Plot and Theme
1- Exposition: Any information about the characters or story before the Inciting Incident. Background information to help establish characterization and/or the setting.
2- Inciting Incident: The event that starts the story (Opening). Conflict that starts the rising action.
3- Rising Action: Events build up to the climax. Conflict increases and intensifies.
4- Climax: The most exciting/ intense event of the story. The final/ largest moment of conflict in the story.
5- Falling Action: Events and action gradually descends. All remaining conflict is smaller and less intense than the climax.
6- Resolution/ Denouement: The conclusion or ending of the story. All loose ends are tied up.
Theme: The Message, Moral, or Central idea of the text. It is not a summary of the story, and it can be applicable to other situations, including real life.
(Example for Lord of the Rings: Summary= Frodo takes the ring to Mordor. Theme= Even the smallest people can change the world in large ways)
Setting: Where and when the story takes place.
Point of view: First Person (Narrator uses "I" "me" "mine")
Third Person (Narrator uses "He" "She" "They" "It")
Omniscient- Narrator knows all (What every character is thinking and what will happen in the future).
Limited- Narrator only knows some characters' minds. Mostly limited to what is seen and heard (Fly on the Wall)
Practice: Read "The Princess and the Pea", and use the plot chart to analyze the story. (Links to the right of the image ------------>)
