Bell Ringer

Define the following terms in

your journal:
Elements of a Story
What you need to know!
 Story Elements
Setting
Characters
Plot
Conflict
Resolution
Point of View
Theme
 Setting
• Setting is the “where and when”
of a story. It is the time and place
during which the story takes place.
 Setting
Setting
Time and place are where the
action occurs
 The Functions of a
To create a mood Setting
or atmosphere
To show a reader a different way
of life
To make action seem more real
To be the source of conflict or
struggle
To symbolize an idea
 Mood
• Mood is the feeling that the author tries to convey
throughout the story. The atmosphere or emotional
condition created by the piece, within the setting. Does
the author want the reader to be frightened or sad, or does
the story make the reader laugh and think happy
thoughts?
• To figure out mood, examine how you feel while reading
the story. Often mood is conveyed by the story’s setting.
 Characters
• The person,
animals, and
things
participating in
a story
 Characters
• The protagonist is the main character of the
story, the one with whom the reader identifies.
This person is not necessary “good”.
• The antagonist is the force in opposition of the
protagonist; this person may not be “bad” or
“evil”, but he/she opposes the protagonist in a
significant way.
 Plot
• Plot is the organized pattern
or sequence of events that
make up a story. The literary
element that describes the
structure of a story.
 Parts of a Plot
 Exposition - introduction; characters, setting and conflict
(problem) are introduced
 Rising Action- events that occur as result of central
conflict
 Climax- highest point of interest or suspense of a story
 Falling Action - tension eases; events show the results of
how the main character begins to resolve the conflict
 Resolution- loose ends are tied up; the conflict is solved
 Plot Diagram
3

2 4
1 5
 1. Exposition
• This usually occurs at the beginning of a short story. Here
the characters are introduced. We also learn about the
setting of the story. Most importantly, we are introduced to
the main conflict (main problem).
 2. Rising Action
• This part of the story begins to develop the conflict(s). A building
of interest or suspense occurs and leads to the climax.
Complications arise
 3. Climax
• This is the turning point of the story. Usually the main character
comes face to face with a conflict. The main character will
change in some way. This is the most intense moment.
 4. Falling Action
• Action that follows
the climax and
ultimately leads to
the resolution
 5. Resolution
• The conclusion; all loose ends are
tied up.
• Either the character defeats the
problem, learns to live with the
problem, or the problem defeats the
character.
 Putting It All Together
1. Exposition Beginning of
Story
2. Rising Action
Middle of Story
3. Climax
4. Falling Action
5. Resolution End of Story
 Diagram of Plot
Climax

Fal on
Ac nt/

Act
n
ing me

l i ng
t io

i
Ris velop
Introduction
/ Exposition De Resolution
Setting, characters,
and conflict are
introduced
 Special Techniques used in a
Story
 Suspense- excitement, tension, curiosity
 Foreshadowing- hint or clue about what will happen in story
 Flashback- interrupts the normal sequence of events to tell
about something that happened in the past
 Symbolism – use of specific objects or images to represent idea
 Personification – when you make a thing,
idea or animal do something only humans do
 Surprise Ending - conclusion that reader
does not expect
Conflict
Conflict is the dramatic struggle
between two forces in a story. Without
conflict, there is no plot.
 Conflict
Conflict is a problem that must be solved; an issue
between the protagonist and antagonist forces. It
forms the basis of the plot.
Conflicts can be external or internal
External conflict- outside force may be person,
group, animal, nature, or a nonhuman obstacle
Internal conflict- takes place in a character’s mind
Types of External Conflict
Character vs Character / Man
Character vs Nature
Character vs Society
Character vs Fate / God
Type of Internal Conflict
Character vs. Self
 Point of View
• First Person Point of View- a character from the
story is telling the story; uses the pronouns “I” and
“me”
• Third Person Point of View- an outside narrator is
telling the story; uses the pronouns “he”, “she”,
“they”
 Types of Third-Person
Point of View
• Third-Person Limited • Third-Person Omniscient
• The narrator knows the • The narrator knows the
thoughts and feelings thoughts and feeling of
on only ONE character ALL the characters in a
in a story. story.
 Theme
The theme is the central, general message, the
main idea, the controlling topic about life or people
the author wants to get across through a literary work
To discover the theme of a story, think big. What big
message is the author trying to say about the world in
which we live?
What is this story telling me about how life works, or
how people behave?
 The Theme is also
• the practical lesson ( moral) that we learn from a
story after we read it. The lesson that teaches us what
to do or how to behave after you have learned
something from a story or something that has
happened to you.
Example: The lesson or teaching of the story is be
careful when you’re offered something for nothing.
Any questions?
Figurative Language
“Figuring it Out”
 Figurative and Literal Language
Literally: words function exactly as defined
The car is blue.
He caught the football.
Figuratively: figure out what it means
I’ve got your back.

You’re a doll.
^Figures of Speech
 Simile
Comparison of two things using “like” or “as.”

Examples

The metal twisted like a ribbon.

She is as sweet as candy.

 Important!
Using “like” or “as” doesn’t make a simile.

A comparison must be made.

Not a Simile: I like pizza.

Simile: The moon is like a pizza.

 Metaphor
Two things are compared without using “like” or
“as.”

Examples

All the world is a stage.

Men are dogs.

Her heart is stone.

 Personification
Giving human traits to objects or ideas.

Examples

The sunlight danced.

Water on the lake shivers.
The streets are calling me.
 Hyperbole
Exaggerating to show strong feeling or effect.

Examples

I will love you forever.

My house is a million miles away.

She’d kill me.

 Understatement
Expression with less strength than expected.
The opposite of hyperbole.

I’ll be there in one second.

This won’t hurt a bit.

 Onomatopoeia
• A word that “makes” a sound
• SPLAT
• PING
• SLAM
• POP
• POW
 Idiom
• A saying that isn’t meant to be taken literally.
• Doesn’t “mean” what it says
• Don’t be a stick in the mud!
• You’re the apple of my eye.
• I have an ace up my sleeve.
 Pun
• A form of “word play” in which words have
a double meaning.
• I wondered why the baseball was getting
bigger and then it hit me.
• I’m reading a book about anti-gravity. It’s
impossible to put it down.
• I was going to look for my missing watch,
but I didn’t have the time.
 Proverb

• A figurative saying in which a bit of

“wisdom” is given.
• An apple a day keeps the doctor away
• The early bird catches the worm
 Oxymoron
• When two words are put together that
contradict each other. “Opposites”
• Jumbo Shrimp
• Pretty Ugly
• Freezer Burn
 Quiz
On a separate sheet of paper…
1. I will put an example of figurative language on the
board.
2. You will write whether it is an simile, metaphor,
personification, hyperbole, pun, proverb, idiom,
onomatopoeia, oxymoron or understatement.
3. You can use your notes.
 1

He drew a line as straight as an arrow.

 2

Knowledge is a kingdom and all who learn are

kings and queens.
 3

Can I see you for a second?

 4

The sun was beating down on me.

 5

A flag wags like a fishhook there in the sky.

 6
I'd rather take baths
with a man-eating shark,
or wrestle a lion
alone in the dark,
eat spinach and liver,
pet ten porcupines,
than tackle the homework,
my teacher assigns.
 7
Ravenous and savage
from its long
polar journey,

the North Wind

is searching
for food—
 8
Dinner is on the house.
 9

Can I have one of your chips?

 10
Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
 11.
• The clouds smiled down at me.
 12.
• SPLAT!
 13.
• She is as sweet as candy
 14.
• I could sleep forever!
 15.
• He drove his expensive car into a tree and
found out how the Mercedes bends
 16.
• I used to have a fear of hurdles, but I got
over it
 17.
• The wheat field was a sea of gold.
 18.
• The streets called to him.
 19.
• POP!
 20.
• She was dressed to the nines.
 21.
• The early bird catches the worm.
 22.
• Old news
 23.
• Your face is killing me!
 24.
• She was as white as a ghost.
 25.
• She has a skeleton in her closet.
Elements of Poetry
 Elements of Poetry
•What is poetry?
•Poetry is not prose. Prose is the ordinary language
people use in speaking or writing.
•Poetry is a form of literary expression that captures
intense experiences or creative perceptions of the
world in a musical language.
•Basically, if prose is like talking, poetry is like singing.
•By looking at the set up of a poem, you can see the
difference between prose and poetry.
Distinguishing Characteristics of Poetry
• Unlike prose which has a narrator, poetry has a speaker.
• A speaker, or voice, talks to the reader. The speaker is not
necessarily the poet. It can also be a fictional person, an
animal or even a thing

Example
But believe me, son.
I want to be what I used to be
when I was like you.
from “Once Upon a Time” by Gabriel Okara
Distinguishing Characteristics of Poetry
• Poetry is also formatted differently from prose.
– A line is a word or row of words that may or may not
form a complete sentence.
– A stanza is a group of lines forming a unit. The
stanzas in a poem are separated by a space.
Example
Open it.

Go ahead, it won’t bite.

Well…maybe a little.
from “The First Book” by Rita Dove
 Figures of Speech
• A figure of speech is a word or expression that is not meant
to be read literally.

• A simile is a figure of speech using a word such as like or as

to compare seemingly unlike things.
Example
Does it stink like rotten meat?
from “Harlem” by Langston Hughes
•
Figures of Speech
A metaphor also compares seemingly unlike things, but
does not use like or as.
Example
the moon is a white sliver
from “I Am Singing Now” by Luci Tapahonso
• Personification attributes human like characteristics to an
animal, object, or idea.
Example
A Spider sewed at Night
from “A Spider sewed at Night” by Emily Dickinson
 Figures of Speech
• Hyperbole – a figure of speech in which great
exaggeration is used for emphasis or humorous effect.
Example
“You’ve asked me a million times!”
• Imagery is descriptive language that applies to
the senses – sight, sound, touch, taste, or smell.
Some images appeal to more than one sense.
 Sound Devices
• Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at
the beginning of words.
• Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within
a line of poetry.
• Onomatopoeia is the use of a word or phrase, such
as “hiss” or “buzz” that imitates or suggests the
sound of what it describes.
 Example of Sound Devices
“In the steamer is the trout
seasoned with slivers of ginger”
from “Eating Together” by Li-Young Lee

And the stars never rise but I

see the bright eyes
from “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe
 Rhyme
• Rhyme is the repetition of the same stressed vowel sound
and any succeeding sounds in two or more words.
• Internal rhyme occurs within a line of poetry.
• End rhyme occurs at the end of lines.
• Rhyme scheme is the pattern of end rhymes that may be
designated by assigning a different letter of the alphabet
to each new rhyme
 Example
“All mine!" Yertle cried. "Oh, the things I now rule! A
I'm king of a cow! And I'm king of a mule!
A
I'm king of a house! And what's more, beyond that,
I'm king of a blueberry bush and cat! B
I'm Yertle the Turtle! Oh, marvelous me! B
For I am the ruler of all that I see!”
C
from “Yertle the Turtle”
by Dr. Seuss C
“Penelope” by Dorothy
Parker
In the pathway of the sun, A
In the footsteps of the breeze, B
Where the world and sky are one,
A
He shall ride the silver seas,
He shall cut the glittering wave. B
I shall sit at home, and rock; C
Rise, to heed a neighbor’s knock;
Brew my tea, and snip my thread; D
Bleach the linen for my bed. D
They will call him brave.
E
E
 Rhythm and Meter
• Rhythm is the pattern of sound created by the
arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables
in a line. Rhythm can be regular or irregular.
• Meter is a regular pattern of stressed and
unstressed syllables which sets the overall rhythm
of certain poems. Typically, stressed syllables are
marked with / and unstressed syllables are marked
with  .
• In order to measure how many syllables are per
line, they are measured in feet. A foot consists of a
certain number of syllables forming part of a line of
verse.
 Iambic Pentameter
• The most common type of meter is called iambic
pentameter
• An iamb is a foot consisting of an initial
unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
syllable. For example, return, displace, to love,
my heart.
• A pentameter is a line of verse containing 5
metrical feet.
 Significance of Iambic
Pentameter
• Iambic Pentameter is significant to the study
of poetry because
• 1. It is the closest to our everyday speech
• 2. In addition, it mimics the sound of heart beat; a
sound common to all human beings.
• 3. Finally, one of the most influential writers of
our times uses iambic pentameter in all that he
writes – William Shakespeare.
Example #1 Examples
And death is better, as the
millions know,

Than dandruff, night-starvation,

or B.O
Example #2
When you are old and grey and full of sleep
from “Letter to Lord Byron” by
W.H.
And Auden
nodding by the fire, take down this
book.
 Connotation and
Denotation
Connotation - the emotional and imaginative
association surrounding a word.

Denotation - the strict dictionary meaning of a

word.

Example: You may live in a house, but we live

in a home.
Which of the following has a
more favorable connotation?
thrifty penny-pinching

pushy aggressive

politician statesman

chef cook

slender skinny
 Elements of Poetry
When we explore the connotation and
denotation of a poem, we are looking
at the poet’s diction.

Diction – the choice of words by an

author or poet.

Many times, a poet’s diction can help

 Elements of Poetry: Tone and
Mood
Although many times we use the words mood
and tone interchangeably, they do not
necessarily mean the same thing.
Mood – the feeling or atmosphere that a poet
creates. Mood can suggest an emotion (ex.
“excited”) or the quality of a setting (ex.
“calm”, “somber”) In a poem, mood can be
established through word choice, line length,
rhythm, etc.
 Narrative Poetry
• Narrative poetry is verse that tells a story.
• Two of the major examples of narrative poetry
include:
• Ballads – a song or poem that tells a story. Folk ballads,
which typically tell of an exciting or dramatic event,
were composed by an anonymous singer or author and
passed on by word of mouth for generations before
written down. Literary ballads are written in imitation
of folk ballads, but usually given an author.
• Epics – a long narrative poem on a great and serious
subject that is centered on the actions of a heroic figure
 Dramatic Poetry
• Dramatic poetry is poetry in which one or
more characters speak.
• Each speaker always addresses a specific listener.
• This listener may be silent (but identifiable), or the
listener may be another character who speaks in
reply.
• Usually the conflict that the speaker is involved
with is either an intense or emotional.
 Lyric Poetry
• Lyric poetry is poetry that expresses a
speaker’s personal thoughts and
feelings.
• Lyric poems are usually short and musical.
• This broad category covers many poetic
types and styles, including haikus, sonnets,
free verse and many others.
 Haikus
• The traditional Japanese haiku is an unrhymed
poem that contains exactly 17 syllables, arranged
in 3 lines of 5, 7, 5 syllables each.
• However, when poems written in Japanese are
translated into another language, this pattern is
often lost.
• The purpose of a haiku is to capture a flash of
insight that occurs during a solitary observation of
nature.
 Examples of Haikus
Since morning glories
hold my well-bucket
hostage
First autumn morning:
I beg for water
the mirror I stare into
- Chiyo-ni
shows my father’s face.
- Kijo Murakami
 Sonnets
• Background of Sonnets
• Form invented in Italy.
• Most if not all of Shakespeare’s sonnets are
about love or a theme related to love.
• Sonnets are usually written in a series with
each sonnet a continuous subject to the
next. (Sequels in movies)
 Sequence of Sonnets
• Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets and can be broken up by the
characters they address.
• The Fair Youth: Sonnets 1 – 126 are devoted to a young man of extreme
physical beauty. The first 17 sonnets urge the young man to pass on his
beauty to the next generation through children. From sonnet 18 on,
Shakespeare shifts his viewpoint and writes how the poetry itself will
immortalize the young man and allow his beauty to carry on.
• The Dark Lady: Sonnets 127 – 154 talk about an irresistible woman of
questionable morals who captivates the young poet. These sonnets speak of
an affair between the speaker and her, but her unfaithfulness has hurt the
speaker.
• The Rival Poet: This character shows up during the fair youth series. The
poet sees the rival poet as someone trying to take his own fame and the
poems refer to his own anxiety and insecurity.
 Structure of Sonnets
The traditional Elizabethan or Shakespearean
sonnet consists of fourteen lines, made up of
three quatrains (stanzas of 4 lines each) and
a final couplet (two line stanza). Sonnets are
usually written in iambic pentameter. The
quatrains traditionally follow an abab rhyme
scheme, followed by a rhyming couplet.
 Example
Sonnet 18
William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall Death brag thou wand'rest in his shade
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
 Free Verse
• Free verse is poetry that has no fixed pattern of
meter, rhyme, line length, or stanza arrangement.
• When writing free verse, a poet is free to vary the
poetic elements to emphasize an idea or create a
tone.
• In writing free verse, a poet may choose to use
repetition or similar grammatical structures to
emphasize and unify the ideas in the poem.
 Free Verse
• While the majority of popular poetry today is written
as free verse, the style itself is not new. Walt
Whitman, writing in the 1800’s, created free verse
poetry based on forms found in the King James Bible.
• Modern free verse is concerned with the creation of
a brief, ideal image, not the refined ordered (and
artificial, according to some critics) patterns that
other forms of poetry encompass.
 Example of Free Verse
The lunatic is carried at last to the asylum a confirmed case,
He will never sleep any more as he did it in the cot in his
mother’s bedroom;
The dour printer with gray head and gaunt jaws works at his
case,
He turns is quid of tobacco, his eyes blurred with the
manuscript;
The malformed limbs are tied to the anatomist’s table,
What is removed drops horribly in the pail;
The quadroon girl is sold at the stand….the drunkard nods by
the barroom stove…