaphor

Two things are compared without using “like” or “as.”

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Examples

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All the world is a stage.

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Men are dogs.

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Her heart is stone.

Personification

Giving human traits to objects or ideas.

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Examples

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The sunlight danced.

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Water on the lake shivers.

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The streets are calling me.

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Hyperbole

Exaggerating to show strong feeling or effect.

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Examples

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I will love you forever.

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My house is a million miles away.

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She’d kill me.

Understatement

Expression with less strength than expected.

The opposite of hyperbole.

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I’ll be there in one second.

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This won’t hurt a bit.

Onomatopoeia

• A word that “makes” a sound
• SPLAT
• PING
• SLAM
• POP
• POW

Idiom

• A saying that isn’t meant to be taken literally.
• Doesn’t “mean” what it says
• Don’t be a stick in the mud!
• You’re the apple of my eye.
• I have an ace up my sleeve.

Pun

• A form of “word play” in which words have a double meaning.
• I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger and then it hit me.
• I’m reading a book about anti-gravity. It’s impossible to put it down.
• I was going to look for my missing watch, but I didn’t have the time.

Proverb�

• A figurative saying in which a bit of “wisdom” is given.
• An apple a day keeps the doctor away
• The early bird catches the worm

Oxymoron

• When two words are put together that contradict each other. “Opposites”
• Jumbo Shrimp
• Pretty Ugly
• Freezer Burn

Quiz

On a separate sheet of paper…

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1. I will put an example of figurative language on the board.
2. You will write whether it is an simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, pun, proverb, idiom, onomatopoeia, oxymoron or understatement.
3. You can use your notes.

1

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He drew a line as straight as an arrow.

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2

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Knowledge is a kingdom and all who learn are kings and queens.

3

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Can I see you for a second?

4

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The sun was beating down on me.

5

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A flag wags like a fishhook there in the sky.

6

I'd rather take baths�with a man-eating shark,�or wrestle a lion�alone in the dark,�eat spinach and liver,�pet ten porcupines,�than tackle the homework,�my teacher assigns.

7

Ravenous and savage�from its long�polar journey,��the North Wind��is searching�for food—

8

Dinner is on the house.

9

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Can I have one of your chips?

10

Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

11.

• The clouds smiled down at me.

12.

• SPLAT!

13.

• She is as sweet as candy

14.

• I could sleep forever!

15.

• He drove his expensive car into a tree and found out how the Mercedes bends

16.

• I used to have a fear of hurdles, but I got over it

17.

• The wheat field was a sea of gold.

18.

• The streets called to him.

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19.

• POP!

20.

• She was dressed to the nines.

21.

• The early bird catches the worm.

22.

• Old news

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23.

• Your face is killing me!

24.

• She was as white as a ghost.

25.

• She has a skeleton in her closet.

Elements of Poetry

Elements of Poetry

• What is poetry?

• Poetry is not prose. Prose is the ordinary language people use in speaking or writing.

• Poetry is a form of literary expression that captures intense experiences or creative perceptions of the world in a musical language.

• Basically, if prose is like talking, poetry is like singing.

• By looking at the set up of a poem, you can see the difference between prose and poetry.

Distinguishing Characteristics of Poetry

• Unlike prose which has a narrator, poetry has a speaker.
• A speaker, or voice, talks to the reader. The speaker is not necessarily the poet. It can also be a fictional person, an animal or even a thing

Example

But believe me, son.

I want to be what I used to be

when I was like you.

from “Once Upon a Time” by Gabriel Okara

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Distinguishing Characteristics of Poetry

• Poetry is also formatted differently from prose.
• A line is a word or row of words that may or may not form a complete sentence.
• A stanza is a group of lines forming a unit. The stanzas in a poem are separated by a space.

Example

Open it.

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Go ahead, it won’t bite.

Well…maybe a little.

from “The First Book” by Rita Dove

Figures of Speech

• A figure of speech is a word or expression that is not meant to be read literally.

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• A simile is a figure of speech using a word such as like or as to compare seemingly unlike things.

Example

Does it stink like rotten meat?

from “Harlem” by Langston Hughes

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Figures of Speech

• A metaphor also compares seemingly unlike things, but does not use like or as.

Example

the moon is a white sliver

from “I Am Singing Now” by Luci Tapahonso

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• Personification attributes human like characteristics to an animal, object, or idea.

Example

A Spider sewed at Night

from “A Spider sewed at Night” by Emily Dickinson

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Figures of Speech

• Hyperbole – a figure of speech in which great exaggeration is used for emphasis or humorous effect.

Example

“You’ve asked me a million times!”

• Imagery is descriptive language that applies to the senses – sight, sound, touch, taste, or smell. Some images appeal to more than one sense.

Sound Devices

• Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words.
• Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within a line of poetry.
• Onomatopoeia is the use of a word or phrase, such as “hiss” or “buzz” that imitates or suggests the sound of what it describes.

Example of Sound Devices

“In the steamer is the trout

seasoned with slivers of ginger”

from “Eating Together” by Li-Young Lee

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And the stars never rise but I

see the bright eyes

from “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe

Rhyme

• Rhyme is the repetition of the same stressed vowel sound and any succeeding sounds in two or more words.
• Internal rhyme occurs within a line of poetry.
• End rhyme occurs at the end of lines.
• Rhyme scheme is the pattern of end rhymes that may be designated by assigning a different letter of the alphabet to each new rhyme

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Example

“All mine!" Yertle cried. "Oh, the things I now rule!

I'm king of a cow! And I'm king of a mule!

I'm king of a house! And what's more, beyond that,

I'm king of a blueberry bush and cat!

I'm Yertle the Turtle! Oh, marvelous me!

For I am the ruler of all that I see!”

from “Yertle the Turtle”

by Dr. Seuss

A

A

B

B

C

C

In the pathway of the sun,

In the footsteps of the breeze,

Where the world and sky are one,

He shall ride the silver seas,

He shall cut the glittering wave.

I shall sit at home, and rock;

Rise, to heed a neighbor’s knock;

Brew my tea, and snip my thread;

Bleach the linen for my bed.

They will call him brave.

“Penelope” by Dorothy Parker

A

B

A

B

C

D

D

E

E

C

Rhythm and Meter

• Rhythm is the pattern of sound created by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line. Rhythm can be regular or irregular.
• Meter is a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables which sets the overall rhythm of certain poems. Typically, stressed syllables are marked with / and unstressed syllables are marked with ∪ .
• In order to measure how many syllables are per line, they are measured in feet. A foot consists of a certain number of syllables forming part of a line of verse.

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Iambic Pentameter

• The most common type of meter is called iambic pentameter
• An iamb is a foot consisting of an initial unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. For example, return, displace, to love, my heart.
• A pentameter is a line of verse containing 5 metrical feet.

Significance of Iambic Pentameter

• Iambic Pentameter is significant to the study of poetry because
• 1. It is the closest to our everyday speech
• 2. In addition, it mimics the sound of heart beat; a sound common to all human beings.
• 3. Finally, one of the most influential writers of our times uses iambic pentameter in all that he writes – William Shakespeare.

Examples

Example #1

And death is better, as the millions know,

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Than dandruff, night-starvation, or B.O

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from “Letter to Lord Byron” by W.H. Auden

Example #2

When you are old and grey and full of sleep

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And nodding by the fire, take down this book.

W.B. Yeats

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Connotation and Denotation

Connotation - the emotional and imaginative association surrounding a word.

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Denotation - the strict dictionary meaning of a word.

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Example: You may live in a house, but we live in a home.

Which of the following has a more favorable connotation?

thrifty penny-pinching

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pushy aggressive

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politician statesman

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chef cook

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slender skinny

Elements of Poetry

When we explore the connotation and denotation of a poem, we are looking at the poet’s diction.

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Diction – the choice of words by an author or poet.

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Many times, a poet’s diction can help unlock the tone or mood of the poem.

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Elements of Poetry: Tone and Mood

Although many times we use the words mood and tone interchangeably, they do not necessarily mean the same thing.

Mood – the feeling or atmosphere that a poet creates. Mood can suggest an emotion (ex. “excited”) or the quality of a setting (ex. “calm”, “somber”) In a poem, mood can be established through word choice, line length, rhythm, etc.

Tone – a reflection of the poet’s attitude toward the subject of a poem. Tone can be serious, sarcastic, humorous, etc.

Narrative Poetry

• Narrative poetry is verse that tells a story.
• Two of the major examples of narrative poetry include:
• Ballads – a song or poem that tells a story. Folk ballads, which typically tell of an exciting or dramatic event, were composed by an anonymous singer or author and passed on by word of mouth for generations before written down. Literary ballads are written in imitation of folk ballads, but usually given an author.
• Epics – a long narrative poem on a great and serious subject that is centered on the actions of a heroic figure

Dramatic Poetry

• Dramatic poetry is poetry in which one or more characters speak.
• Each speaker always addresses a specific listener.
• This listener may be silent (but identifiable), or the listener may be another character who speaks in reply.
• Usually the conflict that the speaker is involved with is either an intense or emotional.

Lyric Poetry

• Lyric poetry is poetry that expresses a speaker’s personal thoughts and feelings.
• Lyric poems are usually short and musical.
• This broad category covers many poetic types and styles, including haikus, sonnets, free verse and many others.

Haikus

• The traditional Japanese haiku is an unrhymed poem that contains exactly 17 syllables, arranged in 3 lines of 5, 7, 5 syllables each.
• However, when poems written in Japanese are translated into another language, this pattern is often lost.
• The purpose of a haiku is to capture a flash of insight that occurs during a solitary observation of nature.

Examples of Haikus

Since morning glories

hold my well-bucket hostage

I beg for water

- Chiyo-ni

First autumn morning:

the mirror I stare into

shows my father’s face.

- Kijo Murakami

Sonnets

• Background of Sonnets
• Form invented in Italy.
• Most if not all of Shakespeare’s sonnets are about love or a theme related to love.
• Sonnets are usually written in a series with each sonnet a continuous subject to the next. (Sequels in movies)

Sequence of Sonnets

• Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets and can be broken up by the characters they address.
• The Fair Youth: Sonnets 1 – 126 are devoted to a young man of extreme physical beauty. The first 17 sonnets urge the young man to pass on his beauty to the next generation through children. From sonnet 18 on, Shakespeare shifts his viewpoint and writes how the poetry itself will immortalize the young man and allow his beauty to carry on.
• The Dark Lady: Sonnets 127 – 154 talk about an irresistible woman of questionable morals who captivates the young poet. These sonnets speak of an affair between the speaker and her, but her unfaithfulness has hurt the speaker.
• The Rival Poet: This character shows up during the fair youth series. The poet sees the rival poet as someone trying to take his own fame and the poems refer to his own anxiety and insecurity.

Structure of Sonnets

The traditional Elizabethan or Shakespearean sonnet consists of fourteen lines, made up of three quatrains (stanzas of 4 lines each) and a final couplet (two line stanza). Sonnets are usually written in iambic pentameter. The quatrains traditionally follow an abab rhyme scheme, followed by a rhyming couplet.

Example

Sonnet 18

William Shakespeare

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Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date.

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed:

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,

Nor shall Death brag thou wand'rest in his shade

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st.

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Free Verse

• Free verse is poetry that has no fixed pattern of meter, rhyme, line length, or stanza arrangement.
• When writing free verse, a poet is free to vary the poetic elements to emphasize an idea or create a tone.
• In writing free verse, a poet may choose to use repetition or similar grammatical structures to emphasize and unify the ideas in the poem.

Free Verse

• While the majority of popular poetry today is written as free verse, the style itself is not new. Walt Whitman, writing in the 1800’s, created free verse poetry based on forms found in the King James Bible.
• Modern free verse is concerned with the creation of a brief, ideal image, not the refined ordered (and artificial, according to some critics) patterns that other forms of poetry encompass.

Example of Free Verse

The lunatic is carried at last to the asylum a confirmed case,

He will never sleep any more as he did it in the cot in his mother’s bedroom;

The dour printer with gray head and gaunt jaws works at his case,

He turns is quid of tobacco, his eyes blurred with the manuscript;

The malformed limbs are tied to the anatomist’s table,

What is removed drops horribly in the pail;

The quadroon girl is sold at the stand….the drunkard nods by the barroom stove…

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Excerpt from “Song of Myself” (section 15)

Walt Whitman