Elements of a Short Story

• Plot is the sequence of events in a story.• Setting is the time and place in which the action

of a story occurs. • Theme is the author’s message, or insight about

life or human nature.• A character is an individual in a literary work.• The narrator is the person who tells the story• Voice is the distinctive use of language that

helps the reader understand the narrator’s personality.

Plot• Sequence of events

• Each event causes or leads to the next.

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 5

Stage 4

Setting• Story’s time and place.• Includes simple attributes

– the location– climate – the time of year

• Complex attributes – Historical Context of the story– Ideas, Customs, Values, and beliefs of a particular time

and place. • Authors create a strong image of a place through

the use of clear and vibrant description.• Good descriptive writing helps readers to see,

hear, smell, taste, or feel the person, place, or thing the author is describing.

Setting can also contribute to the mood,

or emotional quality, of a story.

Exposition

Introduces the story’s characters, setting, and conflict.

Back Plot Diagram

Rising Action

• Occurs as complications, twists, or intensifications of the conflict occur.

Back Plot Diagram

Climax

• Is the story’s most dramatic moment.

• Point of highest tension

Back Plot Diagram

Falling Action

• Is the logical result of the climax

Back Plot Diagram

Resolution

• Presents the final outcome of the story.

Back Elements of a Short Story

Frank R. Stockton (1834-1902)

• Primary known for his story The Lady, or the Tiger.

• His father wanted him to be a doctor. He instead, became a wood engraver, but still wrote in his spare time.

• Stockton mostly wrote children's story but in 1878 left the children's magazine he was working at because of his failing eyesight.

• In 1882 he published The Lady, or the Tiger.• Stockton never revealed the ending to his story.