BASIC ELEMENTS OF A SHORT STORY:

A short story has six basic elements that we, as a reader, should look for when analyzing one.
 Character
- A character in a short story is a person, in some stories an animal, who takes part in the action
of the story or other literary work.
- The heart of the story [Because the way an author develops the character in a story is very
important in making the story appeal to the readers]
Two most important characters
1. Protagonist
- the main character or most important of all the characters.
- the story always revolves around the protagonist.
2. Antagonist
- the character that challenges the main character.
- may be a person, the nature, the society, or any intangible matter that contends with or creates a
problem for the protagonist.

 Setting
- The place (locale) and time (period) when the story happens.
- Most authors use descriptive words to describe the landscape, scenery, buildings, season, or
weather to provide a strong sense of setting which will help the reader visualize the story and
connect to the story’s plot.

 Plot
- the actual story
- the series of events and characters’ actions that lead to the highest point of interest in a short
story.
different parts of a story’s structure:
a. Expository
- where the author introduces the characters, identifies where the story is happening, and
establishes the main conflict.
b. Rising Action
- This is where conflicts start to build.
c. Climax
- is the part in the story when important decisions are made or important things are discovered.
d. Falling Action
- occurs after the climax as the problems in the story start to work themselves out.
- the conflict is being resolved.
e. Resolution
- the solution to the problem in a story.

 Conflict
- The problem in the story
- The main character’s challenges that needs to be faced
- Without conflict, story may not be interesting to the readers
four types of conflict are:
1. man versus man - involves two or more characters that oppose each other.
2. man versus nature - pits the characters against the forces of nature, and to some extent, the
unknown.
3. man versus himself - type of conflict that involves introspection, and a character’s struggles
with their own morality, vices, sense of self, and goals.
4. man versus society – type of conflict where a character would be facing off against oppressive
governments, the general public, cultural norms, or large groups instead of facing single foes.

 Theme
- This is the central idea in a short story and a general truth.
- The underlying meaning of a story. It is the message the writer is trying to convey through the
story.

 Point of View
- the vantage point that a writer uses to narrate the story. [In simpler terms, the way the story is
told or narrated.]
 Types of Point of View
a. First Person – the narrator participates in and tells the story using the pronoun ‘I’.
b. Limited Third Person
– the narrator is not in the story and narrates using the pronouns ‘she’ or ‘he’.
- the narrator is unable to see into the minds of the characters.
c. Omniscient Third Person – the narrator is not in the story and tells the
story using the pronouns ‘she’ or ‘he’.
- In this point of view, the narrator can tell the thoughts of the characters as he can see into their
minds.
What’s New
Sinigang by Marby Villaceran
About the author
Marby Villaceran is a teaching associate at U.P. Diliman’s Department of English and
Comparative Literature. She has published several stories and poems for children in the
Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Junior Inquirer section.

Plot Summary by John Paul C. Vallente

The short story Sinigang is written in 2001 by Marby Villaceran narrates how Liza, the
main character, deals with the issue of her father who had an extramarital affair with Sylvia, and
consequently had a son, Lem; and how that issue emotionally separates Liza from her father.
The story takes place in Liza's home where she, together with her Tita Loleng, prepares
Sinigang for the family dinner, as it is her father's favorite dish. During the course preparing and
cooking, Tita Loleng asks Liza about her encounter with Sylvia in the wake of Lem who died
because of cancer.
It is through Tita Loleng's question juxtaposed with the procedures of preparing Sinigang
that sparked flashbacks in the story revealing not only vivid memories of how Liza was made
known about her father's other family, how uneasy she felt when she finally met Sylvia, how
rancorous and pretentiously impassive she is towards her father, but also, these flashbacks
disclose how unconditional the love of Liza’s mother is, and no matter no Liza denies, her love
for her father, in spite of all his flaws, is never really lost.
The man vs. man or more predominantly (though implicit) man vs. circumstance conflict
is resolved when at the burial of Lem, the father says sorry to Liza- a word that Liza needed the
most- yet, whether she has forgiven her father or forgotten his fiasco is not clearly resolved.
htps://www.scribd.com/doc/315108519/Stylistic-Analysis-of-Sinigang
Questions and Answers:
1. Where did the story happen?
- The story took place in different locations: Liza’s house (garden and kitchen), house in
Bulacan, and the graveyard where Lem’s casket was buried.
2. Who were the characters in the story?
- Characters: Liza, Tita Loleng, Liza’s Mother and Father, Sylvia, Lem, and Meg.
3. What do you think led to the emotional separation of Liza from her father?
- When Liza found out that her father had an extramarital affair with other woman and also had
an illegitimate son named Lem.
4. What was the most interesting part of the story?
- When Sylvia appeared in front of Liza to confess and ask for forgiveness.
5. What was the story about?
- The story is about how Liza deals with the issue of her father who had an extramarital affair
with Sylvia, and consequently had a son, Lem. Liza was a daddy’s girl that is why her
relationship with his father got tainted after she discovered the issue about her father. However,
despite all that she didn’t harbor any rancor towards his father.
6. Who narrated the story?
- The story is in first person view. Liza was the one who narrated the story.

What’s More
A.
1. Setting:
Liza’s Home
 this is where the story happened specifically at the garden, in the first part of
Liza’s and her aunt’s talk, and at the kitchen where they continued most of their
talks
A home in Bulacan
 this is the place where Liza’s half-brother’s wake took place in Liza’s
memory
 this is the settings of her memories or flashbacks that she is narrating
Graveyard
 the place at Liza’s last part of her memories where his brother got buried

2. Characters:
Liza
- the protagonist of the story
- the story revolves to her point of view and her memories about her family and the
conflict of the story involves her
- the one who is cooking sinigang in the story
- a daddy’s girl
- always called “Sinverguenza”, the shameless daughter by Father Mario

Tita Loleng
- Liza’s aunt
- the one who helped and assisted Liza to cook the sinigang
- the one who asked questions to Liza about the scene in Lem’s wake

Liza’s Father
- father of Liza
- the person that Liza was looking up to
- had an extramarital affair with Sylvia and consequently had a son named Lem
- encountered issues with Liza because of his extramarital affair with other woman

Liza’s Mother
- mother of Liza
- the one who got betrayed by Liza’s father having an extramarital affair with other
woman, but still forgave and accepted Liza’s father after the issue
- age is in forties but still maintained a slim figure

Sylvia
- Lem’s mother
- the mistress or the one that Liza’s father got an extramarital affair with
- age is in forties but still maintained a slim figure
- described as pretty and looked like she had Indian blood by Liza

Lem
- Sylvia’s son and Liza’s half-brother in her father
- died because of cancer
- assured of going to a better place because he was a good child
- was an acolyte in church

Mentioned characters: Liza’s two sister (Meg, the younger sister), mourners,
Father Mario
3. Plot:
Exposition:
The story is about how Liza deals with the issue of her father who had an
extramarital affair with Sylvia, and consequently had a son, Lem. Liza was a
daddy’s girl that is why her relationship with his father got tainted after she
discovered the issue about her father.
The story took place in Liza’s home where she and her aunt, Tita Loleng,
were cooking sinigang which is her father’s favorite dish. While they were cooking
sinigang, Tita Loleng asked Liza about her encounter with Sylvia in the wake of
Lem who died because of cancer. As Tita Loleng asked Liza while cooking
sinigang, flashbacks of Liza’s memories revealed the memories of her family.

Rising Action:
While she was preparing the tomatoes, Tita Loleng started asking questions
to her, then a memory came to her mind. Liza is sitting on a sofa in the living room
in Bulacan. She was in his half-brother’s wake who died because of cancer. She
was only requested to be there because her father requested her mother to ask her
to visit Lem’s wake.

Climax:
At the wake, a woman approached Liza and introduced herself as Sylvia, her
father’s mistress. Back to the present, she answered Tita Loleng that she met
Sylvia and they talked about how she looked. Her memories continued to flash.
Her emotions crumbled as she realized that the woman in front of her is her
father’s mistress. She obviously disliked the presence of Sylvia. After that, Sylvia
talked to her and asked her forgiveness for everyone makes mistakes. Sylvia even
grabbed her hands to beg for forgiveness and she wanted to be free from Sylvia’s
hold that is why she nodded and pretended to understand.
Back to the present while she was chopping the tomatoes and her Tita Loleng was
chopping onions, Tita Loleng started to ask about his father during the wake.
Another memory flashed in her mind where his father came out of the room after
Sylvia was called out to assist the mourners. She refused to look at his father at
first, but her father got her attention when he started talking about Lem who was
assured to be in a better place because he was a good son. Bitterness creeped in her
mind because unlike Lem, She is a “Sinverguenza”, the shameless daughter.

Falling Action:
Back to the present where Liza was crashing the salt, onions and tomatoes together
with her hands, Tita Loleng exclaimed that it was enough. Tita Loleng brought out
the vegetables needed to prepare while softening the meat, then she left Liza with
the cooking after instructing what to do for the rest. She then started to simmer the
ingredients and started to prepare the vegetables for the sinigang. When the pot
with the meat started to boil, she added the powdered tamarind mix and the
vegetables. A memory flashed again in her mind. It was the burial of his half-
brother and her father was beside her, crying and saying “sorry”. She then became
curious if her father would be the same if she was the one who died.

Resolution:
Still in her memory, she looked at her father, then his heavy hands with
sadness fell to her shoulder. Her father told her that he’s sorry which is the word
that she was waiting for. She then decided to forgive his father and rebuild their
lost connection little by little. Back to the present, she let the sinigang boil for a
few minutes and it will be served at the dinner. She already imagined her family
sitting in the dinner table and her father complimenting her cook then giving him a
smile that would never quite show.

4. Conflict: The conflict of the story is the fact that her father had an extramarital
affair with another woman and consequently had a child. This conflict tainted
Liza’s relationship with her father. This is a man versus man because this conflict
is between Liza and his father. Another thing, this conflict will test Liza on how
she will deal her relationship to his father.
Another conflict of the story is when she met Sylvia in her half-brother’s wake.
Man versus man conflict can be noticed in this part because she encountered the
woman who broke her trust to his father. Man versus himself conflict can be also
noticed because she needs to prevent her emotions from exploding in front of the
woman or else, a commotion might happen.

5. Theme:
- Many husbands are committing adultery and looking for another woman which
leads to a broken family and tainted relationship with family members. This issue
is common in Filipino families.
- Filipino cultures and traditions are reflected in this story like the sinigang dish,
respecting elders, being obedient and others.
- Accepting and forgiving others despite the mistakes they did.

6. Point of View: First Person Point of View

- the narrator participates in and tells the story
- the narrator acted as the protagonist of the story narrating her own experience.