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
Did NOT!
when the
The Grinch hated
characters Christmas! The
take steps to whole Christmas
resolve their season!
conflicts Now, please don't
ask why. No one
quite knows the
reason.
 What Makes Up Plot?
Example: “And the Grinch,
3. Climax: Most
with his grinch-feet ice-cold in
exciting or the snow,
suspenseful Stood puzzling and puzzling:
moment when "How could it be so?
something It came without ribbons! It
happens to came without tags!
determine the "It came without packages,
boxes or bags!"
outcome of the
And he puzzled three hours,
conflict. `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.
 What Makes Up Plot?
4. Falling
 Example:
Action: And what happened then..
Well...in Who-ville they say
The conflict is That the Grinch's small he
in the process Grew three sizes that day!
of being
resolved or
“unraveled
 What Makes Up Plot?
 Resolution: (Denouement) or
“Untying the knot”
 When the story’s problem/conflict is
resolved and the story ends
Example:
 Endings“He maywhizzed
be happy with his load
or tragic
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
 Canbe 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 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
1.
View
First Person: One of the characters
tells the story; talks directly to the reader
- Uses the pronoun “I,” “me,” “we,” or “us”

2. 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-
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),
To-morrow, and giving voice
to-morrow, and to
to- his
morrow,
innermost thoughts
Creeps in this pettyand feelings.
pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief
- Example:
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,
 Aside
Time, thou anticipatest my
 Definition: Words that
“The flighty purpose never
are spoken by a
character in a play to the
audience only or to
another character only.
They are not supposed to
be overheard by others
on stage. It is meant to
let someone in on a
secret or for a character
to give personal
comments about current
events in the play.
dread exploits.
is o'ertook
Unless the deed go with
it. From this moment
The very firstlings of
my heart shall be
The firstlings of my
hand. And even now,
To crown my thoughts
with acts, be it thought
and done:
The castle of Macduff I
will surprise,
Seize upon Fife, give to
the edge o' the sword
His wife, his babes, and
all unfortunate souls
 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,
Who after birth did'st by my side remain,
Till snatcht from thence by friends, less
wise than true,
Who thee abroad exposed to public view,
Made thee in rags, halting to th' press to
trudge,
Where errors were not lessened (all may
judge).
At thy return my blushing was not small,
My rambling brat (in print) should mother
call.
I cast thee by as one unfit for light,
The visage was so irksome in my sight,
Yet being mine own, at length affection
would
Thy blemishes amend, if so I could.
I washed thy face, but more
defects I saw,
And rubbing off a spot, still
made a flaw.
I stretcht thy joints to make thee
even feet,
Yet still thou run'st more
hobbling than is meet.
In better dress to trim thee was
my mind,
But nought save home-spun
cloth, i' th' house I find.
In this array, 'mongst vulgars
may'st thou roam.
In critic's hands, beware thou
dost not come,
And take thy way where yet thou
art not known.
If for thy father askt, say, thou
hadst none;
And for thy mother, she alas is
Denotation/Connotatio
 n
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/Connotatio
 Dog- n
 Denotation: Domesticated, 4-legged
canine
 Connotation: Smelly, fluffy, man’s best
friend
playful, loyal, protective
 Denotation/Connotatio
 Fair- n
 Denotation: Amusement
park which travels; also
includes agricultural
exhibits
 Connotation: fun, food,
crowded, smelly, carnies