Short Story Terms

How do you understand the characters?

You learn their values, feelings, goals, and their problems.

Nonconventional Symbols

Often devised by an author in his or her own works, or may be abstract and not related to literal meaning.

Imagery and symbols are a...

Special kind of language. Authors use imagery and symbols to say more than literal statements can.

Indirect Characteration

When the author shows the character in action and lets the reader draw out their own conclusions.

Direct Characterization

When the author tells the reader directly about a character.

How to recognize symbols in short stories?

*Story titles; also character and place names. *Nature images: snow, thunderstorms, etc. *Allusions to classical and other literary and historical references. *Images or figures that appear at important points in the story. *Images that seem to receive special emphasis or are often repeated.

Elements of Style

*Word Choice *Length and Complexity of Sentences *Punctuation *Use of imagery and symbols *Sound and Rhythm

Understatement

A figure of speech in which the speaker says less than what he or she actually feels.

Irony

A particular tone created when the speaker intends a meaning that is opposite to the words he or she says.

Dramatic Irony

A technique that increases suspense by letting readers know more about the dramatic situation that the characters know.

Foreshadowing

A writing technique that gives readers clues about events that will happen later in the story.

Hyperbole

An exaggerated statement used to make a strong effect.

Symbol

An image, object, character, or action that stands for an idea (or ideas) beyond its literal meaning.

Complication

Any obstacle that increases the tension of the story conflict.

Authors' Characterization Tools

Authors use many clues to communicate characters to their readers, including: The character's name, The character's physical appearance, How the character is dressed, The character's occupation, what the character's home and surroundings are like, The character's habits and actions, and what other characters say about him or her.

Exposition

Background material about the characters, setting, and dramatic situation with which the author introduces the essentials of the story to the reader.

Details

By building their description of settings with realistic details, authors make their story seem more believable-- such as using actual street names when setting a story in a real city, or choosing authentic details to depict a setting set in a foreign country.

Sense Images

By describing settings in images that appeal to the reader's senses, the author creates a vivid atmosphere that readers can associate with settings in their own experience-- such as the smell of bread baking in a farmhouse kitchen, the feel of the swimming in cool lake water, or the sound of rain falling on a tin roof.

Style

Can be defined as any of the characteristic ways that an author uses language. Like an individual fingerprint, an author's style identifies his or her writing as unique. It also has specific effect on the reader.

Story Problem

Conflict is sometimes referred to as the story problem.

The Story Problem

Determined how authors present the story conflict to their readers. Many traditional story structures included exposition, complication, climax, and resolution.

How does imagery work in a story?

Individual images create vivid pictures in the reader's mind that link the person, place, or object described with the special qualities of the image. Images can be used in flattering and unflattering and unflattering ways.Strings of related images can work together to create a mood or set a tone.

What are clues for recognizing themes?

Look at: *The title of the story *Important images or symbols in the story *General observations made by the author, narrator, or characters in the story *Any "moral" suggested by the outcome of the conflict

Character is...

Perhaps the most important of all the elements of the short story. People in the story are the most important.

Omnisicient

Point of view is (insert word) if the author is outside the story and presents the thoughts of all the characters.

Limited 1

Point of view is called (insert word) when the story is told from the view-point of one character who can see only a part of the whole story.

How does setting work?

Provides a backdrop for the action, Establishes atmosphere, Shapes character and action, and Reflects character psychology.

"Unreliable" Narrator

Sometimes authors even create a narrator who gives the reader clues that he or she is not to be trusted as a reliable source of information. Then it becomes the reader's job to decide the "real truth" beneath the unreliable narrator's lies or distortions. ex. The Lizzie Bennett Diaries

Conventional Symbols

Symbols that have been invested with meaning by a group. Ex. cross and Christianity.

Suspense

Techniques used by the author to keep readers interested in the story and wondering what will happen next.

Dialogue

The actual words that characters speak. Authors use dialogue skillfully in the short story to portray character and to dramatize conflict.

Diction

The author's choice of word, the vocabulary level of the story.

Effect of Tone

The author's tone has a direct impact on how the reader responds to the story. Different tones can cause readers to experience such varying emotions as pity, fear, horror, or humor. If the author's tone is distant,for example, readers are likely to feel as close to the characters than if the tone were more sympathetic.

Protagonist

The central character of the story.

Conflict

The central source of tension and drama in the story.

Style

The characteristic ways that an individual author uses language-including word choice, length and complexity of sentences, patterns of sound, and use of imagery and symbols.

Tone

The clues in a story that suggest the writer's (or narrator's) own attitude towards elements of his or her story.

Setting

The environment in which the story takes place.

Structure

The framework that determines how a story is put together- its "skeleton". The structure of many stories includes four basic parts: exposition, complication, climax, and resolution.

Point of view

The from which a story is told.

Characterization

The methods a writer uses to communicate information about characters to readers.

Climax

The moment when the action comes to the highest point of dramatic conflict. Most often, the climax occurs before the actual ending of the story.

Mood

The overall feeling-light and happy or dark and brooding, for example-created by an author's choice of words.

Falling Action

The part of the story, following the climax and leading to the resolution, in which there is a sharp decline in dramatic tension.

Rising Action

The part of the story, including exposition includes the tension rises. Rising action builds to its highest point of tension at the story's climax.

Point of View

The perspective from which a story is told. To determine a story's point of view, ask yourself, "Who is telling the story?" In short story writers usually stick to a single point of view within one story.

Limited

The point of view is "third person limited" if the author tells the story from the viewpoint of just one point. The point of view is "first person limited" if the character narrates his or her own experience directly.

Omniscient

The point of view is called "third person omniscient" if the author is outside the story and presents the thoughts of all the characters involved as an objective observer: ex. When Jane saw Bill jogging past her house, heart skipped a beat. When Bill saw Jane in the hallway, he fought hard to catch his breath. No doubt about it--it as love!

Narrator

The speaker who tells the story. If the narrator is also a character who participates in the story, it is important not to confuse the narrator with the author-who may, in fact, hold a very different attitude toward the story.

Theme

The story's main ideas-the "message" that the author intends to communicate by telling the story. Themes are often universal truths that are suggested by the specifics of the story.

Verbal Irony

The use figures of speech such as hyperbole and understatement to create an ironic effect.

Imagery

The use of selected details to describe one thing in terms of another thing. This comparison helps evoke additional meanings or feelings: "He ran like the wind." or "She was more beautiful than angel."

"Hidden" Themes

There a little harder to find in a story. It could be a theme that comes to you while reading or it's hidden in between the lines of the book.

Resolution

This tells how the story concludes following the climax-- such as in a science-fiction story that tells what happens after the space invaders have returned to their own planet.

Description

Verbal representation of characters, scene, or action, used to make the story more vivid for the reader.

Explicit Themes

Very clear and easy to find in the story. You don't have to search for it very much, and you can clearly understand what the story's trying to tell you. It's kind of like a moral to a story.