The Short Story Unit

Suspense

• What is suspense?– a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety about the

outcome of certain actions, most often referring to an audience's perceptions in a dramatic work.

• Examples from movies?

Plot Diagram

• Exposition– setting (place & time)

• Rising Action– conflict

• Climax– point of highest tension

• Falling Action

• Resolution

Plot Diagram

Foreshadowing

• Foreshadowing is used in written art and film to give hints about things to come in later plot developments.

• It can be very broad and easily understood, or it may be complex use of symbols, that are then connected to later twists in the plot.

• Sometimes an author may deliberately use false hints, called red herrings, to send readers or viewers off in the wrong direction.

• This is particularly the case with mystery writers, who want to bury clues to a mystery in information that is partially true and partially false.

Plot Diagram

Universal Theme?

• a theme (core message of the story) that is not restricted to a time, place, or language.– courage– love– honor

Plot: Climax

• Expected– the tension increases gradually, leading to the

climax (which is expected)

• Unexpected– arrives suddenly and unexpectedly

Conflict

• Definition: a struggle between opposing forces

1. Internal conflict– within a character as he/she struggles with

opposing feelings, beliefs, or needs

2. External conflict– between two or more characters or between a

character and an external force

4 Types of Conflict

• Man vs. Man

• Man vs. Himself

• Man vs. Nature

• Man vs. Society

“Hearts and Hands”

• pg. 290

Review Terms

• Foreshadowing

• Suspense

• Conflict– internal & external– 4 types

• Theme & Universal theme

• Setting (Time and Location)

POV?

• Point of View– 1st person

• I walked up the stairs.

– 2nd person• You walked up the stairs.

– 3rd person• He walked up the stairs.