Chapter 4
• Even though literary passages tell interesting stories, you still
need to read them actively and think critically about them on
the test.
Questions to Ask as You Read Literary Passages
• What’s happening?
• Who are the main characters?
• Who is telling the story?
• What is the setting?
• What is the mood?
• Who is the intended audience?
• First-person (“I”) narrators may not be reliable
or objective in telling their stories.
Tips for Fiction Passages
• Make Inferences
• Notice Names
• Pay Attention to Details
The elements of the story
✓Setting
✓Characterization
✓Plot
✓Theme
✓Point of view
Setting
• tells the reader where, when and how long of the story
takes place
• is the time, place and duration of a story
Characters
• Characters are the people who inhabit a story
• You can understand a character by noting what the narrator tells you
directly as well as by inferring from the character’s appearance, actions,
words, and thoughts
• You can also infer characters’ personalities or motivations by what they
do, what they think, and what they say
Plot
• What is going on?
• A series of events through which the writer reveals what is
happening, to whom, and why.
• A plot involves conflict and resolution of that conflict.
A map of a story (Plot)
• Exposition
• Conflict
• Rising action
• Climax
• Falling action
• Resolution
• Exposition - sets the stage for the story
- often contains setting or characterization
• Conflict - is a problem in the story that needs to be resolved
• Rising action - A series of conflicts or events which advance the plot
and engage the reader in the story
• Climax - When the action comes to its highest point of
conflict
• Falling action - the period of time in a story that follows
the climax and leads to the resolution.
• Resolution - the conclusion of the story by the resolving of
conflicts between characters.
Theme
• Life lesson, meaning, moral, message about life or human
nature that you can apply in your own life
• What the story teaches the readers
• The subject of a story is what the story is about.
• The theme of a story is different from the subject. The theme
goes beyond the subject and often expresses a point of view
about life.
E.g
• Every story has a subject. The subject might be about fighting a
war or growing up in poverty. But there is more to a story than
its subject.
• As a reader, look for what the author is trying to say about
the subject.
That is the theme—the message the author wants the reader
to understand.
• In fiction, the theme is often a statement about life.
For example, the theme might be that fighting in a war
changes a person’s life forever.
• The theme may be directly stated. If it is not, you can infer
the theme from the characters’ thoughts and actions and
from the things that happen in the story.
Practice
While the boys were getting the Doctor’s house, he went to the
window to examine the house plants. “What do you do to your
geraniums to keep them blooming all winter, Mary? I never pass
this house that from the road I don’t see your windows full of
flowers.”
She snapped off a dark red one, and a ruffled new green leaf, and
put them in his buttonhole. “There, that looks better. You look too
solemn for a young man, Ed. Why don’t you get married? I’m
worried about you. . .”
Sometimes the Doctor heard the gossipers in the drugstore
wondering why Rosicky didn’t get on faster. He was
industrious, and so were his boys, but they were rather free
and easy, weren’t pushers, and they didn’t always show good
judgment. They were comfortable, they were out of debt, but
they didn’t get much ahead. Maybe, Doctor Burleigh reflected,
people as generous and warmhearted and affectionate as the
Rosickys never got ahead much; maybe you couldn’t enjoy
your life and put it into the bank, too.
Which of the following statements is the theme of the story?
(1) A good life is measured in terms of love, not money
(2) People should not gossip about others
Which of the following details supports the theme?
(1) Mary Rosicky lovingly “worries” about the doctor.
(2) The Rosickys keep out of debt.
Narrator Viewpoint
• The characters and the narrator (if there is a narrator) all have a
point of view.
• Each one sees the story from a different perspective, and how they
feel about what is happening influences the plot.
• It is up to the reader to determine what point of view characters
have based on what they say and do.
Another choice a writer makes is which point of view to write from. Will
the narrator be outside the story, watching and revealing the characters’
actions and perhaps even their thoughts and feelings? If so, the writer will
use third person point of view. Or will the narrator be a character in the
story, able to report only what he or she thinks? In that case, the writer
will use first person point of view.
▶ Which of the following indicates that the narrator is a character and so
wecan know only his thoughts?
(1) “The only part of the night I recall . . .”
(2) “Then Ed brought up a second bunch . . .”
(1) is correct. The narrator tells his own thoughts. A clue is the word
Motivation
• Character motivation means knowing the purpose for
why a character does something in the story.
• When you analyze a character, you will also need to analyze
the character’s motivation—the reasons for his or her actions
in the story.
• Sometimes you must infer a character’s motivation by
“reading between the lines”; other times the author states it
directly.
Different Types of Motivation
• In Literature,
• Intrinsic motivation deals with the internal desires of the
character, including their spiritual and emotional well-being.
For example:
• Getting revenge for a loved one
• Fitting into a social group
• Avoiding failure
• Preserving moral character
Character traits
• Character traits are valued aspects of a person or
character’s
behavior, which are exemplified by individual characteristics or
qualities like a person’s conduct, habits, or attitudes.
• Character traits can be considered positive or negative, and
are commonly referred to by way of descriptive adjectives.
Interaction between characters
Examples of when interactions is often needed:
• Characters meet for the first time. ...
• Characters get in a fight. ...
• Characters help each other over obstacles either
physical or emotional. ...
• Characters live with others who exist around them
as they go about their day to day routine.
Point of view
• Point of view is the writer’s background and experiences that may affect
her opinions.
• Each story has a point of view. To determine the story’s point of view,
you need to determine
The narrator of the story.
The position of the narrator of the story.
What the writer sees from what vantage point.
• Dialogue = when characters speak
• Narration = when the narrator speak