English Notes

ELEMENTS OF PROSE

1. PLOT

• The plot is the arrangement or structure of the events or actions in a story.

• The plot shows every detail that the characters in the story experience.
• It is said to be the skeleton of the story.

2. CHARACTER - a person, or sometimes even an animal, who takes part in the action of a short story or other literary work.
● The character/s is/are introduced in the exposition part of the plot.
● Although the character is the product of the writer’s imagination, the character represents a real person.

Types of Characters:
a. Protagonist
The main/leading character of the story who makes key decisions that affect the plot of the story.
b. Antagonist
The character who opposes or conflicts with the main character.
c. Dynamic/Round Character
• They are the characters in the story who change, accept changes, act, and view the changes as part of their role as human
beings.
• They are often known as the hero/heroine.
• Since they undergo changes, they possess dynamic traits, and the changes they face depend on the situation.
d. Flat/Static Characters
• They are the characters that do not change.
• They remain static or stagnant throughout the story. As the story begins, the flat characters are static and stay as they are
until the end of the story.
• They help bring out the best in the main characters or the protagonist.
e. Stock or stereotype character
Flat characters may either be stock or stereotype characters.

Characterization
• The process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character .
Types of Characterization:
1. Direct characterization: The author explicitly tells the readers what they want us to know about the character by clearly
stating details about him/her.
2. Indirect characterization: the author shows who the character is through their speech, thoughts, motivations, actions,
and interactions with others.

*STEAL Analyzing the characters’ Speech, Thoughts, Effect on others toward the character, Actions, Look as a method in Indirect
characterization.

3. CONFLICT refers to problems or struggles that are encountered by the characters and are usually resolved in the end.
● Conflict is an important element in the plot. Without it, the story becomes plotless.
• Conflict begins at the complication stage, also called the inciting incident. A complication is any single incident that gives birth
to a conflict.
● To understand the development of conflict, one must look at the problems encountered by the protagonist/s on their journey in
the story against the antagonist/s
 TWO CLASSIFICATIONS OF CONFLICT

Internal conflict External conflict Character vs. Character

• Character vs. himself/herself/themselves • Character vs. Society
• Character vs. Nature
• Character vs. Supernatural
• Character vs. Technology

POINT OF VIEW

• Point of view or POV refers to the perspective from which a story is told or narrated (Hamilton, 2007; Abrams & Harpham,
2012). This can be identified by the pronoun that the narrator uses to recount events.
• There are four types of POV (Hamilton, 2007; Abrams & Harpham, 2012):
1. First-person: This type of POV shows what the first-person narrator “knows, experiences, infers, or finds out by talking to
other characters.” The first-person narrator is merely an observer of what the other characters feel, experience, or know. The
narrator or storyteller is a character in the story who uses the pronoun “I” or “we.”
2. Second-person: This type of POV occurs rarely in narration. It uses the second-person pronoun “you.” The second person
may be a specific fictional character, the reader of the story, or the narrator himself or herself.
3. Third-person limited: The narrator describes only events from the perspective and understanding of one, or sometimes, a
select few characters. They do not see everything; hence, they only tell what the character sees, thinks, and feels.
4. Third-person omniscient (all-knowing POV): The narrator knows the motive, feelings, and background of any or more than
one character. The narrator is free to narrate the thoughts, feelings, and actions as they shift from one character to another.

HISTORICAL-BIOGRAPHICAL APPROACHES IN READING TEXTS

• The historical-biographical approach of reading a short story combines the biographical and the historical aspects of
information as the primary insight in the creation of the text.
• The biographical context relates the events in the short story to the actual experiences of the author as this kind of reading
assumes that the author’s work is his/her/their way of revealing himself/herself/themselves or a way of expressing
his/her/their actual experiences. To prove the claim that the author is present in the text, one must read the author’s
biography to see how much an author’s experience influences the text.
• Not all short stories are related to the personal life of the author because some authors tend to revise the facts of their
own lives, which could be misleading should one wish to connect the author’s life with the text. Hence, not all short
stories can be read and analyzed from a biographical perspective.
• The historical context seeks to understand the text based on the social, cultural, and political aspects and occurrences of
a particular time, which could directly or indirectly shape the events in the short story. To better understand the text from a
historical point-of-view, one must research the period in which the events are set and happen.

Theme -the central idea conveyed, either direct or implicit, in a literary work that depicts any human experience (Curry &
Samara, n.d.; Hamilton, 2007).

The theme of a story should be analyzed based on a dominant idea or concept about specific human or non-human social and
cultural experiences.

Local color is a narrative technique in fiction that presents the shared unique local practices and values of people in a
particular place.

• highlights the shared language, traditions, customs, manners, stories, and geography of people who live in a particular
place.

• can be revealed through the analysis of the character/s or narrator, setting, plot events, and theme.

• may situate the reader in the sociocultural context that shapes the text.

• The sociocultural context is another way of creating meaning in a text by analyzing the sociocultural practices and values
embedded in the narrative elements.