CHARACTERISTICS OF A SHORT STORY

A short story is a short piece of fiction with strong elements of character, setting, and plot. Usually one of these elements dominates the story.

Short stories can take many different forms: science fiction, folk tale, myth, fable, historical fiction, adventure, contemporary realistic fiction, or mystery.

In a short story, every incident should have a point, every person and object should be there for a good reason, and every word should count.

A short story needs a strong opening that will immediately catch the reader’s attention.

The characters and their situation should engage the reader’s emotions. The reader needs to care what happens to the people in the story.

Most short stories build to a climax that the reader has been anticipating. The climax might involve a dramatic conflict, a crisis to be overcome, or a moment of realization on the part of the narrator or a character.

CHARACTERIZATION

Author’s presentation and development of characters.

Two types–simple and complex–which reflect two different levels of psychological complexity in narratives.

Simple–have only one or two traits and are easily identified as stereo-types.

Complex–have numerous, sometimes conflicting, personality traits.

Usually there are fewer of them in narrative, because of the detail required to make this “type” of character credible to the reader.

Characterization is typically one of the most appealing aspects of narrative fiction. We enjoy narratives because we like the characters, and care what happens to them.

We may identify with some of their main traits—personality, looks, character, activities, culture, status (maybe they’re high school basketball players, or a girl you’d want to be friends with), because they resemble people that we know in our own life.

Reading fictional narratives, like short stories, where the emphasis is on creating viable characters—becomes an opportunity to participate “vicariously” in others’ lives—lives that can appear “glamorous”, “daring”, “exciting”—or even much like our own lives—where we share the same values as the characters in the stories.

LANGUAGE

The “medium” of narratives—pervades all elements of the narrative, and provides a way of understanding them.

Authors use language that fits their subject matter, and which affects their audience in predictable ways—such as:

--syntax (sentence structure)

--diction (word choice)

--sound qualities (rhyme, rhythm)

--figurative language (metaphor, simile)

--dialogue

Important because of its relationship to other elements in a narrative.

Reflects a character’s background, attitudes, traits.

Used to establish the authors’ tone—whether happy, sad, angry, sarcastic, indignant, etc.

PLOT

Succession of events or “What Happens”

Author’s arrangement and selection of events–connected by cause and effect.

Used to engage us emotionally through the device of “conflict”

–characters in conflict with one another

–with their environment

–within themselves.

Plot furthered by conflicts are established at the beginning, intensify through the middle, brought to a climax near the end, and resolved in a brief conclusion.

Conflicts are usually between:

A. Protagonist–the main character, and

B. Antagonist–what the main character is in opposition to whether they are people, events, or psychological traits that cause emotional or intellectual conflicts within the protagonist.

SETTING

The WHERE and WHEN of the story.

Physical world where action takes place, such as the forest, the castle, the town, the room, including such objects as furnishings, artifacts, natural phenomena (mountains, streams, cloudy skies, etc)

Time–Temporal world----consisting of three things:

1. Time Period

Time of day, seasons of the year,

Historical era (Roman times)

2. Length of time

Time covered by the narrative,

(i.e. –Creation story covers 7 days)

3. Perception of Time

The way a character or reader feels

how slowly or quickly time seems to pass. (i.e. Scrooge feeling a whole

lifetime has passed in one evening)

Cultural Environment

Patterns of behaviour, beliefs that

dominate the society in the story.

THEME

The “central idea” in the work.

The theme is what the work says about a particular subject: Love demands commitment, justice is elusive, bravery requires self-sacrifice, loss is unavoidable, etc.

Devices used to persuade us about validity of central ideas in the theme of a work include

rhetorical devices such as:

–binary opposition (two opposing forces)

love vs hate

order vs chaos

–symbol (something that represents something else)

–metaphor

–allegory

–similes