This document outlines the agenda and terms for an EWRT 30 class. The agenda includes reviewing point of view and plot, discussing fiction, and a lecture on character and setting. The document then defines terms related to characters, such as protagonist, antagonist, flat and round characters. It also defines terms like motivation, plot, and chronological order.

1. EWRT 30 Class 8

2. AGENDA
Terms 1-8
Review: POV and Plot
Discussion: Fiction
Lecture: Character and Setting

3. 1.
1. Character
Character
2.
2. Flat characters
Flat characters
3.
3. Round characters
Round characters
4.
4. Protagonist
Protagonist
5.
5. Antagonist
Antagonist
6.
6. Motivation
Motivation
7.
7. Plot
Plot
8.
8. Chronological Order
Chronological Order
Terms

4. 1. Protagonist: The protagonist or hero
1. Protagonist: The protagonist or hero
is the central character in the story
is the central character in the story
who engages our interest or
who engages our interest or
sympathy. Sometimes, the term
sympathy. Sometimes, the term
protagonist is preferable to hero,
protagonist is preferable to hero,
because the central character can be
because the central character can be
despicable as well as heroic.
despicable as well as heroic.
2. Antagonist: the character or force
2. Antagonist: the character or force
that opposes the antagonist.
that opposes the antagonist.

5. 3. Character: an imagined person in a literary work.
3. Character: an imagined person in a literary work.
4. Flat characters: are one-dimensional figures with
4. Flat characters: are one-dimensional figures with
simple personalities. They show none of the
simple personalities. They show none of the
human depth, complexity, and contrariness of a
human depth, complexity, and contrariness of a
round character or of most real people.
round character or of most real people.
5. Round characters are complex figures. A round
5. Round characters are complex figures. A round
character is a full, complex, multidimensional
character is a full, complex, multidimensional
character whose personality reveals some of the
character whose personality reveals some of the
richness and contradictoriness we are
richness and contradictoriness we are
accustomed to observing in actual people, rather
accustomed to observing in actual people, rather
than the transparent obviousness of a flat
than the transparent obviousness of a flat
character. We may see a significant change take
character. We may see a significant change take
place in a round character during the story.
place in a round character during the story.

6. 7. Motivation is the external forces
7. Motivation is the external forces
(setting, circumstances) and internal
(setting, circumstances) and internal
forces (personality, temperament,
forces (personality, temperament,
morality, intelligence) that compel a
morality, intelligence) that compel a
character to act as he or she does in a
character to act as he or she does in a
story.
story.
8. Plot: the artistic arrangement of events
8. Plot: the artistic arrangement of events
in a story.
in a story.
9. Chronological Order: the story is told in
9. Chronological Order: the story is told in
the order in which things happen. It
the order in which things happen. It
begins with what happens first, then
begins with what happens first, then
second, and so on, until the last incident
second, and so on, until the last incident
is related.
is related.

7. The Review Review: In your groups,
Review: In your groups,
discuss plot and POV. Consider
discuss plot and POV. Consider
the three stories from your
the three stories from your
reading
reading
Plot and POV
“The Tell Tale Heart”
“A Very Short Story”
“Dr. Chevalier’s Lie”

8. Climax: The turning point. The most
Plot Line intense moment (either mentally or in
action). The conflict is generally
addressed here.
Rising Action: the
series of conflicts
and crisis in the
story that lead to Falling Action: all of the
the climax. action that follows the Climax.
Conflict: Struggle between
opposing forces Resolution: The conclusion; the
tying together of all of the
Exposition: The start of the threads.
story. The way things are before
the action starts.

9. The Tell Tale Climax: The narrator kills the old man,
Heart cuts up the body, and hides it under the
floor
Rising Action:
Falling Action:
2. The narrator makes
1.The police show up and he shows
a noise and wakes the
them the house. They settle in
man up: he opens the
the old man’s bedroom.
eye.
2.The noise gets louder and louder
1. He goes to the room
until the narrator tells the cops to
every night for a week,
look under the floorboards.
but the eye is closed
Conflict: The narrator wants to
kill the old man
Resolution: The narrator
Exposition: The narrator offers a
identifies the source of the
story as proof he is not insane. He
describes the situation with old man “sound” as “the beating of [the
and his eye. man’s] hideous heart.”

10. Climax: The turning point. The most
“A Very Short intense moment (either mentally or in
Story” action). The conflict is generally
“Dr. Chevalier’s addressed here.
Lie”
Rising Action: the
series of conflicts Falling Action: all of the
and crisis in the action that follows the Climax.
story that lead to
the climax.
Conflict: Struggle between
opposing forces Resolution: The conclusion; the
tying together of all of the
Exposition: The start of the threads.
story. The way things are before
the action starts.

11. Review:
Three Common Points of View
 Omniscient: The narrator knows everything, including what
each character is thinking, feeling, and doing throughout the
story.
 3rd Person Limited: The narrator knows only the thoughts
and feelings of a single character, while other characters are
presented only externally.
 1st Person: The narrator participates in action but sometimes
has limited knowledge about both events outside of those in
which he or she is directly involved and motivations that are
not his or her own.

12. Point of View
 “The Tell Tale Heart” What kind of narrator
by Edgar Allan Poe tells this story?

13. Point of View
 “The Tell Tale Heart”  1st person narrator
by Edgar Allan Poe  Unreliable: he is trying to prove he is
sane, which he obviously is not! The
narrator admits that "he can hear all
things in the heaven and in the earth
[and] many things in hell"
 He occasionally pretends to be an
omniscient narrator. When he says,
"Presently I heard a slight groan,
and I knew it was the groan of
mortal terror. […] I knew the sound
well. Many a night […] it has welled
up from my own bosom,” he is
telling us how the hold man feels
and what he thinks.

14. Point of View
 “A Very Short Story”  What kind of narrator tells
by Ernest Hemingway
this story?

15. Point of View
 “A Very Short Story”
 Omniscient or 3rd person limited narrator?
by Ernest  The narrator seems to be external, yet he
Hemingway generally speaks from the point of view of the
man. Note that he neither names him nor
identifies him. Furthermore, the last sentences
are like the description of the scene that this
man sees.
 But, the narrator doesn't obviously enter the
man’s mind, so he appears to be an
objective narrator in that he leaves the
interpretation of the actions of the characters to
the reader.
 Yet, there are signs of anger in the text, which
suggests that the narrator is manipulating the
reader into seeing the story from his point of
view. This would conflict with the objective
narrator POV.

16. Point of View
 “Dr. Chevalier’s Lie”  What kind of narrator
by Kate Chopin
tells this story?

17. Point of View
 “Dr. Chevalier’s Lie”  The (objective) omniscient
by Kate Chopin narrator
 The story includes details about
both the doctor’s and the
townspeople’s behavior.
 The neutral tone in the conclusion
shows that the narrator does not
editorialize about society’s
thoughts about the girl or
Chevalier’s lie.

18. In Groups, discuss POV. Prepare to read a paragraph or two
demonstrating each of the following perspectives:
1st person Wolf
1st person little Pig
1st person Mother Pig or another minor character
3rd person Wolf
3rd person little Pig
3rd person Mother Pig or another minor character
Omniscient Objective: Just tells facts
Omniscient Subjective: Enters the minds and shares feelings of
multiple characters

19. Lecture Subject
Character and Setting

20. Basic Elements of a Story
1.PLOT - the story line; a unified, progressive pattern of action or events
in a story
2.POINT OF VIEW (POV) - the position from which the story is told
3.CHARACTER - person portraying himself or another
in a narrative or drama
4.SETTING - the time and place of the action in a story
5.TONE - the attitude of the author toward his subject or toward the reader
6.MOOD - the feeling or state of mind that predominates in a story creating a
certain atmosphere

21. Types of Characters:
 Round Character: convincing, true to life; fully
developed and described. Not all good or all bad.
 Dynamic Character: undergoes some type of
change in story, generally after a conflict.
 Flat Character: stereotyped, shallow, often
symbolic.
 Static Character: does not change in the course
of the story.

22. Methods of Characterization
 By directly describing:
 Luz sat on the bed. She was cool and fresh in the
hot night.
 Through the reaction of other characters.
 Luz stayed on night duty for three months. They
were glad to let her.

23.  Through the character’s own words and
actions:
 “The following day he wrote a letter. One,
doubtless, to carry sorrow, but no shame to
the cabin down there in the forest.
It told that the girl had sickened and died. A
lock of hair was sent and other trifles with it.
Tender last words were even invented”

24. By detailing physical appearance, particularly
features that symbolize character.
 It was open --wide, wide open --and I grew
furious as I gazed upon it. I saw it with
perfect distinctness --all a dull blue, with a
hideous veil over it that chilled the very
marrow in my bones; but I could see nothing
else of the old man's face or person: for I had
directed the ray as if by instinct, precisely
upon the damned spot.

25.  By sharing the characters own thoughts.
 Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God!
--no, no! They heard! --they suspected! --they
knew! --they were making a mockery of my
horror!-this I thought, and this I think.

26. Setting: the time, place, and period in which the action
occurs.
The Catcher in the Lord of the Flies: The Bean Trees:
Rye: New York, deserted island, the Arizona/Oklahoma
1940s future. 1980s.

27. Setting can help in the portrayal of character.
“it was so quiet and lonesome out, even though it
was Saturday night. I didn’t see hardly anybody on
the street. Now and then you just saw a man and a
girl crossing the street with their arms around
each other’s waists and all, or a bunch of
hoodlumy-looking guys and their dates, all of them
laughing like hyenas at something you could bet
wasn’t funny. New York’s terrible when somebody
laughs on the street very late at night. You can
hear it for miles. It makes you feel so lonesome
and depressed” (Salinger 81).
The Catcher in the Rye

28. In some works of fiction, the action is so closely related to
setting that the plot is directed by it.
“The new man stands, looking a minute, to get the
set-up of the day room. One side of the room
younger patients, known as Acutes because the
doctors figure them still sick enough to be fixed,
practice arm wrestling and card tricks…Across the
room from the Acutes are the culls of the Combine’s
product, the Chronics. Not in the hospital, these to
get fixed, but just to keep them from walking
around the street giving the product a bad name”
(Kesey 19).
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

29. Setting can establish the atmosphere
“During the whole of a dull, dark,
and soundless day in the autumn of
the year, when the clouds hung
oppressively low in the heavens, I
had been passing alone, on
horseback, through a singularly
dreary tract of country” (Poe)
“The Fall of the House of Usher”

30. Guided Writing

31. Creative Writing Prompt
Write the following four words on your paper:
 Character
 Place
 Time
 Situation
 Now chose four numbers between 1 and10. Write one
number next to each of the four words.
 You may chose any numbers that you want. They
can be the same or different for each category.

32. Character
1. a new mother
2. a photographer
3. a recent high school graduate
4. a restaurant owner or manager
5. an alien from outer space
6. a homeless child
7. a 93-year-old woman
8. an environmentalist
9. a college student
10.a jazz musician

33. Setting: Place
1. near a National Forest
2. a wedding reception
3. a celebration party
4. an expensive restaurant
5. a shopping mall
6. a city park
7. the porch of an old farmhouse
8. a polluted stream
9. a college library
10.a concert hall

34. Setting: Time
1. during a forest fire
2. after a fight
3. the night of high school graduation
4. after a big meal
5. sometime in December
6. late at night
7. after a big thunderstorm has passed
8. in early spring
9. first week of the school year
10.during a concert

35. Situation/Challenge
1. an important decision needs to be made
2. a secret needs to be confessed to someone else
3. someone's pride has been injured
4. a death has occurred
5. someone has found or lost something
6. someone has accused someone else of doing
something wrong
7. reminiscing on how things have changed
8. someone feels like giving up
9. something embarrassing has just happened
10.someone has just reached an important goal

36. Establish the basics
Choose a POV Outline a basic Plot
 Omniscient: The narrator knows  Exposition: This will include
everything, including what each your setting: time and place
character is thinking, feeling, and  Conflict: This will depend on
doing throughout the story. your situation or challenge
 3rd Person Limited: The narrator  Rising action: Events that
knows only the thoughts and feelings happen on the way to the
of a single character, while other climax
characters are presented only  Climax: the most intense
externally.
moment in your story
 1st Person: The narrator participates  Falling action: What
in action but sometimes has limited happened after the climax
knowledge about both events
 Resolution: The information
outside of those in which he or she is
with which you leave your
directly involved and motivations that
reader
are not his or her own.

37. Homework
 Post #8: Guided Writing
 Reading: “The
Celebrated Jumping
Frog of Calaveras
County”
 Study Terms: 1-8