Short Stories

A plot diagram is a tool that is used to organize a story into segments. identifying the parts makes it easier to understand the content.

1. The exposition or theintroduction introduces the characters, describes the setting and establishes the problem in the story.
2. The rising action is where the suspense builds and the problem gets worse and becomes more complicated. There are often multiple steps or parts in the rising action.
3. The climax is the turning point in the story. It is usually the most exciting part of the story and the part that makes the reader want to keep reading.
4. The falling action is the events that happen after the climax that leads to a resolution or ending to the story.
5. The resolution is the outcome of the story. It is how things end up or turn out for the characters.

Short Story Terms

Allusion: a reference to a familiar literary or historical person or event, used to make an idea more easily understood (ex. He was a real Romeo.)

Character: a person presented in a dramatic or narrative work

Conflict: a struggle between opposing forces; conflict may be described as:

• internal – an emotional struggle inside a person
• man v. himself (ex. Don has to decide if he should marry his girlfriend or not.)
• external – a struggle against the environment/nature or society
• man v. man (ex. Don fights with Steve over a girl.)
• man v. nature (ex. Don gets caught in a snowstorm.)

Contrast: to examine two or more items by looking at only their differences

Setting: the time, place and circumstance of a story (ex. 3 o’clock in the afternoon on a boat that is about to sink)

Dialogue: direct conversation between people in a story; always indicated by quotation marks

Irony: when there is a difference between what is expected to happen and what actually does happen (ex. A fire truck catches on fire.)

Imagery: language that creates pictures in a reader’s mind to bring life to the experiences and feelings described in a poem; words that appeal to the reader’s senses and enables us to

• see (visual)
• hear (auditory)
• smell (olfactory)
• taste (gustatory)
• touch (tactile)

what the writer is describing

(GRADE 9) Bias: a slanted viewpoint that prevents a fair and open-minded assessment

(GRADE 9) Stereotype: a fixed mental picture that one draws upon in making judgments instead of taking a fresh, open-minded look each time (ex. All teenagers are troublemakers.)

Suspense: techniques used by the author to keep readers interested in the story and wondering what will happen next

Foreshadowing: a technique for providing clues about events that may happen later in the story

Mood: the overall feeling (ex. light and happy or dark and brooding) created by an author’s choice of words; how a piece of writing makes the reader feel

Tone: the author’s attitude towards the subject that he/she is writing about (ex. angry or approving, proud or pitying, joyful or hurt)

Diction: word choice

Point of View: the perspective the author establishes to tell the story; includes:

• First person (I, me, we, us): the narrator participates in the action of the story;
• Third person (he, she, they): the narrator does not participate in the action of the story and does not know the feelings of any of the characters;
• Third person omniscient (he, she, they): the narrator does not participate in the action but presents the thoughts of at least one of the characters

Theme: the main message in a piece of writing

Symbol: a concrete object that is used to represent a feeling, emotion, idea or concept (ex. A flag symbolizes a country; a heart symbolizes love)

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE: language used in a way that is different from the usual, literal meaning in order to create a particular mental image

Extended Metaphor: a comparison that is carried through an entire poem

Metaphor: a comparison between two unlike things without using “like” or “as”

(“My love is a red, red rose.”)

Personification: giving human traits to anything that is not human

(“The branches of the trees screeched in the wind.”)

Simile: a comparison between two unlike things using “like” or “as”

(“My love is like a red, red rose.”)