ANALYZING FACTUAL /
NONFICTIONAL
ELEMENTS
There is a thin line that differentiates fiction from nonfiction. That thin line is
called FACTS. Works of nonfiction are factual accounts and encounters that have
truly transpired somewhere at some time. Autobiographies and memoirs are two of
the many examples there are.
Fiction is a literary genre that features a narrative that is not real or has not
happened. These works may be purely imaginary but they may draw inspiration
from real events. Novels and short stories are categorized under this literary genre.
Fiction and nonfiction are literary genres whose primary goal is to tell a story
whether real or imagined, factual or fictional. Therefore, creative nonfiction will
have to contain all the essential elements of a short story so the message it wants to
convey can get across to its audience.
RECOGNIZING
ESSENTIAL
ELEMENTS
SETTING
It is the surroundings and time in which events of a story take place.
Settings can include the era or period, date and time of the day,
geographical location, weather and natural surroundings, immediate
surroundings of a character, and social conditions.
Example:
Funeral
Living room
Wake
Funeral
CHARACTERS
These are the individuals in the story. Characterization is the process by which the
writer reveals the personality of a character in many ways such as speech, thoughts,
the effect on others, actions, and looks.
Example:
• Lilibeth
• Hope
• Sallymar
• Bong
• Ursulita
etc.
DIALOGUE
These are the utterances that the characters say to each other.
Example:
“Now we’ll never finish that conversation.”
ATMOSPHERE
Also known as mood, it is the dominant emotion/feeling that pervades a story. It is less physical and
more symbolic, associative, and suggestive than the setting, but often akin to the setting. Every
story has some kind of atmosphere, but in some, it may be the most important feature or, at least, a
key to the main points of the story. Atmosphere is created by descriptive details, dialogue, narrative
language, and such.
Example:
Grieving, sorrowful, full of despair and suffering can be
the possible atmospheres exuded by the narrative.
POINT OF VIEW
In a narrative, the point of view is the perspective from which a story is told. There are three
common types of point of view:
1. The first person point of view is used when the narrator of the story is also a character in
the story and tells it from her point of view. The pronoun “we” or “I” is frequently used
here.
2. The second person point of view tells a story as if the story is happening to the reader
himself. The pronoun “you” or “yours” is commonly used.
3. The third-person point of view tells the story from an outsider’s perspective. He or she is
not a character in the story and refers to the characters using the pronoun “he”, “she”, or
“they”.
PLOT
The plot is a series of events and scenes that
occur in a story. The structure of the plot is
the method or sequence in which incidents in
a narrative are organized/presented to the
audience/readers. Almost all plots follow the
basic sequence such as reflected in the
Freytag’s Pyramid below.
SYMBOLS AND SYMBOLISM
Symbols are concrete objects/images that
stand for abstract subjects. The objects
and images have meanings of their own
but can be ascribed subjective
connotations such as heart = love, skull &
crossbones = poison, color green = envy;
light bulb = idea.
1. Simile
is a figure of speech which involves a direct comparison between two
unlike things, usually using the words “like” or “as”
Example:
Far in the distance, I saw the river gleamed as a flashing sword of
silver
The little stars, like little children, went first to bed.
2. Metaphor
is a figure of speech that compares two unlike things WITHOUT using the words like or as
and states the comparison as if it were a fact.
Example:
Hearty and hale was he, an oak that was covered in snowflakes.
Our friendship is a tree with deep roots.
3. Personification
is a figure of speech that appropriates human attributes and qualities to an animal,
an object, or an idea
Example:
The stars were asleep.
Her heart was foolish.
4. Hyperbole
is an outrageous exaggeration that emphasizes a point and can be ridiculous or funny.
Example:
The tumult reached the stars.
I had a dream so big and loud, I jumped so high I touched the clouds.
5. Irony
is a figure of speech in which one thing is said when the opposite is meant.
Example:
It was expected of a genius to get zero in a test.
You’d actually be stunning if you wore rags to the prom.
6. Allusion
is a reference in a work of literature to another work of literature or a well-known person, place, or
event outside of literature. There are several types of allusion including literary, biblical, historical, and
cultural.
Example:
He has the patience of Job.
I was meant to be a warrior, please make me a Hercules.
7. Apostrophe
is the act of addressing of usually absent people or a usually personified thing rhetorically.
Example:
Not yet Rizal, not yet. Sleep not in peace.
Jesus, take the wheel!
8. Oxymoron
is a phrase containing a juxtaposition of two contradictory terms.
Example:
All my fragile strength is gone.
In her solitude, she listened to the deafening silence
9. Paradox
is a statement that appears to be self-contradictory or silly, but which may include a latent
truth
Example:
A million dreams are keeping me awake
Everything that kills me makes me feel alive
10. Metonymy
is the use of a word or a term to refer to or stand for another object or idea.
Example:
You know pink is this year’s black! (Black stands for the new fashion trend.)
“Let me give you a hand.” (Hand means help.)
11. Synecdoche
is a figure of speech in which a term for a part of something refers to the whole
of something or vice versa
Example:
Door clicks while his wheels start spinning on the pavement.
(Wheels are a part of a car. In the sentence, wheels stand for car.)
12. Litotes
is when an affirmative is conveyed by the negation of the opposite, the effect is to
suggest a strong expression employing a weaker one.
Example:
They are not unhappy with the presentation
This is not your ordinary, no ordinary love.
13. Euphemism
is the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may
offend or suggest something unpleasant.
Example:
After a decade long battle with the disease, he now finally has met his
maker. (To meet someone’s maker means to die.)
