BASIC ELEMENTS OF FICTION

SETTING: Where the story is set. The elements that together portray a setting are:

‣ Place names.
‣ Where is the story set? Is it in movement?
‣ General / specific details.
‣ Realistic setting (existing places).
‣ Allusions to the passing of time.
‣ Historical details.
‣ Dates?
‣ Words, objects that indicate time period.

PLOT: How a story is organized. DO NOT confuse plot with story (full course of events)
and narrative (the account of a succession of events). When we analyze the plot, we have to bear
in mind:

‣ How are the events related and structured? And how do they affect the characters caught up in
the conflict?
‣ Are they chronological? Are there any plot twists, turning points, flash forwards, or
backwards?

CHARACTER: When analyzing a character, we have to distinguish three aspects of it:

‣ Physical appearance.
‣ Psychological description.
‣ Behavior.

STRUCTURE: In the structure, we distinguish different phases:

‣ Exposition.
‣ Complication.
‣ Climax.
‣ Resolution.

STYLE: We have to pay attention to:

‣ Vocabulary.
‣ Dialogues.
‣ Author’s exposition of a character (dialect).
‣ Descriptive passages.

ATMOSPHERE: It is the mood or feeling that permeates the enviroment and the
portruding elements in it (wastelands, fog, wind…).

THEME: The theme is the underlying idea of the action.

 CLOSE READING: Here, the students are expected to appreciate and respond pre-
critically to these elements. They have to use the technical knowledge they have in order to make
a literary and critical analysis.