STORY ELEMENTS DEFINITIONS

(Test Friday November 7, 2008)

1. Setting – the time and place of a story or play.

2. Character – a person in the story.
3. Plot – the series of related events in the story
Elements of the Plot (4-8)
4. Exposition – The opening or the 1st part of the plot, Here the author describes
the setting, introduces the characters, and gives background information.
5. Rising Action – the part in which the author describes the conflict or the
problem in the story.
6. Climax – the turning point in the story, the part where the problem is at its
worse.
7. Falling Action – the part where the author describes how the problem is
solved.
8. Resolution - Comes after the falling action and it brings the story to a
satisfactory end.

9. Antagonist – the opponent or rival of the hero in the story.

10. Protagonist – the central character in the story, novel, or play.
11. Foreshadowing – the use of clues to hint at what will occur later in the story.
12. Flashback – a scene in a movie, play, short story, novel, or narrative poem that
interrupts the present action of the plot.
13. Theme – the message or meaning in a story, poem, or play.
14. Mood – the feeling the reader gets while reading the story.
15. Tone – The attitude a writer takes towards the audience, subject or character.
16. Narrator –the person telling the story.
17. 1st person point of view – The narrator tells the story from his own point of view
saying, “I did this or I did that.”
18. 2nd Person Point of View - The book or story addresses the reader as if the reader
is an active character in the book. For Example: You are walking down the street.
19. 3rd Person Limited – The narrator is outside the story, and sees the events through
the eyes of only one character.
20. 3rd Person All Knowing – The narrator is not one of the characters in the story, but
tells the emotions, motives, and actions of ALL the characters in the story.
21. Suspense – The I\uncertainty or anxiety we feel about what is going to happen
next in the story.