Lesson 3: Elements of Fiction

Read and Practice

Setting: In a Certain Place and Time

The setting of a story is where and when the story takes place. In some stories, you will know exactly the time and place. In other stories, the time and place may be more general. You may know that a story is set in the past, present, or future, but you may not know the date. You may know that the story takes place somewhere in the western United States, for example, but the author may not tell you the exact place, or the author may make up a place that doesn’t really exist.

Setting is important, because it helps you to establish a frame of reference for events in the story (a way to understand events in the story). Sometimes the setting is so important that the story could not take place anywhere else. Sometimes, setting influences the conflict, characters, and plot of a story. Other times the setting is less important.

Begin by reading page 33 in the Daybook and then move on to pages 34–36. In The Wizard of Oz, there are several words that may be new to you:

• spectacles
• marble
• studded
• tint
• prosperous

As you read, find these words in the context of the sentence and try to predict their meanings. Check your predictions with a dictionary if you are uncertain, then check your answers.

Self-Check: As you read pages 33–36 and complete the activities, ask yourself the question below. Once you have responded, check your answer.

• Where does this story take place?

The author uses words that appeal to the senses (sight, sound, taste, smell, and feeling) to help bring you into the setting. We call these sensory images. Look for these types of words as you read. They will help you to visualize where the story takes place.

Write: After you read this excerpt (a part taken from the book) from the Wizard of Oz, you will be writing in response to the instructions on page 36. This writing will describe the setting of your own fantasy story. Your textbook instructs you to think about a fantasy place you would want to visit. You will use words that help readers picture what you are writing about. This is called imagery, because these words help readers imagine an image. Sensory imagery describes what you see, hear, smell, taste, or feel. Be sure to include these types of descriptive words and phrases in your own writing to bring your setting to life. Don’t forget the writing reminders we discussed previously as you write. Share your work with your parent/teacher.

If someone reads your description, could he or she draw a book cover of your setting like you did for Oz in the activity on page 35? You might ask your parent/teacher to draw what he or she thinks the setting would look like from your description. If the drawing looks very different from what you had in mind, go back and see if you can add some descriptive words that will help your reader “see” your setting more accurately.

Characterization: Who’s Who?

Development of characters is usually very important to a fiction story. We will be looking at different types of characters in this and future lessons.

Some characters will be main characters and others will be minor characters. A main character has an important role in the story. Another way to classify characters is to look for the protagonist and the antagonist. The protagonist is the main character of a story. Sometimes the protagonist is the “good guy,” but not always. The antagonist is the character who causes problems for the protagonist. Remembering the prefixes “pro-” (which means “for”) and “anti-” (which means “against”) can help you remember which is which.

Characters can be what we call “flat”or “rounded.” The type of character development an author uses depends on a character’s role in the story. Flat characters don’t have many sides to their personality and do not seem like “real” people. For example, the hero is not only good and brave, but also handsome, honest, helpful, etc. The villain not only does bad things, but looks and sounds like a “bad guy.” If you think about some of the fairy tales you have read, you can easily see these flat characters used.

Snow White’s stepmother, disguised as a peasant woman, offers her a poisoned apple. Wicked stepmothers often appear as flat characters in fairy tales such as Snow White, Cinderella, and Hansel and Gretel.
Illustration by Franz Jütter (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Rounded characters are more realistic. They have many sides to their personalities. They may seem to act more like real people. They may make mistakes, lose their temper, act without thinking, and behave based on how they feel about a situation. Rounded characters may have conflicting attitudes that change over time.

Although it would seem that a rounded character would be best, an author may choose to use flat characters. The author may need simple characters to keep from making the story too complex or to make a specific point. The author may not want the reader to look too deeply into a character, especially a minor character.

Characters can also be static or evolving. A static character does not change from the beginning of the story to the end. An evolving character changes during the story. An evolving character is also usually a rounded character, because he or she has many sides. As characters evolve (or change), they may discover things and change because of them, grow up in a variety of ways, or even make bad decisions that turn out for the worst.

An author can use several methods of characterization to develop the characters in a story. As a writer, you can use these same techniques to develop characters in your own stories.

• The first is by what that character does and says. Readers can get to know the type of character by how the character responds to others and the world around him or her. Sometimes an author will tell what the character is thinking. Other times, the character may act a certain way that tells us about what kind of a person he or she is.

• The next way is from what other characters say about that character or how they react to him or her. If a character walks into a room and everyone runs away, then you will certainly know something about that character!

• The last way a character is developed is through what the author says about a character. The author may describe the character, offer background information, or tell about what he or she will do in the future.

In There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom on pages 37–40, there are several words that may be new to you:

• clutched
• corridor
• environment
• trembled

As you read, find these words in the context of the sentence and try to predict their meanings. Check your predictions with a dictionary if you are uncertain, then check your answers.

You will use active reading strategies to help you describe the characters in this excerpt from There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom. This section will help you understand characters better. You will discover how authors include personality traits as you do the activities in this section. A personality trait is a characteristic a person has. Someone describing you might describe your physical characteristics (how tall you are, your hair color, etc.) and your personality traits (clever, caring, bold, outgoing, etc.).

Self-Check: As you read pages 37–40 and complete the activities, ask yourself the question below. Once you have responded, check your answer.

• Do bad things happen to Jeff because of the situation or because of his personality traits?

Write: On pages 39–40, you are asked to develop a character of your own and tell how he or she would have reacted in Jeff’s situation. As you complete this activity, think of specific words that you might use to help you describe the character. You learned in an earlier lesson that a thesaurus is a wonderful resource for writers, because it gives words that can be more descriptive. This is a good time to pull out that thesaurus to help you. (There are even online versions; see the Web Sites page for links to some.) Think about what your character wants, what he or she fears, what makes him or her happy, etc. Use your own experiences to help you develop your character’s traits.

Remember that there are three ways for an author to give the reader information about the character: what the author says, what the other characters say, and the character’s own words and actions. You can use all of these methods in your own writing to show how your character would react in Jeff’s situation. Does your character seem real?

Your textbook asks you to think about what your characters’ actions, words, thoughts, and feelings reveal. Try to include more than one or two of these in your descriptions. The personality traits you identify on page 39 should come out in the writing you do on page 40. Share your work with your parent/teacher. Can your parent/teacher identify traits through your character’s speech, actions, or thoughts?

Plot: What Happens?

The plot is the action that takes place in a story. Much of the time the plot centers on a conflict (problem) that must be solved (resolved). Some conflicts are major and span the entire story. An author must be sure to resolve them for the readers at the end of the book. Other conflicts are smaller and may develop and be resolved quickly. I often tell my students that if there is no conflict, there is no story. You might have a poem or a report or a memoir, but you won’t have a story. You will be working with conflict in many of the lessons during this course.

You can think of plot being divided into three sections:

• Introduction (beginning, sometimes called the exposition): This is where the author introduces the reader to the characters, reveals the setting, sets the mood and tone of the story, and gives the reader any other information needed to get started into the story.

• Rising action (middle): These events develop the main conflict of the story. The conflict is the problem, mystery, or challenge that must be dealt with in the story. These events lead up to the high point of the story, which is called the climax. The climax is the point where all the action of the story comes together and the main problem is solved.

• Resolution (end): The resolution is where the conflict (problem) is solved. It begins with the climax and goes to the end of the story. We will talk more about conflicts as we go through these lessons. There may be events that happen after the climax (the falling action). These events wind up the action of the story and bring the story to the ending.

As we’ve seen, the conflict must be solved by the end of the story. You often use details and events of the plot to predict how this will happen. As you read “The Birds’ Peace,” think about the events in the story. You will need to use these events as a “springboard” for the writing you will complete at the end of this section.

Several words from pages 41–44 may be new to you:

• purling
• melodious
• belligerent
• incubating
• preened
• conspicuous
• alighted
• sapling
• territory

As you read, find these words in the context of the sentence and try to predict their meanings. Check your predictions with a dictionary if you are uncertain, then check your answers.

Self-Check: As you read pages 41–44 and complete the activities, ask yourself the question below. Once you have responded, check your answer.

• What is the conflict (problem) in this story and how is it resolved (solved)?

Write: When you do the writing activity at the end of this section (page 44), it might be helpful to think of what Kristy learned from Fluter’s actions, even though you don’t know exactly what Kristy wrote to her father. You will use the skills of prediction and inference that you learned in lesson 2. Share your work with your parent/teacher.

You might want to try making a “word/idea/concept web” around the word “war.” To do this, put the word “war” in a circle in the middle of your paper (like the center of a spider web). Then draw lines out from this circle and write questions, descriptions, or words that you think of. Doing this can help you come up with ideas for writing and help you understand your connections to your reading. You can find other examples of webs in Writers Express. (Remember how the index can help you find things in a book? Look up “web organizer” in the index of Writers Express.)

In your letter, did you use specifics from Kristy’s experience with Fluter that she might have included in her letter to her father? Did you deal with Kristy’s fears about her father being in war and her ideas on how people could learn from the birds’ way of dealing with their conflict? These are things that the father probably would have included in his letter to his daughter.

Theme: What’s the Message?

Learning about theme and the other elements of literature will help you prepare for the work you will be doing in future lessons and help you to become a better reader and writer. The theme of a story is its message or the author’s statement about life. Sometimes it takes the form of a main idea. It’s what the author is trying to communicate to the reader. In lesson 2, you practiced finding the main idea. In the pieces of writing included in this lesson, you will be finding the message that the author is conveying in the writing.

Sometimes we say that the theme is the lesson a reader learns from a story. Your textbook tells you that a reader often has to infer (make an informed guess) what the theme is, because the author doesn’t say it outright. You will reread “The Birds’ Peace” to think about theme. Then, you will be asked to connect this theme to your own life. Remember that it’s important for you to use supporting details in your own writing. Don’t just tell “what,” also tell “why.”

If you are having trouble figuring out theme, think about several fairy tales that are familiar to you. What is the lesson you are supposed to learn from the story? This is the theme. Talk about these things with your parent/teacher.

Self-Check: As you read pages 45–46 and complete the activities, ask yourself the question below, then check your answer.

• How do the plot, characters, and setting help get across the theme?

Write: Each of us has had, and will have, many conflicts in our lives. Some will be serious, and others will be simpler to solve. Think back to what you identified as the theme of this story. It relates to being a peacemaker and understanding another person.

When you look for a theme, you may not have the exact same answer that someone else has. Your response is based on your own experiences and what you bring to your reading from your life. Sometimes it depends on your age, where you live, and other things that are unique to you. You will use all of these things to help you determine the theme from “The Birds’ Peace” and relate it to your own life.

You will complete the writing activity on page 46 for your lesson 3 progress evaluation. When you do this writing activity, you will be focusing on conflict and resolution. If you are having trouble with this writing, think about things that have helped you understand others. Be sure to think about these questions as you complete this writing:

1. What types of conflict have you experienced?
2. Have you ever been a “peacemaker”?
3. What ways have you found to understand others and get them to understand you?