Q2_W1_D1_Eng7PPt. Powerpoint Presentation

Elements of Prose

1. Elements of Prose

2. Prose
•There are 2 types of writing:
•prose- anything that is NOT poetry
or plays
•poetry
•Prose is divided into 2 categories:
•short story
•novel

3. Short Story
•Definition: Fictional story that can be read in one
sitting.
•Example: “A Rose for Emily,” “The
Cask of Amontillado,” or “The Most
Dangerous Game”

4. Novel
•Definition: A long prose narrative that must be read
in many sittings.
•Example: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Scarlet Letter, or The
Great Gatsby

5. Elements of Prose
•Plot
•Character
•Setting
•Point of View
•Theme
•Irony
•Symbol

6. Plot
•The “framework” or “skeleton” of the story;
•A series of related events that are
linked together

7. What Makes Up Plot?
1.Basic Situation
(Exposition)
-Tells the audience
who the characters
are and introduces
the conflict
-Example: “Every
Who
Down in Who-ville
Liked Christmas
a lot...”

8. What Makes Up Plot?
2. Rising Action
- Complications
that arise
when the
characters
take steps to
resolve their
conflicts

9. What Makes Up Plot?
3.Climax: Most
exciting or
suspenseful
moment when
something happens
to determine the
outcome of the
conflict.

10. What Makes Up Plot?
4.Falling Action:
The conflict is in
the process of
being resolved or
“unraveled

11. What Makes Up Plot?
•Resolution: (Denouement) or “Untying the knot”
•When the story’s problem/conflict is resolved
and the story ends
•Endings may be happy or tragic

12. Freytag’s Pyramid
•Gustav Freytag was a Nineteenth Century German novelist
who saw common patterns in the plots of stories and novels
and developed a diagram to analyze them. He diagrammed a
story's plot using a pyramid like the one shown here:

13. Character: Revealing Human
Nature
•Character- A person
or being in a story
that performs the
action of the plot.
•Characterization:
The process of
revealing the
personality of a
character in a story.

14. Steps to the Characterization Process
•A writer can reveal a character in the following ways:
1.Letting up hear the character speak
2.Describing how the character looks & dresses
3.Letting us listen to the character’s inner thoughts
and feelings
4.Revealing what other characters in the story think or
say about the character
5.Showing us what the character does – how he or she
acts
*These call on the reader to take the information he or
she is given to interpret for himself/herself the kind
of character he or she is reading about. This is called
INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION

15. Steps to the Characterization Process
6.Telling us directly what the character’s personality
is like: cruel, sneaky, brace, etc.
This is called DIRECT CHARACTERIZATION

16. Types of Characters
•Dynamic Character: The character changes as a
result of the action of the story.
•Example- Ebenezer Scrooge, the Grinch
•Static Character: The character does not change
much in the course of the story.
•Example- Brutus (Julius Caesar);
•Mama Younger (A Raisin in the Sun)

17. Setting
•Defintion: The time and location in which the story
takes place

18. Setting
•Purpose of Setting
1.Gives background information
2.Provides conflict
-Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Society
3.Can reveal a lot about someone’s character
4.Provides mood or atmosphere
-Mood- the feeling WE get when we
read a story
5.Can paint images for the reader
- Images – words that call forth the 5
senses

19. Theme
•Definition: The insight about human life that is
revealed in a literary work. The “golden thread”
woven throughout the story.
-The theme is what the author is saying through the story
(it’s a deeper truth about reality)
- The plot how he says it : it is the story he uses to get this
point across

20. Point of View
•Definition: The direction from
which the writer has chosen to
tell the story

21. There are 3 Points of View
1.First Person: One of the characters tells the story;
talks directly to the reader
-Uses the pronoun “I,” “me,” “we,” or “us”
2.Third Person Limited: The narrator will focus on
the thoughts & feelings of just one character
- Reader experiences the events of the story through the
memory and senses of only one character

22. There are 3 Points of View
3.Third-Person Omniscient- “All-knowing”
- An all-knowing narrator who refers to all the
characters as “he” and “she.” Knows the thoughts
and feelings of ALL of the characters.
*The narrator is not necessarily the story’s author*

23. Conflict
•Definition- It exists when a character is
struggling with something or someone
-Could be a number of things:
-Another person, an animal,
-an inanimate object- a rock, the
weather
-The character’s own personality

24. External Conflict
External Conflict- Caused by something OUTSIDE the
character
-Example: an another character, a
river, weather, society
-Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, Man
vs. Society

25. Internal Conflict
Internal Conflict- Character struggles with some personal
quality that is causing trouble
-Example: vanity, pride, selfishness,
grief
-Man vs. Self