Let it Begin...

Last lesson, we covered the 6 elements of plot. Today we are going to zero in on the exposition, inciting incident or conflict and rising action. Throughout the week, we are going to watch a Pixar short to analyze and identify all the elements of plot.

Exposition

As we discussed yesterday, the exposition is a literary device used to introduce background information about events, settings, characters, or other elements of a work to the audience or readers. The exposition is crucial to any story, for without it nothing makes sense.

Examples of Exposition in Movies and Literature

Star Wars

There are countless examples of exposition in many great movies and one of them, which comes across particularly well, is from Star Wars. The exposition in this movie is the opening title sequence, which gives information about the past events to the audience. The crawling text on the screen at the beginning of each movie in the series gives the audience every piece of information they need to understand the upcoming events in the film. The opening lines usually begin like this: “A long time ago in a galaxy far away, far away…”

The Three Little Bears

An exposition is typically positioned at the beginning of a novel, movie, or other literary work, because the author wants the audience to be fully aware of the characters in the story. The famous children’s story entitled The Three Little Bears applies this technique of exposition.

With the help of a single passage, the author of the story has given us an overview of the bear family, their residence, and information that sets the story in motion.

Rising Action

Rising action which occurs when a series of events build up to the conflict. The main characters are established by the time the rising action of a plot occurs, and at the same time, events begin to get complicated. It is during this part of a story that excitement, tension, or crisis is encountered.

Examples of Rising Action in Movies and Literature

The Hobbit

The conflict (inciting incident) begins in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, as Gandalf meets Bilbo and asks him to play the role of a burglar in the dwarves’ expedition to recover the treasure of Thorin from Smaug. Rising action occurs as he agrees to act as a burglar during this adventure. His heroism begins merely by shouting to wake up Gandalf, who rescues the company from goblins, and then the action slowly intensifies when he finds the magic ring. Gradually, Bilbo overcomes difficulties by killing a big spider, and establishes his potential as a hero and leader.

Snow White

In Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s novel, Snow White, the rising action occurs when the Queen’s magic mirror warns her that she is no longer the fairest lady in the land; that, instead, it is now Snow White. Envious, the Queen orders her huntsman to take her stepdaughter Snow White away from the palace, into the forest, and secretly kill her.

Fortunately, he cannot kill her, but leaves her in the forest, where seven tiny dwarfs find her. They bring her into their home, then another rising action occurs when the mirror tells the Queen that Snow White is still alive.

Your Turn!

For the Birds

Now that we have taken a closer look at exposition, inciting incident (conflict) and rising action and covered some examples, you will watch the Pixar video "For the Birds" and complete the exposition, inciting incident (conflict) and rising action section of the plot diagram found on Google Classroom under "lesson 2, 3 and 4."

Today and tomorrow ill just be for practice, but you will had in a fully completed diagram for Friday.

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