GROUP 5

SHORT STORY
&
FLASH FICTION
KEVIN JOY C. CABUNGCAG
RHEA VIE P. MAGAHUD
 WHAT IS A
SHORT STORY?
 Short story
 Tells about a single event or experience
 Fictional
 It has a beginning, middle, and end
 500-15,000 words in length
 Creates an impression on the reader
ELEMENTS OF A SHORT STORY
 Setting  Point of View
 Characters  Theme
 Plot  Tone
 Conflict  Mood
 SETTING
- the time and place where the story
took place.

Examples:
On the first day of classes, inside the
classroom...
One afternoon, along the school
garden...
CHARACTERS
- persons, animals, or things which play a role in a
story.

Examples:
class president
school librarian
PLOT
- the sequence of events that happened in a story.
Parts of a Plot:
 Exposition
 Rising Action
 Climax
 Falling Action
 Resolution
CONFLICT
- a struggle between two or more opposing forces in a
story.
Examples:
man vs. man
man vs. society
man vs. himself
man vs. nature
POINT OF
-VIEW
the perspective from which the story is narrated or
told.

Examples:
First Person
Second Person
Third Person
THEM
-Ethe main idea conveyed by the author in a literary
work.

Examples:
Honesty is the best policy.
Believe in yourself.
TONE
- reflects the attitude of the author in writing the story.

Examples:
Inspirational
Humorous
MOOD
- the feeling or emotion that the reader gets when
reading a story.

Examples:
Calm
Peaceful
A Temporary Matter
by Jhumpa Lahiri
Full Plot Summary: A Temporary Matter
A couple in their thirties receives a notice that their power will be shut off
for an hour each evening for five nights. Shukumar is a student who
works at home on a dissertation. Shoba, his wife, works in an office as a
copyeditor of textbooks. Shoba comes home and reads the notice from
the electric company aloud. She reminds Shukumar about his upcoming
dentist appointment, and Shukumar realizes he did not brush his teeth that
morning. Shukumar remembers a time six months ago when Shoba was
pregnant.
She was due any day but insisted that Shukumar go to an academic
conference in Baltimore anyway. She said she would call him if necessary
and have a friend take her to the hospital in case of emergency. His cab was
a station wagon that day, and as he rode away, Shukumar thought about how
he and Shoba might one day need a station wagon to bring their kids to
music lessons and dentist appointments. At the conference, Shukumar got a
message from the hospital explaining that the baby was born dead and that
Shoba was recovering. Shukumar rushed home. The power outages occur
six months after the tragedy. By this point, the couple hardly speaks to one
another. Shukumar struggles to write his dissertation, and Shoba does not
maintain the house like before.
Shukumar thought things would improve, but they haven’t. After reading the
notice, Shoba goes upstairs to shower. Shukumar finds a new toothbrush in the
downstairs bathroom and brushes his teeth. He thinks about how he rarely goes
out of the house these days and how Shoba is rarely home. He and Shoba have
become experts at avoiding each other. The extra toothbrush reminds Shukumar
of how Shoba used to buy huge amounts of food at the market and prepare meals
and dishes with ease. She used to cook for friends and make preserves. Now,
Shukumar looks through her cookbooks each afternoon and chooses something
to make for dinner because she doesn’t cook anymore. They usually eat
separately. Shoba takes her plate to the living room and Shukumar takes his to
the study, which would have been the baby’s room. Shukumar removed the baby
wallpaper, rocking chair, and crib after the baby died so Shoba wouldn’t see it.
On this night they dine together in darkness so Shukumar finishes preparing
dinner and gets birthday candles from a drawer. He remembers the candles were
from a surprise birthday party Shoba threw for him. There were more than a
hundred people in the house. Since the baby died, only Shoba’s mother has
visited. Shukumar bitterly reflects on how Shoba’s mother indirectly blamed him
for being out of town when the Shoba went into labor. They eat by candlelight.
Shoba seems surprised at the dinner Shukumar has prepared. As they eat, Shoba
suggests that they tell each other something in the darkness. When there were
power outages at her grandmother’s house in India, they always had to say
something in the darkness, to tell a joke or recite a poem. She wants them each
to divulge a secret in the dark. Shoba tells Shukumar that after they first met, she
checked his address book to see if she was in it yet.
Shukumar tells her that he forgot to tip the waiter when they first went out to
dinner, so he returned the next day to leave the tip. Shoba asks him why he
forgot, and Shukumar says that at the end of the meal he thought he might marry
her one day, and the thought distracted him. The next night they eat leftovers and
Shukumar is surprised when Shoba does the dishes. Seeing their reflection in the
kitchen window, Shukumar wonders when they last took a picture together. He
remembers that his camera still contains undeveloped photos of Shoba while she
was pregnant. He looks forward to telling more secrets. They sit out on the porch
during the power outage and see some neighbors headed to the bookshop, which
still has power. When the time comes for their nightly confessions, Shoba tells
him that she stayed out late with a friend once when Shukumar’s mother was
visiting.
Shukumar had wanted her to be at home because his mother was still grieving
for his father, and Shoba always knew the right thing to say. Shukumar confesses
to cheating on a test a few months after his father died, fifteen years ago. He
feels tremendous relief for divulging this little secret.
On the third night, Shukumar confesses to returning a sweater Shoba gifted him.
Shoba confesses that she let him talk to the head of his department at a party
once with a smudge of pâté on his face. That night, Shukumar and Shoba kiss on
the couch. On the fourth night, Shukumar tells her that during her pregnancy, he
came across a picture of a woman he was sexually attracted to in a magazine. He
tore it out and kept it. Shoba tells him that she never liked a poem he wrote that
was published in a literary magazine. The couple feels closer than they have in
months.
The confessions make it easier to talk to each other. On the fourth night of
confessions, Shukumar and Shoba make love.
On the fifth day, a notice comes in the mail that the workmen have finished early
and there won’t be a power outage that evening. Shukumar feels disappointed as
he had been looking forward to their nightly ritual. They turn off the lights that
night and eat by candlelight. After dinner, Shoba turns the lights on because she
has something to tell Shukumar. She has been looking at apartments and she
found one she likes. She tells him she is moving out. Shukumar is stunned. He
can’t think of what to say, but then he tells another secret. Shoba had never
wanted to know the sex of their baby and held the mystery of it close. Shukumar
had held the body of the child, however, so he knew the sex. He tells her that the
baby was a boy. Shukumar takes the dishes to the kitchen. To Shukumar's
surprise, Shoba follows him and turns off the lights. Together, they cry in the
darkness.
Theme of the Story

 The Finality of Lost

 The Effects of Keeping Secret from Loved Ones
 Reconnection in Hard Times
 WHAT IS A
FLASH FICTION?
 FLASH FICTION
 Is a form of literature that’s even shorter than
short stories.
 A type of prose narrative that takes the form of
very brief, self-contained stories.
 Is sometimes referred to by other names such
microfiction, microstories, short short stories, and
sudden fiction.
HOW LONG IS FLASH FICTION?
 Usually between 300 and 1000 words long
but can also be also less than 300 words.
Depending on who you ask, there are currently around five
different subcategories of flash fiction:

 Flash fiction: Max 1,500 words.

 Sudden fiction: Max 750 words.
 Drabble, or microfiction: Max 100 words.
 Twitterature: Max 280 characters.
 Six-word story: Any story with a single-digit word
count is a category unto itself.
KEY CAHARACTERISTICS OF FLASH FICTION:
 BABY DOLLS by Becky Robison
My mother isn’t always Raggedy Ann, but she was when I was born.
Week before Halloween, office party. Not at the office, but at Richard
Nixon’s basement apartment. She sipped on Shirley Temples while my
jelly fists pommeled her beneath her denim thrift-store jumper. I hate
grenadine, but how was Raggedy Ann supposed to know that? Her brain
was stuffing, and my communication was limited to pathetic fetal
boxing. The drunk guests rollicked in their altered states. When fluid
dampened her striped stockings, everyone laughed. Because she was a
doll, and also very young, my mother laughed, too.
A cat whose tail was longer than her skirt laid Raggedy Ann
in the bathtub and closed the moldy curtain. Her limbs stayed
limp while people pissed nearby, and the tangled nest of red
yarn remained on her head, drenched with sweat, for Raggedy
Ann is loyal and true. Only I was able to bring her to life,
each shock of me making bone and blood of her soft body,
carving chambers into her two-dimensional valentine heart.
THAT'S ALL FOR TODAY!
THANK
YOU!