Elements of Fiction: A Necessary Review

Plot
Customary outline:
introduction
rising action
climax
falling action
resolution/denouement
NOT ALL STORIES FOLLOW THE ABOVE ORDER--NOR ARE ALL NOVELS OR STORIES TOLD IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER Example: The Things They Carried
Conflict
5 most common:
Man vs. man
Man vs. nature
Man vs. society
Man vs. himself
Man vs. fate
Protagonist
Antagonist

Characterization:
Round Character
Flat Character
Stereotype
Static Character
Dynamic Character
DIRECT
INDIRECT – involves INFERENCE –based on author’s indirect information—what the character says, does, what is said about him AND your own knowledge and observation

Setting – time and place – the location

Irony
3 types:
Dramatic irony
Verbal irony
Irony of situation

Symbolism – a symbol is often an object, color, name, number or other device an author uses to suggest or represent MORE than it actually presents

Point of View
3rd person omniscient - the author/narrator (sometimes the same; sometimes NOT in THE THINGS THEY CARRIED) - is able to relate to the reader what the characters (specifically Jimmy Cross) is feeling and thinking
1st person - in the 2nd story, "Love," the narrator is part of the story and tells it from his perspective, using the personal pronoun "I"

PERSONA - a persona is a character the author creates and uses as a often his voice in the novel, but . . . he is NOT the author; Tim O'Brien, the author, creates the character of Tim O'Brien the soldier in Vietnam

CATHARSIS - a release of emotions

Theme – is greater than the story itself – Theme reveals a truth about life—not just life in the story, but life in the real world, life in the present.