Elements of

Prose
a.k.a.- The parts of
a story
 Prose
 There are 2 types of writing:
 prose- anything that is NOT poetry or plays
 poetry

 Prose is divided into 2 categories:

 short story
 novel
 Short Story
 Definition: Fictional story that can be read in
one sitting.
 Example: “A Rose for Emily,” “The Cask
of Amontillado,” or “The Most Dangerous
Game”
 Novel
 Definition: A long prose narrative that must
be read in many sittings.
 Example: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Scarlet
Letter, or The Great Gatsby
 Elements of Prose
 Plot
 Character
 Setting
 Point of View
 Theme
 Irony
 Symbol
 Plot
 The “framework” or “skeleton” of the story;
 A series of related events that are linked
together
 What Makes Up Plot?
1. Basic Situation
(Exposition)
- Tells the audience who
the characters are and
introduces the conflict

- Example: “Every Who

Down in Who-ville
Liked Christmas
a lot...”
 What Makes Up Plot?
2. Rising Action “But the Grinch,
- Complications Who lived just North of
Who-ville,
that arise when
Did NOT!
the characters
The Grinch hated
take steps to Christmas! The whole
resolve their Christmas season!
conflicts Now, please don't ask
why. No one quite knows
the reason.
 What Makes Up Plot?
Example: “And the Grinch, with his
3. Climax: Most grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
exciting or Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How
suspenseful moment could it be so?
when something It came without ribbons! It came
without tags!
happens to determine "It came without packages, boxes or
the outcome of the bags!"
conflict. And he puzzled three hours, `till his
puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something
he hadn't before!
"Maybe Christmas," he thought,
"doesn't come from a store.
"Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a
little bit more!"
 What Makes Up Plot?
4. Falling Action:
 Example:
The conflict is in And what happened then...?
the process of Well...in Who-ville they say
That the Grinch's small heart
being resolved or
Grew three sizes that day!
“unraveled
 What Makes Up Plot?
 Resolution: (Denouement) or “Untying the
knot”
 When the story’s problem/conflict is resolved and
the story ends
 Endings may be happy or tragic

Example: “He whizzed with his load through

the bright morning light
And he brought back the toys! And the food for
the feast!
And he......HE HIMSELF...!
The Grinch carved the roast beast!”
                                                              
 Freytag’s Pyramid
 Gustav Freytag was a Nineteenth Century German novelist who saw common
patterns in the plots of stories and novels and developed a diagram to analyze
them. He diagrammed a story's plot using a pyramid like the one shown here:
 Character: Revealing
Human Nature
 Character- A person or
being in a story that
performs the action of
the plot.

 Characterization: The
process of revealing the
personality of a
character in a story.
 Steps to the Characterization
Process
 A writer can reveal a character in the following ways:
1. Letting up hear the character speak
2. Describing how the character looks & dresses
3. Letting us listen to the character’s inner thoughts and
feelings
4. Revealing what other characters in the story think or say
about the character
5. Showing us what the character does – how he or she acts

*These call on the reader to take the information he or she is

given to interpret for himself/herself the kind of character
he or she is reading about. This is called INDIRECT
CHARACTERIZATION
Steps to the Characterization
Process
6. Telling us directly what the character ’s
personality is like: cruel, sneaky, brace, etc.
Ex. “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch…”

This is called DIRECT

CHARACTERIZATION
 Types of Characters

 Dynamic Character: The character changes

as a result of the action of the story.
 Example- Ebenezer Scrooge, the Grinch

 Static Character: The character does not

change much in the course of the story.
 Example- Brutus (Julius Caesar);
 Mama Younger (A Raisin in the Sun)
 Types of Characters
 Protagonist: The main character of the story.
 Can be good or evil

 Antagonist: The character or force that comes

into conflict with the protagonist
 Can be another person, an animal, a force of
nature, society, the character’s own conscience,
etc.
 Setting
 Defintion: The time and location in which
the story takes place
 Setting
 Purpose of Setting
1. Gives background information
2. Provides conflict
- Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Society
3. Can reveal a lot about someone’s character
4. Provides mood or atmosphere
- Mood- the feeling WE get when we read a story
5. Can paint images for the reader
- Images – words that call forth the 5 senses
 Theme
 Definition: The insight about human life that
is revealed in a literary work. The “golden
thread” woven throughout the story.

-The theme is what the author is saying through the

story (it’s a deeper truth about reality)
- The plot is how he says it : it is the story he uses to
get this point across
 Point of View
 Definition: The direction from which the
writer has chosen to tell the story
There are 3 Points of
View
1. First Person: One of the characters tells the
story; talks directly to the reader
- Uses the pronoun “I,” “me,” “we,” or “us”

 Third Person Limited: The narrator will

focus on the thoughts & feelings of just one
character
- Reader experiences the events of the story through
the memory and senses of only one character
There are 3 Points of
View
3. Third-Person Omniscient- “All-knowing”
- An all-knowing narrator who refers to all the
characters as “he” and “she.” Knows the thoughts
and feelings of ALL of the characters.

*The narrator is not necessarily the story’s author*

 Conflict
 Definition- It exists when a character is struggling
with something or someone
- Could be a number of things:
- Another person, an animal,
- an inanimate object- a rock, the weather
- The character’s own personality
External Conflict
External Conflict- Caused by something OUTSIDE
the character
- Example: an another character, a river,
weather, society
- Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, Man vs.
Society
Internal Conflict
Internal Conflict- Character struggles with some
personal quality that is causing trouble
- Example: vanity, pride, selfishness, grief
- Man vs. Self
 Foreshadowing
 Definition:Clues about what is going to
happen as the story unfolds
 Suspense
 Definition: Anxiety WE feel about what
is going to happen next in the story
 Parody
 Definition: The imitation of a work of
literature, art, or music for amusement or
instruction
 Satire
 Definition: A kind of writing that ridicules
human weakness, vice, or folly in order to
bring about social reform.
 Example: Political cartoons, “A Modest Proposal”
 Irony
 Definition: An “unexpected twist” in a story
- 3 Types of Irony:
1. Verbal: Someone says one thing but
means another
- also known as sarcasm

-Example: If a woman walks into a job

interview and she is sloppily dressed
with only two teeth in her head and the
interview says, “You have a beautiful
smile!”
 Irony
2. Situational: When a reader expects one
thing to happen and the opposite occurs
- Example- Everyone knows the sad irony in “Richard
Cory.” Why would someone so successful and rich
be so unhappy as to kill himself? In a wonderfully
ironic letter, George Bernard Shaw celebrates his
mother’s death and cremation. Charles Dickens’
character Mr. McChoakumchild is
anything but a teacher.
 Irony
3. Dramatic: When the character in a
play thinks one thing is true, but the
audience knows better. The audience
has inside information that a character
does not.
- This information usually comes in the
form of an aside or a soliloquy.

- Example: In Romeo and Juliet,

Romeo says that his “grave is like to be
his wedding bed.” Little does he know
that his marriage will be the cause of
his untimely death. We as an audience
knows because we heard the prologue
at the beginning of the play.
 Soliloquy
 Definition: A character stands alone on stage
and addresses the world (audience), giving
voice to his innermost thoughts and feelings.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
- Example: To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing." — Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines
17-28)
 Aside
Time, thou anticipatest my
dread exploits.
“ The flighty purpose never is
 Definition: Words that are o'ertook
spoken by a character in a Unless the deed go with it.
play to the audience only or From this moment
to another character only. The very firstlings of my
heart shall be
They are not supposed to be The firstlings of my hand.
overheard by others on And even now,
stage. It is meant to let To crown my thoughts with
acts, be it thought and done:
someone in on a secret or
The castle of Macduff I will
for a character to give surprise,
personal comments about Seize upon Fife, give to the
current events in the play. edge o' the sword
His wife, his babes, and all
unfortunate souls
That trace him in his line.
”
 More Elements of
Prose
 Tone: The attitude the writer takes toward the
subject of a work, the characters in it, or the
audience.

 “I am getting married”
 Tone Example
 “The Author To Her Book”
 Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain, I washed thy face, but more defects I
Who after birth did'st by my side remain, saw,
Till snatcht from thence by friends, less wise And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw.
than true, I stretcht thy joints to make thee even
Who thee abroad exposed to public view, feet,
Made thee in rags, halting to th' press to Yet still thou run'st more hobbling than
trudge,
Where errors were not lessened (all may is meet.
judge). In better dress to trim thee was my mind,
At thy return my blushing was not small, But nought save home-spun cloth, i' th'
My rambling brat (in print) should mother house I find.
call. In this array, 'mongst vulgars may'st thou
I cast thee by as one unfit for light, roam.
The visage was so irksome in my sight, In critic's hands, beware thou dost not
Yet being mine own, at length affection come,
would And take thy way where yet thou art not
Thy blemishes amend, if so I could. known.
If for thy father askt, say, thou hadst
none;
And for thy mother, she alas is poor,
Which caused her thus to send thee out
of door. 
Denotation/Connotat
ion
Denotation: Dictionary
definition of a word
- Example: Mom-Female
individual who gives
birth and physical care to
her offspring.

 Connotation: Feelings
people get from hearing or
reading a particular word
- Example: Mom-Hug,
loving, caring, dries tears,
role model
Denotation/Connotat
ion
 Dog-
 Denotation: Domesticated, 4-legged canine
 Connotation: Smelly, fluffy, man’s best friend
playful, loyal, protective