Elements of

Prose

Prose
There are 2 types of writing:

prose- anything that is NOT

poetry or plays
poetry
Prose is divided into 2 categories:

short story
novel

Short Story
Definition: Fictional story that can be read in
one sitting.

Example: A Rose for Emily,

The Cask of Amontillado, or
The Most Dangerous Game

Novel
Definition: A long prose narrative that must be
read in many sittings.
Example: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Scarlet Letter,
or The Great Gatsby

Elements of Prose

Plot
Character
Setting
Point of View
Theme
Irony
Symbol

Plot
The framework or skeleton of the story;

A series of related events that

are linked together

What Makes Up Plot?

1. Basic Situation
(Exposition)
-

Tells the audience

who the
characters are
and introduces
the conflict

Example: Every
Who
Down in Who-ville
Liked Christmas
a lot...

What Makes Up Plot?

2. Rising Action
- Complications
that arise
when the
characters
take steps to
resolve their
conflicts

What Makes Up Plot?

3. Climax: Most
exciting or
suspenseful
moment when
something
happens to
determine the
outcome of the
conflict.

What Makes Up Plot?

4. Falling Action:
The conflict is in
the process of
being resolved
or unraveled

What Makes Up Plot?

Resolution: (Denouement) or Untying the
knot
When the storys problem/conflict is
resolved and the story ends
Endings may be happy or tragic

Freytags Pyramid
Gustav Freytag was a Nineteenth Century German novelist
who saw common patterns in the plots of stories and novels
and developed a diagram to analyze them. He diagrammed
a story's plot using a pyramid like the one shown here:

Character: Revealing
Human Nature
Character- A person
or being in a story
that performs the
action of the plot.
Characterization:
The process of
revealing the
personality of a
character in a story.

Steps to the
Characterization
Process

A writer can reveal a character

in the following

ways:
1. Letting up hear the character speak
2. Describing how the character looks & dresses
3. Letting us listen to the characters inner thoughts
and feelings
4. Revealing what other characters in the story think
or say about the character
5. Showing us what the character does how he or
she acts
*These call on the reader to take the information he or
she is given to interpret for himself/herself the
kind of character he or she is reading about. This
is called
INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION

Steps to the
Characterization Process
6.

Telling us directly what the characters

personality is like: cruel, sneaky, brace, etc.

This is called DIRECT CHARACTERIZATION

Types of Characters
Dynamic Character: The character changes as
a result of the action of the story.
Example- Ebenezer Scrooge, the Grinch

Static Character: The character does not

change much in the course of the story.
Example- Brutus (Julius Caesar);
Mama Younger (A Raisin in the Sun)

Setting
Defintion: The time and location in which the
story takes place

Setting

Purpose of Setting
1.
2.

Gives background information

Provides conflict

- Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Society

3.
4.

Can reveal a lot about someones character

Provides mood or atmosphere

- Mood- the feeling WE get when

we read a story
5.

Can paint images for the reader

- Images words that call forth the

5 senses

Theme
Definition: The insight about human life that is
revealed in a literary work. The golden thread
woven throughout the story.
-The theme is what the author is saying through the
story (its a deeper truth about reality)
- The plot how he says it : it is the story he uses to get
this point across

Point of View
Definition: The direction
from which the writer has
chosen to tell the story

There are 3 Points of

View
1. First Person: One of the characters tells the
story; talks directly to the reader
-

2.

Uses the pronoun I, me, we, or us

Third Person Limited: The narrator will focus

on the thoughts & feelings of just one character
- Reader experiences the events of the story through
the memory and senses of only one character

There are 3 Points of

View
3. Third-Person Omniscient- All-knowing
- An all-knowing narrator who refers to all the
characters as he and she. Knows the
thoughts and feelings of ALL of the characters.
*The narrator is not necessarily the storys author*

Conflict

Definition- It exists when a character is

struggling with something or someone
-

Could be a number of things:

- Another person, an animal,

- an inanimate object- a rock, the
weather
- The characters own personality

External Conflict
External Conflict- Caused by something OUTSIDE
the character

- Example: an another character,

a river, weather, society
- Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature,
Man vs. Society

Internal Conflict
Internal Conflict- Character struggles with some
personal quality that is causing trouble

- Example: vanity, pride, selfishness,

grief
- Man vs. Self