Short Story – an art form that deals with a single incident or situation.

-does not allow many themes and subplots.

*Elements of Short Story:
1. Plot – a sequence of events or actions in the story.
-beginning, middle, and end.
2. Characterization – this is how a character behaves in a certain situation.
a. Protagonist – main character.
b. Antagonist – villain of the story.
3. Setting – The location and time of the story.
-used as a way to create credibility.
4. Theme – an underlying idea that comments on human condition.
-a truth in life within the heart of the story.
- implied rather than stated
a. Good vs. Evil – dark forces in a man’s environment. (disease, poverty,
war, etc..)
b. Life Process
I. childhood joys and fears
II. growing up pains of adolescence
III. adult’s maturation process
IV. waste and tragedy of old age
V. cycles of life and death
VI. change
5. Point of View – narrator of the story.
a. First Person – a character who narrates the story from their own
perspective. (ex: “I wake up to the sound of birds chirping.”)
 b. First Person-Observer – when a character tells a story that they have
observed (in first person). (ex: “Earlier today, I woke up to the sound of birds
chirping.”)
c. Author-Observer - when the author relates what happens in an
objective manner without giving comments and without explaining what goes on
in the minds of the characters. (ex: “He woke up to the sound of birds chirping.”)
d. Omniscient – the narrator is “all present.”
-he knows what is going on in the minds of the characters and
comments on it. (ex: “As the birds chirp him awake, hoping to
sleep in a bit more, he sighs in frustration. Getting up from
bed, he was like a zombie that was dug from his own grave!”)
6. Symbol – a concrete object, event, or character which represents an abstract
idea like love, patriotism, etc.
-its meaning is revealed through the context of the story.
7. Conflict – any struggle between 2 opposing forces.
a. Man vs. Man – 2 characters having opposing desires.
b. Man vs. Society - when a protagonist has a strong belief against the
majority of his surroundings and decides to act on it.
c. Man vs. Himself – an internal struggle within the protagonist.
d. Man vs. Nature – positioning a protagonist against an animal or a force
of nature.