TON DUC THANG UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

AN INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE – 001177

Unit 4:
PLOT - POINT OF VIEW - SETTING

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 What is the STORY of
“THREE LITTLE PIGS”?

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 PLOT/ 37
1. Definition:
- the pattern of arranged & selected
events/situations in a narrative.
➔ Elicit a particular kind of interest from
the readers such as surprise or suspense.

PLOT

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 PLOT vs. STORY
- Plot = selected version of events in a
certain order and duration
- Story = full sequence of events in their
“natural” order and duration.
➔ The story = hypothetical “raw material” of
events which we construct from the finished
product of the plot.

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 PLOT ANALYSIS
How many main stages/structures in a plot?/37
Climax
Turning point (crisis)
Basic structure: Complication
1. Exposition (Rising action Resolution
(Falling ac
Development)
2. Complication Denoueme
Inciting moment:
3. Climax Problem/conflict

4. Resolution Exposition

➔ What is exactly mentioned in each stage?

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 PLOT ANALYSIS

1. EXPOSITION:
❑Characters/past events
❑Dominant ideas/aspects of character
❑Short of action but long speeches

*inciting moment = problem/conflict first

appears
➔The conflict = the wheel on which the
vehicle of a plot moves
➔Without conflict = static
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 PLOT ANALYSIS
2. COMPLICATION (development):
- problem becomes more complicated
- inciting moment is clarified/decoded.
- conflict(s) is more detailed.
→ How many conflicts there are?

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 THE IMPORTANCE OF CONFLICTS

- Conflict = the essence of story-telling ➔ creating the

interest; suspense and motivation for continued
readership.
- Conflict : developing incidents and themes (~topic):

EXAMPLE: “Boy meets girl. Boy married girl. Boy and

girl live happily ever after”

→A story : never holding your interest → Why?

→No conflict
→ Can you think of an insertion of a conflict
(key element)?
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1. A Black person struggles against
discrimination in his society
2. A person fights against his/her parent in an
arranged marriage
3. A young woman tosses and turns with a
temptation to give in to overwhelming odds
4. A canoeist’s battle against a wild river is
featured
Can you name these examples to fit in a specific type
of conflict?
Cues: Conflict with a character, society, self, nature,
unknown…?
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 SOME TYPES OF CONFLICTS
1. Character vs. Character:
- The chief character in a story confronts an
opponent.
- One character is squared off against
another.
2. Internal conflict:
- Mental struggle within a character.
- Faced with a difficult choice
- Come to terms with some unpleasant
reality.

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 CONFLICTS
3. A character vs. Society:
- A character is at odds with accepted ways
of thinking or living.
- An extension of “conflict No.1”
- To get a good idea of what is important to
this society – how people live and what
they value.

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 CONFLICTS
4. A character vs. Nature:
E.g.:
- A trapper in Alaska struggling to build a fire
before he freezes to death
- A fisherman’s struggle to land a giant fish
➔ Popular theme in literature: invariably
tense, enticing and suspenseful.
➔ To test the limits of a character’s strength &
will to live.
➔ To demonstrate how fragile human life
really is.
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 PLOT ANALYSIS
3. CLIMAX: (the most exciting part)
✓ the decisive moment or the crossroads in
the story
✓ sth drastic finally happens (happily or
disastrously)

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 PLOT ANALYSIS
4. RESOLUTION(denouement):
1. writer answers the main question
2. characters: die, marry, come to terms
with their fate
3. decisive events which dominate and
shape the future

OPEN PLOT CLOSED PLOT

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 FREYTAG’S PYRAMID
CLIMAX

Turning point (crisis): hint

readers about the resolution

Falling actions
Complication/Development
Rising actions

Inciting moment

Resolution=Denouement
exposition (open/closed plot)

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 FREYTAG’S PYRAMID

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 RAPUNZEL

Answer the Questions:

Clip #1: Why do the animals react
such a way?

Clip #2: What does such “Recalling” reveal?

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 INTERPOLATED
NARRATIVE FLASHBACK

FORESHADOWING FLASHFORWARD

To depict the occurrence of

specific events happening
before the present time the
narration is following
To unfold and give the reader a
hint of something that is going
to happen without revealing the
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or -spoiling
UNIT 4 the suspense.19
 PLOT DEVICES/39
1. Flashback:
1.An interruption in the action of a story
2.Providing background info.necessary to an
understanding of the characters or the plot.

2. Foreshadowing
1.Hints/clues about the events which will occur
later in a narrative.
2.“If a gun is introduced at the beginning of the
story, it should go off before the end of the story”
- Chekhov

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 1. Flashback
2. Flashforward
3. Interpolated narrative
4. Foreshadowing
Which one would be confused with
which one?

IDENTIFY the differences among the four

terms

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Interpolated narrative vs. Flashback
-Interpolated narrative: allowing one character to tell other
characters what happened earlier. (Character vs. Characters)
- Flashback: allowing one character to tell READERS what
happened earlier (Character vs. Readers)

Flashforward vs. Foreshadowing:

-Flashforward: To represent events expected, projected, or
imagined to occur in the future + use events or
character dialogue in the current time
The events are bound to happen in the story.
-Foreshadowing: To predict the future events, but the events
do not necessarily take place in the future➔ Merely hint(s)

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 POINT OF VIEW
1. On Friday, September 13, 1952, I was born
to Jo Ann and Bob Cheever

2. Robert H. Cheever, Jr. was born to Jo Ann

and Bob Cheever on Friday, September 13,
1952.
What is the only important difference
between the two sentences?
- Difference: who tells an incident
- Before writing, the author: whether the story
will be told by one of the characters or an
outsider.
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 POINT OF VIEW
1. Margie chased after her little brother, who
was running down the street.
2. Because she was afraid that he might get
hurt, Margie chased after her little brother,
who was running down the street.
In which one does the author tell you what a
character is thinking?
- Whether the narrator tells you what he/she
can see into the minds of the characters
➔ An author uses his narrator = a movie
director uses his camera
➔ Focus on some details/characters while
showing others less clearly.
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 POINT OF VIEW

• First-person narration/POV
• Third-person
– Third person objective POV
– Omniscient POV

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 POINT OF VIEW

(1) As George placed carefully, wrapped package on

the park bench, he looked up and saw Molly
walking across the street
(2) George, anxiously hoping that no one was
watching him, placed a carefully wrapped
package on an empty park bench. But Molly, who
was walking home, saw him and couldn’t help
thinking that he was acting strangely.
(3) George, anxiously hoping that no one was
watching him, placed a carefully wrapped
package on an empty park bench. But when he
looked around, he saw Molly watching him from
across the street.
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 POINT OF VIEW

(1) As George placed carefully, wrapped package on the park bench, he

looked up and saw Molly walking across the street
➔ He tells us what is happening but not tell us the
thoughts of any of the characters.
(2) George, anxiously hoping that no one was watching him, placed a
carefully wrapped package on an empty park bench. But Molly, who was
walking home, saw him and couldn’t help thinking that he was acting
strangely.
➔ He tells us the thoughts of both characters
(3) George, anxiously hoping that no one was watching him, placed a
carefully wrapped package on an empty park bench. But when he looked
around, he saw Molly watching him from across the street.

➔ He tells us the thoughts of only George.

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 POINT1.story
First-person Narration OFNarrator = a character in the
VIEW
(I)
(Personal POV) 2. Telling us what he sees others
doing + his own thoughts, but
cannot tell us the thoughts of
other characters.
-Third-person pronouns
Third-person (he/she/they)
Narration - Narrator = outside the story
3. Third-person Objective/limited 4. Omniscient POV:
POV: -This narrator has ability to see into
- This narrator tells us what is the minds and record the thoughts
happening but not tell us the of the characters.
thoughts of any of the -Like a superman – omniscient.
characters.
- Like a newspaper reporter
(giving the facts as they occur,
cannot enter the
characters’mind)
➔ BE OBJECTIVE.
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 POINT1.OF
First-person Narration VIEW
Narrator = a character in the
story (I)
(Personal POV) 2. Telling us what he sees others
doing + his own thoughts, but
cannot tell us the thoughts of
other characters.
-Third-person pronouns
Third-person (he/she/they)
Narration - Narrator = outside the story
3. Third-person Objective POV: 4. Omniscient POV:
- This narrator tells us what is -This narrator has ability to see into
happening but not tell us the the minds and record the thoughts
thoughts of any of the of the characters.
characters. -Like a superman – omniscient.
- Like a newspaper reporter
(giving the facts as they occur,
a. First person narration
cannot enter the b. First person observer narration
characters’mind) c. Author-observer narration
➔ BE OBJECTIVE.
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 NOTICE

Authors are not obliged to stay with one POV

throughout a story. They may, and frequently do,
change the way a story is being told, especially
in novels, where there is more room to shift
about than there is in a short story.

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 SETTING/ 47
Definition:
1.The time & place in which events of a
narrative occur.
2.Explicit vs implicit
1.Explicit : region, a city/town, a house/room,
a period in history, particular time of year, a
certain time of day.
2.Implicit (in modern stories): references to
articles of clothing, famous historical figures,
well-known landmarks, dialect usage, etc.

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 SETTING

Where
When
Space
Time

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 Roles of Setting
1. Setting suggests action
2. Setting helps make a story believable
3. Setting expresses the theme
4. Setting creates atmosphere

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 CHARACTER/43

1. Central and Secondary characters

2. Protagonist and Antagonist
3. Flat and Round characters
4. Stock characters/Types

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 REVELATION OF
CHARACTERS/44
1. By his physical appearance
2. By his thoughts
3. By dialogue
4. By his actions
5. By what other people in the story think of
him
6. By the author’s explicit comment

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Homework :
Read Eveline (James
Joyce) and find out who
Eveline is.

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