“A short story must have a single mood

and every sentence must build towards

it.” 
― Edgar Allan Poe
READING:
MODERN SHORT
STORY

Maureen Mae E. Mana-ay

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Elements of a Short
Stories
 PLOT
• is how the author arranges events to develop his/her basic
idea. It is the sequence of events in a story or play. The plot is
a planned, logical series of events having a beginning, middle
and end.
Introduction (exposition)
Rising Action
Climax (point of greatest intensity)
Falling Action
Resolution
 CLIMAX: Wolf decides to sneak down the

Fa
chimney to get the pigs.

lli
on

ng
Event #5
Big Bad Wolf tries
ct i

Ac
several time, but he can’t
blow down brick house.
gA

Event #4

tio
Big Bad Wolf blows the stick house Wolf falls into boiling pot
down and Pig #1 & Pig #2 escapes of soup.

n
sin

to Pig #3’s house.

Ri

Event #3
Big Bad Wolf blows the straw
house down and Pig #1 escapes to
Pig #2’s house.
Event #2
Pig #1 builds a house of straw, Pig #2 RESOLUTION: The Big Bad Wolf is so
builds a house of sticks, Pig #3 builds a scared of the 3 Pigs that runs off in the woods
house of bricks. never to be seen again. The 3 little Pigs live
happily ever after.
Event #1
The Pig come across a beautiful clearing
they think will be a perfect spot to build
their homes.

EXPOSITION: Three little pigs Plot Diagram Example

leave home to find adventure in the
big world.
Plot has three types of endings:
• Happy ending
• Unhappy ending
• Indeterminate ending
 SETTING
The setting is the place where the story takes place.
Setting includes the following:
 Place
 Time
 Weather Conditions
 Social Conditions
 Mood or Atmosphere
 CHARACTERIZATION
• Characterization is the process by which the writer
reveals the personality of a character.
• Characterization is revealed through direct
characterization and indirect characterization.
• Direct Characterization tells the audience what
the personality of the character is.

Example: "The patient boy and quiet girl were both

well mannered and did not disobey their mother.“
• Indirect Characterization shows things that reveal
the personality of a character. There are five different
methods of indirect characterization:
 CHARACTERS
The people (or animals, things, etc. presented as
people) appearing in a literary work.
Infographic Style
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Character types:
Protagonist – the main character; the character
everything revolves around (“the good guy”)
 Antagonist – the character or force that struggles
against the protagonist or causes him or her
conflict/problems (“the bad guy).
 
Characters can be...

 Dynamic – Also known as a kinetic character, a dynamic

character changes in some important way because of plot
events.
 Static – These characters are the opposite of dynamic
characters. These people don’t change through the course
of a story. They have the same personality throughout.
Minor Characters:
•Character Foil – A character foil, or simply “foil”,
occurs when two characters balance each other in some
way; they are almost like two halves of a whole person.
•Confidant – is a character, sympathetic to the
protagonist, who is used to draw out the central character.
•Type Character - are typical of rural life, an
occupation, a life style, or an ethnic group.
 THEME
The theme in a piece of fiction is its controlling idea
or its central insight. It is the author's underlying
meaning or main idea that he is trying to convey. The
theme may be the author's thoughts about a topic or
view of human nature.
Some simple examples of common themes from
literature, TV, and film are:
Things are not always as they appear to be
Love is blind
Believe in yourself
People are afraid of change
Don't judge a book by its cover
 POINT OF VIEW
Point of view in a story refers to the consistent
outlook which may be from one person’s point of
view to that of several people. The author has four
points of view to choose from:
 First Person Subjective – this point of view is
accomplished through the main character’s narration of
events that occur to him or her, past or present. First
person point of view is usually easily identified because of
the author's use of the pronouns "I" and "my".
 Second Person Point Of View – Second-person narration
is when the narrator refers to the main character as "you,"
making the reader feel as if he or she is a character within
the story.
Third Person Points Of View – The third-person
narrative is one of three possible points of view for
telling a story. In a third person narrative, the
participants in the narrative are understood to be
distinct from the person telling the story. Third person
narratives employ the words "she, he, they".
The three most common forms of third person narration are:
A third person omniscient narrator witnesses all
events, even some that no characters witness. The
omniscient narrator is privy to all things past, present and
future - as well as the thoughts of all characters.
The third person limited omniscient point of view is
limited to the the thoughts and feelings of one character.
The story is told through the eyes of one character.
 The third person objective is similar to a video of an
event. The reader is privy to all the actions of usually
all the characters, but the narrator does not reveal
character's thoughts and emotions.
A short story is like “a little earthquake”: It
must introduce and resolve a single event
or point of conflict, in limited space.

~ Joseph O’Conner ~