Fiction Overview –Scholars/Honors English

ICharacter, Plot, Structure, Theme, Point of

View, Tone (Irony), Symbolism

What is fiction?• Definition

• Examples

• Opposite of fiction? How so?

Fiction: An Overview, pp.55-61

• Character – not real people, but LIKE real people: protagonist, antagonist), anti-hero(villain, hostile environment, Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-2 (Hamlet, Lucifer, the Dark Knight/Batman -works outside of the law), foil, etc.

• Plot – story: conflict: internal vs. external

• Theme - moral, guiding principle; better: CENTRAL IDEA

-Flannery O’Connor on THEME: “too divorced from the text” NOTE: A THEME should be arrived at inductively;

-Danger: students may be too reductive

Fiction: An Overview, pp.55-61

• Point of View: WHOSE MIND ARE WE IN?

1) The first-person point of view: somebody in the story I; the speaker or narrator or persona

2) The third–person point of view: somebody outside of the story, doesn’t participate in the story HE, SHE

a) limited b) omniscient c) objective

Fiction: An Overview, pp.55-61

• Tone: the speaker’s attitude toward other characters, a situation (determined by diction such as dialectal, colloquial, formal; punctuation, sentence structure …)

• fat, obese, heavy, pudgy, roly-poly, plump

• e.g. He retorted, “ What did you say???”

• e.g. He responded, “What did you say?”

• Compare the tones in the above sentences.

Tone Words sheet• ex. Chicken Man in COW

• ex. clip from a movie – The Devil Wears Prada – cerulean

• ex.

• Michael.

Michael…

Michael?

Michael???

Fiction: An Overview

• Irony = a component of tone, refers to language and situations that reverse normal expectations. e.g. What is ironic in COW? What’s ironic about the ending of your favorite movie?

• Sarcasm is one kind of irony; it is praise which is really an insult; sarcasm generally involves malice, the desire to put someone down, e.g., "This is my brilliant son, who failed out of college.”

• Satire is the exposure of the vices or follies of an individual, a group, an institution, an idea, a society, etc., usually with a view to correcting it. e.g. The Onion, SNL, Southpark, Family Guy.

Fiction: An Overview

• Irony (e.g. “The Cask of Amontillado”)

1. Verbal – characterized by word choice: what is said is the opposite of what is meant: e.g. Montressor, “ And I [drink] to your long life” (about to immure/wall in Fortunato) Btw, how’s this different from sarcasm? :D

2. Situational: “when bad things happen to good people” or when rewards aren’t earned because of forces beyond human comprehension: e.g. Fortunato’s name is opposite of his (unfortunate) situation. e.g. Little Sula scares bullies.

3. Dramatic – characters have a nonexistent, incorrect, or misguided understanding of what is happening to them while both readers and other characters understand the situation: e.g. Fortunato doesn’t realize he’s been led into a trap, but, we, readers, know!

Fiction: An Overview,

pp.55-61

• Symbolism

• Symbol combines BOTH the literal and the figurative:

1. means what it is 2. means something else

e.g. The Bottom in Sula, Venus, Mars, the flag, gang signs

Practice

Elements of Fiction

Definition Novel Short Story

Character

Plot ProtagonistAntagonist

Theme

Point of View-1st person POV-3rd person POV

Tone

Irony (type of tone)

Symbolism