SHORT STORY
Understanding Short Story
Elements of a Short Story
1. Plot. The plot is the sequence of the actions and events in a story to convey a theme. It is the skeleton or the blueprint of a story. The following terms explain what happens in a plot.
a) Exposition (Introduction) - This comes at the beginning of a story.
b) Rising Action (Complication) –n The struggle grows stronger.
c) Climax – The most exciting part in the story. It is the turning point.
d) Falling Action – Events move towards the end of the story.
e) Resolution (Denouement) – The study is brought to an end.
Kinds of Plot
a) Man in a hole. The action begins with a man or group of men getting trapped in some kind of a hole, goes on to show how they try to climb out and ends with them either escaping to safety or sliding back to the bottom for good.
b) Man on a road. This kind of pot is found more often in a novel than in a short story. A novel is an expanded short story. It has the same elements as in a short story. Many novels and short stories achieve their unity, not through a single action, but through a single hero, walking through various stages on the road of life. “Man on a road” is episodic. It tends to stretch out.
c) Man in a tub. Landy and others explain this kind of plot by giving a story of the Greek mathematician, Archimedes who was once asked to determine whether a crown belonging to a ruler, was made of pure gold. For some weeks he puzzles about the problem, but without success. He knew that the silver weighs less than gold, but how could he measure any silver the crown might contain without destroying the crown? Still baffled, he went one day to the baths, as he stepped into a tub, observed the overflow of water. It suddenly dawned on him that he had found the solution to his problem. So overjoyed was he by hi discovery that he forgot his towel and ran home through the street naked, shouting “Eureka!” (“I have found it!”) Man in a tub involves two steps: first a straightforward, constructed, usually commonplace event, and then a flash of realization, can form the skeleton of a plot.
Devices in Plot
a) Chronological arrangement. It starts from the beginning of the events.
b) Medias res. This starts at the middle of the story.
c) Flashback. Past events are shown to justify the conflict at present.
d) Foreshadowing. The author presents insignificant events or details of the present to take on value by being indicators of future events.
e) Stream of consciousness. A continuous and random flow of ideas, feelings, sensations, association, and perceptions as they register on the protagonist’s consciousness.
2. Conflict. The struggle or complication involving the characters.
Types of Conflicts:
3. Point of view. This refers to the angle of narration or form whose viewpoint the incidents in the story are told. The person who tells a story is called the narrator.
a) First Person Point o View. The writer narrates the story by using the personal pronoun “I” who may be the central character or a minor figure who either observes or participates in the action.
b) Third Person Limited Point of View. The unidentified author refers to his characters in the third person but limits himself by telling only what can be seen or heard inside the world of the story. It is otherwise called “camera-eye technique” as the narrator does not reveal about what the character thinks or feel.
c) Third Person Central Point of View. The narrator refers to his characters in the third person but limits himself to narrating only what the central character thinks, feels, does and what and whom the central character can observe.
d) Omniscient Point of View. The narrator acts as if he knows everything that happens including the thoughts of the characters.
4. Setting. This is the locale and period in which the events occur. A story must take place in space and time, and, therefore, must have some setting. But the importance of setting varies greatly from story to story. Usually the setting is introduced at the beginning. However, details about time and place are scattered throughout the story.
5. Character. This refers to any of the make-believe persons that are encountered in fiction.
Kinds of Characters
a) Protagonist. The admirable character who embodies certain human ideals.
b) Antagonist. The character who provides some sort of contest or opposition for the protagonist.
c) Static or Flat. The character which do not have flesh and blood qualities. They do not undergo changes.
d) Dynamic (or full or round). They live lives of sorrow and joy, sinking and swimming in the visible tides of life - a very much like us.
6. Theme. The theme is the writer's message. It may be specifically stated in a story or it may be derived from the total effect of all the elements of a story. It is a generalization about life or human character that a story explicitly or implicitly embodies.
7. Symbol. A symbol is a word or phrase, a scene, or an episode that refers directly to one thing but suggests another thing as well. For a symbol to carry this double meaning, the affinity between the symbol and the thing symbolized must be recognizable. Ex. Rose symbolizes love.
Understanding Short Story
- It is a fictional narrative prose that can be read in one sitting.
- It is also a re-creation and reconstruction of life.
- It also presents human life in two levels:
- The world of objective reality made up of human actions and experiences.
- The world of subjective reality dealing with human apprehensions and comprehensions.
- Both of these worlds are realms of facts, are connected and are mutually interdependent, yet they are not the same.
- Both of these worlds are realms of facts, are connected and are mutually interdependent, yet they are not the same.
- The world of objective reality made up of human actions and experiences.
Elements of a Short Story
1. Plot. The plot is the sequence of the actions and events in a story to convey a theme. It is the skeleton or the blueprint of a story. The following terms explain what happens in a plot.
a) Exposition (Introduction) - This comes at the beginning of a story.
b) Rising Action (Complication) –n The struggle grows stronger.
c) Climax – The most exciting part in the story. It is the turning point.
d) Falling Action – Events move towards the end of the story.
e) Resolution (Denouement) – The study is brought to an end.
Kinds of Plot
a) Man in a hole. The action begins with a man or group of men getting trapped in some kind of a hole, goes on to show how they try to climb out and ends with them either escaping to safety or sliding back to the bottom for good.
b) Man on a road. This kind of pot is found more often in a novel than in a short story. A novel is an expanded short story. It has the same elements as in a short story. Many novels and short stories achieve their unity, not through a single action, but through a single hero, walking through various stages on the road of life. “Man on a road” is episodic. It tends to stretch out.
c) Man in a tub. Landy and others explain this kind of plot by giving a story of the Greek mathematician, Archimedes who was once asked to determine whether a crown belonging to a ruler, was made of pure gold. For some weeks he puzzles about the problem, but without success. He knew that the silver weighs less than gold, but how could he measure any silver the crown might contain without destroying the crown? Still baffled, he went one day to the baths, as he stepped into a tub, observed the overflow of water. It suddenly dawned on him that he had found the solution to his problem. So overjoyed was he by hi discovery that he forgot his towel and ran home through the street naked, shouting “Eureka!” (“I have found it!”) Man in a tub involves two steps: first a straightforward, constructed, usually commonplace event, and then a flash of realization, can form the skeleton of a plot.
Devices in Plot
a) Chronological arrangement. It starts from the beginning of the events.
b) Medias res. This starts at the middle of the story.
c) Flashback. Past events are shown to justify the conflict at present.
d) Foreshadowing. The author presents insignificant events or details of the present to take on value by being indicators of future events.
e) Stream of consciousness. A continuous and random flow of ideas, feelings, sensations, association, and perceptions as they register on the protagonist’s consciousness.
2. Conflict. The struggle or complication involving the characters.
Types of Conflicts:
- Man vs. Self- occurs when the protagonist struggles within himself or herself or the protagonist is pulled by two courses of action or by differing emotions.
- Man vs. Man- Pits the protagonist against someone else. (Person-against-person)
- Man vs. Society- Person against society happens when the protagonist is in conflict with the values of his or her society.
3. Point of view. This refers to the angle of narration or form whose viewpoint the incidents in the story are told. The person who tells a story is called the narrator.
a) First Person Point o View. The writer narrates the story by using the personal pronoun “I” who may be the central character or a minor figure who either observes or participates in the action.
b) Third Person Limited Point of View. The unidentified author refers to his characters in the third person but limits himself by telling only what can be seen or heard inside the world of the story. It is otherwise called “camera-eye technique” as the narrator does not reveal about what the character thinks or feel.
c) Third Person Central Point of View. The narrator refers to his characters in the third person but limits himself to narrating only what the central character thinks, feels, does and what and whom the central character can observe.
d) Omniscient Point of View. The narrator acts as if he knows everything that happens including the thoughts of the characters.
4. Setting. This is the locale and period in which the events occur. A story must take place in space and time, and, therefore, must have some setting. But the importance of setting varies greatly from story to story. Usually the setting is introduced at the beginning. However, details about time and place are scattered throughout the story.
5. Character. This refers to any of the make-believe persons that are encountered in fiction.
Kinds of Characters
a) Protagonist. The admirable character who embodies certain human ideals.
b) Antagonist. The character who provides some sort of contest or opposition for the protagonist.
c) Static or Flat. The character which do not have flesh and blood qualities. They do not undergo changes.
d) Dynamic (or full or round). They live lives of sorrow and joy, sinking and swimming in the visible tides of life - a very much like us.
6. Theme. The theme is the writer's message. It may be specifically stated in a story or it may be derived from the total effect of all the elements of a story. It is a generalization about life or human character that a story explicitly or implicitly embodies.
7. Symbol. A symbol is a word or phrase, a scene, or an episode that refers directly to one thing but suggests another thing as well. For a symbol to carry this double meaning, the affinity between the symbol and the thing symbolized must be recognizable. Ex. Rose symbolizes love.
POETRY
UNDERSTANDING POETRY
Poetry is generally considered to be the oldest o the arts. Long before our forefathers learned to write, they sang and recite lines of verse.
Among the literary genres, poetry is the most closely related to music. Like music, it appeals to the senses and imagination. Like music, too it is meant to be heard. Poets choose words or their sounds as well as for their meanings. They combine these words to create vivid pictures and to express deep feelings.
Elements of Poetry
1. Sense- is revealed through the meaning of words; image and symbols.
a. Diction- denotative and connotative meanings/symbols
b. Images and sense impressions- sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, motion and emotion.
c. Figure of speech- simile, metaphor, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, synecdoche, allusion, antithesis, paradox, litotes, oxymoron, onomatopoeia.
2. Sound- is the result of the combination of elements.
a. Tone color- alliteration, assonance, consonance, rhyme, repetition, anaphora.
b. Rhythm- order recurrent alteration o strong and weak elements in the flow of the sound and silence: duple, triple, running or common rhyme.
c. Meter- stress, duration, or number o syllables per line, fixed metrical pattern, or a verse form: quantitative, syllabic and accentual syllabic.
d. Rhyme scheme- formal arrangement of rhymes in a stanza or the whole poem.
3. Structure- refers to (1) arrangement of words, and lines to it together, and (2) the organization of the parts to form a whole.
a. Word order- natural and unnatural arrangement of words.
b. Ellipsis- omitting some words for economy and effect.
c. Punctuation- abundance or lack of punctuation marks.
d. Shape- contextual and visual designs: jumps, omission of spaces, capitalization, lower case.
4. Speaker- all poems have a speaker, the voice that talks to the reader. In some poems, the speaker has a clear identity, using I and me. In other poems, the speaker remains in the background. The speaker is not necessarily the same as the poet.
5. Sensory/Poetic Images- by using sensory/poetic images or words and phrases that appeal to the five senses, a poet recreates an experience.
Poetic images have been classified into the following figures of speech:
§ Simile- consists of comparing two things by using the words “like” or “as”.
Example: Your face as a big as a seed, But you do not bear fruit…
(lines from A Secret by Carlos Bulosan)
§ Metaphor- uses direct comparison of two unlike things or ideas without using the words “like” or “as”.
Example: Dear Lord:
Let thou be the street cleaner
Whilst I be the road
(Prayer by NVM Gonzales)
§ Personification- gives human traits to inanimate objects or ideas.
Example: The bulled said to the heart: from now on we shall never part.
(lines from Communion by Gerson M. Mallillin)
§ Apostrophe- is a direct address to someone absent, dead, or inanimate.
Example: Little Sampaguita
With the wandering eye
Did a tiny airy
Drop you where you lie?
(lines from The Sampaguita by Natividad Marquez)
§ Metonymy- substitutes a word that closely relates to a person or thing.
Example: 1. The pen is mightier than the sword.
2. He lives through the bottle.
3. I have read all of Shakespeare.
§ Synecdoche- uses a part to represent the whole.
Example: No busy hand provoke a tear.
No roving foot shall crush thee here.
§ Hyperbole- makes use of exaggeration.
Example: I know what to name thy charms,
Thou art half human, half divine;
And if I could hold thee in my arms,
I know both heaven and earth were mine.
(lines from The Rural Maid By Fernando M. Maramag)
§ Irony- says the opposite of what is meant.
Example: If all these men whose heads are with stars,
Who dream unceasingly of blazing royalty,
Will only strike to be like you.
A dweller of the sod with the heart of royalty!
(lines from To A Do by Florizel Diaz)
§ Allusion- refers to any literary biblical, historical, mythological, scientific event, character or place.
Example: The pendulum is a thing dread
To nervous persons like me
It reminds one of swaying Iscariot-
Suspended from a tree.
(lines from After Palanan by Rene Iturralde)
§ Antithesis- involves a contrast o words or ideas.
Example: “Love is so short… Forgetting is so long.”
“You may be through with the past but the past isn’t through with you.”
§ Paradox- uses a phrase or statement that on surface seems contradictory, but makes some king of emotional sense.
Example: My dear, canst thou resolve for me
This paradox of love concerning thee
Mine eyes, when opened with thy beauty fill-
But when they’re close they see thee better still.
(lines from The Paradox by A.E Litiatco)
UNDERSTANDING POETRY
Poetry is generally considered to be the oldest o the arts. Long before our forefathers learned to write, they sang and recite lines of verse.
Among the literary genres, poetry is the most closely related to music. Like music, it appeals to the senses and imagination. Like music, too it is meant to be heard. Poets choose words or their sounds as well as for their meanings. They combine these words to create vivid pictures and to express deep feelings.
Elements of Poetry
1. Sense- is revealed through the meaning of words; image and symbols.
a. Diction- denotative and connotative meanings/symbols
b. Images and sense impressions- sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, motion and emotion.
c. Figure of speech- simile, metaphor, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, synecdoche, allusion, antithesis, paradox, litotes, oxymoron, onomatopoeia.
2. Sound- is the result of the combination of elements.
a. Tone color- alliteration, assonance, consonance, rhyme, repetition, anaphora.
b. Rhythm- order recurrent alteration o strong and weak elements in the flow of the sound and silence: duple, triple, running or common rhyme.
c. Meter- stress, duration, or number o syllables per line, fixed metrical pattern, or a verse form: quantitative, syllabic and accentual syllabic.
d. Rhyme scheme- formal arrangement of rhymes in a stanza or the whole poem.
3. Structure- refers to (1) arrangement of words, and lines to it together, and (2) the organization of the parts to form a whole.
a. Word order- natural and unnatural arrangement of words.
b. Ellipsis- omitting some words for economy and effect.
c. Punctuation- abundance or lack of punctuation marks.
d. Shape- contextual and visual designs: jumps, omission of spaces, capitalization, lower case.
4. Speaker- all poems have a speaker, the voice that talks to the reader. In some poems, the speaker has a clear identity, using I and me. In other poems, the speaker remains in the background. The speaker is not necessarily the same as the poet.
5. Sensory/Poetic Images- by using sensory/poetic images or words and phrases that appeal to the five senses, a poet recreates an experience.
Poetic images have been classified into the following figures of speech:
§ Simile- consists of comparing two things by using the words “like” or “as”.
Example: Your face as a big as a seed, But you do not bear fruit…
(lines from A Secret by Carlos Bulosan)
§ Metaphor- uses direct comparison of two unlike things or ideas without using the words “like” or “as”.
Example: Dear Lord:
Let thou be the street cleaner
Whilst I be the road
(Prayer by NVM Gonzales)
§ Personification- gives human traits to inanimate objects or ideas.
Example: The bulled said to the heart: from now on we shall never part.
(lines from Communion by Gerson M. Mallillin)
§ Apostrophe- is a direct address to someone absent, dead, or inanimate.
Example: Little Sampaguita
With the wandering eye
Did a tiny airy
Drop you where you lie?
(lines from The Sampaguita by Natividad Marquez)
§ Metonymy- substitutes a word that closely relates to a person or thing.
Example: 1. The pen is mightier than the sword.
2. He lives through the bottle.
3. I have read all of Shakespeare.
§ Synecdoche- uses a part to represent the whole.
Example: No busy hand provoke a tear.
No roving foot shall crush thee here.
§ Hyperbole- makes use of exaggeration.
Example: I know what to name thy charms,
Thou art half human, half divine;
And if I could hold thee in my arms,
I know both heaven and earth were mine.
(lines from The Rural Maid By Fernando M. Maramag)
§ Irony- says the opposite of what is meant.
Example: If all these men whose heads are with stars,
Who dream unceasingly of blazing royalty,
Will only strike to be like you.
A dweller of the sod with the heart of royalty!
(lines from To A Do by Florizel Diaz)
§ Allusion- refers to any literary biblical, historical, mythological, scientific event, character or place.
Example: The pendulum is a thing dread
To nervous persons like me
It reminds one of swaying Iscariot-
Suspended from a tree.
(lines from After Palanan by Rene Iturralde)
§ Antithesis- involves a contrast o words or ideas.
Example: “Love is so short… Forgetting is so long.”
“You may be through with the past but the past isn’t through with you.”
§ Paradox- uses a phrase or statement that on surface seems contradictory, but makes some king of emotional sense.
Example: My dear, canst thou resolve for me
This paradox of love concerning thee
Mine eyes, when opened with thy beauty fill-
But when they’re close they see thee better still.
(lines from The Paradox by A.E Litiatco)