UNDERSTANDING

SHORT STORIES
WHAT IS SHORT
STORY?
According to Hansen (2000), a
short story is brief fictional prose
narrative that is shorter than a
novel and that usually deals
with only a few character.
ELEMENTS OF A SHORT
STORY
SETTING
 Is
the time and place in which it
happens. Authors often use
descriptions of landscapes, scenery,
buildings, seasons or weather to
provide a strong sense of setting.
CHARACTERS
The characters are the people,
animals, or things that take
part in the action of the story.
TYPES OF CHARACTERS
 Protagonist-
is the character with
whom the reader empathizes.

 Antagonist-is the character that

goes against the protagonist.
PLOT
 It
is the sequence of events in a story
or play.

A plot is a series of events and

character actions that relate to the
central conflict.
FIVE STAGES
 Exposition- The beginning of the
story where the characters and
setting is revealed.

 Rising Action- This is where the

events in the story become
complicated and the conflict in the
story is revealed.
 Climax- This is the highest point of
interest and the turning point of the
story.

 Falling
action- The events and
complications begin to resolve
themselves.

 Denouement- This is the final

outcome or the untangling of events
in the story.
CONFLICT

Is the opposition of forces which

ties one incident to another and
makes the plot move.
TYPES OF CONFLICT
 Man vs. Man
 Man vs. Nature
 Man vs. Himself

 Man vs. Society

POINT OF VIEW
Isdefined as the angle from
which the story is told.
 Firstperson- One of the characters tells
the story and interacts in the story as
well.

 Third person- The author can narrate the

story using “god-like” position in which he
can see into the minds of the characters.

 Limitedomniscient- Still in third person,

the narrator will only know what the
character knows or what the author tells
the narrator.
THEME
Is the controlling idea or the
insight that the author wants
the reader to understand at
the end of the story.
10 TYPES OF SHORT
STORIES
 Anecdote-
is a short account of
something interesting and amusing
which usually tells a story about a real
person and/or incident.

 Drabble- is an exceptionally short piece

of fiction, usually of exactly 100 words
in length.

 Fable-is a succinct story featuring

anthropomorphic creatures to tell a
story with a moral.
 Feghoot-is an interesting short story type
also known as a story pun or poetic joke.

 Flash Fiction- refers to an extremely short

piece of literature.

 Frame Story- is also known as a frame tale or

a nested narrative. It is a literary technique
of placing a story within a story for the
purpose of introducing or setting the stage for
a main narrative or a series of short stories.

 Mini
Saga- is a short story told in exactly 50
words.
 StorySequence- is a group of short
stories that work together to form a
longer piece, while still functioning as
complete short stories on their own.

 Sketch Story- is shorter than average

piece containing little or no plot. It can
be merely a description of a character or
a location.

 Vignette-is a short, impressionistic piece

that focuses on a single scene, character,
idea, setting, or object.
WRITERS AND THEIR
WORKS
1. A Haunted House by Virginia Woolf
2. Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell
3. A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradburry
4. The Nightingale and the Rose by Oscar Wilde
5. Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood
6. A Perfect Day for Bananafish by J. D.
Salinger
7. The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest
Hemingway
8. A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by
Gabriel Garcia
9. Three Questions by Leo Tolstoy
10. The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras
Country by Mark Twain