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WORLD LITERATURE
 ELEMENTS OF THESTORY
● Margo Orlando Litell (1999) opines that
“SHORT STORIES” are the ideal reading
companion because they are usually brief
enough to read in one setting, with all the
drama and impact that make reading fun.
● They are called short stories because they
tend to be less complex than novels.
Usually a short story centers on only one
incident, has a single plot, a single setting,
a few characters, and covers a short
period of time.
 SHORT STORY

ELEMENTS

• SETTING • CHARCTERS
• POINT OF
• PLOT VIEW
• CONFLICT • THEME
 Time when the Is it rainy, sunny,
story is taking stormy, etc? The daily life of
place the characters
Geographical contain local
color
location TIME WEATHER CONDITIONS

PLACE Social
Conditions

Mood or Atmosphere
– feeling created at
the beginning of the
story
The time and location in which a
story takes place
PLOT

It is the Plot has

The plot is how
the author sequence five
arranges events to of events essential
develop his basic
in a story
idea.
or play
Parts
 FIVE ESSENTIAL PARTS OF
PLOT
This is the highest The events and
This is where the point of interest and This is the final
complications begin
events in the story the turning point of
the story. to be resolved. outcome or
become
complicated and
unraveling of
the conflict in the FALLING events in the
CLIMAX
story is revealed. ACTION story.

Denouement
Rising
Action

The beginning of the story where the

characters and the setting is revealed.
 It is the struggle that
characters have to contend
with.
Its is the opposition of forces which ties one
incident to another and makes the plot
move.
CONFLICT
It is any form of opposition that faces the
main character
Types of conflict s include: Man vs.
Man (physical conflict) Man Vs.
Circumstances (classical); Man Vs.
Society (social conflict); Man vs.
Himself/herself (psychological
Conflict) Thank
You
CHARACTERS
• The person in the story and their
characteristics e.g. his/her physical
appearances; what he/she says,
thinks, feels and dreams; what
he/she does or does not do; what
others say about him/her and how
others react to him/her
POINT OF VIEW
• Point of view is defined as
the angle from which the
story is told.
THEME
• The theme in a piece of fiction is
its controlling idea or its central
insight. It is the author’s
underlying meaning or main idea
that is trying to convey.
Examples anything too much is
bad; love conquers all, money is
the root of evil.
 ANALYZING PLOT
• What is the conflict when the plot turns? Is
it external, internal, or some combination of
the two.
• What are the chief episodes or incidents
that make the plot? Is it development up
strictly chronological or is the chronology
rearranged in some way?
 ANALYZING PLOT
• Compare the plot’s beginning and end.
What essential changes have taken
place?
• Describe the plot in terms of its
exposition, complication, crisis, falling
action, and resolution
• Is the plot unified? Do the individual
episodes logically relate to one
another?
 ANALYZING PLOT
• Is the ending appropriate to
and consistent with the rest of
the plot?
• Is the plot plausible? What
role, if any, do chance and
coincidence play?
ANALYZING the CHARACTER

• Who is the protagonist of the

work and who (or what)is the
antagonist?
• What is the function of the
works minor characters?
ANALYZING the CHARACTER

• Identify the character in terms

of whether they are flat or
round, dynamic or static.
• What methods do the author
employ to establish and reveal
the characters? Are the
methods primarily of showing
or telling.
ANALYZING the CHARACTER

• Are the authors of the

characters properly motivated
and consistent
• Are the characters of the work
finally credible and
interesting?
 ANALYZING the SETTING
• What is the work’s setting in space
and time?
• How does the author, go about
establishing setting? Does the
author want the reader to see or
feel the setting, or does the author
isolate and describe?
 ANALYZING the SETTING
• Is the setting important? If so what
is its function. It is used to reveal,
reinforce, or influence character,
plot or theme?
• Is the setting an appropriate one?
 ANALYZING the SETTING
• Is the setting important? If so what
is its function. It is used to reveal,
reinforce, or influence character,
plot or theme?
• Is the setting an appropriate one?
 ANALYZING the THEME
• Does the work have a theme? Is it
stated or implied?
• What generalization(s) or
statement(s) about life or human
experience does the work have?
• What elements of the work
contributes most heavily to the
formulation of the theme?
 ANALYZING the THEME
• Does the theme emerge organically
and naturally or does the author
seem to force them upon the work?
• What is the value or significance of
the work’s theme? Is it topical or
universal in its application?
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