Elements of Fiction

Plot

Setting
Mood Point of View Characters Conflict

Theme

Setting
the time, place and period in which the action takes place. It includes

The geographical location

The time period

The socio-economic characteristics of the location

The specific location building, room, etc.

Setting
can help in the portrayal of characters.
She was taken up, put in a chair at the side, and told to keep her mouth shut by the teacher, who happened to be a nun..Throughout the test, Liesel sat with a mixture of hot anticipation and excruciating fear. --- from The Book Thief Not far away was his island, of which Bilbo knew nothing, and there in his hiding -place he kept a few wretched oddments, and one very beautiful thing, very beautiful, very wonderful. He had a ring, a golden ring, a precious ring. -- From The Hobbit

Setting
can establish the atmosphere of a work.
It Was a Dark and Stormy Night --Snoopy

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." --A Tale of Two Cities

Mood

is the atmosphere created by the setting, action, and characters

Dont confuse it with tone (the authors attitude toward the subject)

Types of Characters
The people (or animals, things, etc. presented as people) appearing in a literary work Round Character: convincing, true to life and has many character traits Dynamic Character: undergoes some type of change in story because of something that he/she experiences Flat Character: stereotyped, shallow, often symbolic; has one or two personality traits Static Character: does not change in the course of the story

Opposing Main Characters

Protagonist The main character in a literary work; the hero, the heroine, the good guy Antagonist The character who opposes or goes against the protagonist

Methods of Characterization
direct- he was an old man (words of the narrator) characters thoughts, words, and actions reactions/comments of other characters characters physical appearance characters thoughts
Atticus was feeble: he was nearly fifty. When Jem and I asked him why he was so old, he said he got started late which we felt reflected upon his abilities and manliness. He was much older than the parents of our school contemporaries and there was nothing Jem or I could say about him when our classmates said, My father--.
from To Kill a Mockingbird

Plot
the series of events or actions that take place in a story
Can you guess the book titles of the following plots?

A family drinks water that makes them live forever A girl volunteers as a tribute for her district in order to save her sister The new girl falls in love with a vampire A hippie boy who is supposed to be unpopular becomes the most well-liked boy in the school. *Answers below Enlarge to see if you are correct!
Tuck Everlasting The Hunger Games Twilight Schooled

Plot Line
Climax: The turning point; the crisis; the most intense moment (either mentally or in action)

Rising Action: the series of conflicts and crises in the story that lead to the climax.

Falling Action: all of the action which follows the climax and leads toward the resolution

Exposition: The start of the story; the way things are before the action starts; the background information

Resolution: The conclusion, the tying together of all of the threads

Conflict
the struggle between opposing forces in literature
EXTERNAL

Character vs- character

Character vs- environment Character-vs- society Character vs- fate Character vs- supernatural

INTERNAL Character vs- self

Point of View (POV)

the perspective from which the story is told
(Who is telling the story?) Third Person Omniscient : the narrator tells the story and knows the thoughts and feelings of all characters; uses pronouns he, she

Third Person Limited : narrator knows only the thoughts and feelings of a single character

First Person: story is told from point of view of one of the characters who uses the first person pronoun I.

Theme
central idea, authors message Literary theme IS -

a general statement of the central, underlying, and controlling idea or insight of a work of literature the idea the writer wishes to convey about the subjectthe writers view of the world or a revelation about human nature ble to be expressed in a single sentence
Literary theme is NOT expressed in a single word the purpose of a work the moral the conflict the plot

Plot or Theme?
Many readers get these elements confused!

A boy survives a plane crash and lives in the wilderness for weeks before being rescued. Survival often requires abandoning or altering ones moral beliefs. In times of prejudice and persecution, it is our responsibility as humans to do our part to stop it. An abused stepdaughter meets a handsome prince and is taken away from her awful life.
The PLOT of Hatchet The THEME of The Call of the Wild (and many other novels) The THEME of Frederick (and many other novels) The PLOT of Cinderella

Answers below: (Enlarge to see if you are right!)