PROSE

UTUT KURNIATI, S.S., M.A.

Short Story
Definition: Fictional story that can
be read in one sitting.
Example: A Rose for Emily, The
Cask of Amontillado, or The Most
Dangerous Game

Novel
Definition: A long prose narrative
that must be read in many sittings.
Example: Pride and Prejudice,To Kill a
Mockingbird, The Scarlet Letter, or The
Great Gatsby

Elements of Prose

Plot
Character
Setting
Point of View
Theme

Plot
The framework or skeleton of the
story;
A series of related events that are
linked together

1. Basic Situation (Exposition)

-

Tells the audience who the characters are

and introduces the conflict

2. Rising Action
- Complications that arise when the
characters take steps to resolve
their conflicts

3. Climax: Most exciting or

suspenseful moment when
something happens to determine
the outcome of the conflict.

4. Falling Action:
The conflict is in the process of
being resolved or unraveled

5. Resolution: (Denouement) or
Untying the knot
When the storys problem/conflict is
resolved and the story ends
Endings may be happy or tragic

Freytags Pyramid
Gustav Freytag was a Nineteenth Century German novelist who
saw common patterns in the plots of stories and novels and
developed a diagram to analyze them. He diagrammed a story's
plot using a pyramid like the one shown here:

Character: Revealing Human Nature

Character- A person
or being in a story that
performs the action of
the plot.
Characterization:
The process of
revealing the
personality of a
character in a story.

Types of Characters
Dynamic Character: The character
changes as a result of the action of
the story.
Static Character: The character
does not change much in the course
of the story.

Types of Characters
Protagonist: The main character of
the story.
Antagonist: The character or force
that comes into conflict with the
protagonist
Can be another person, an animal, a
force of nature, society, the characters
own conscience, etc.

Setting
Defintion: The time and location
in which the story takes place

Setting

Purpose of Setting
1. Gives background information
2. Provides conflict
- Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Society
3. Can reveal a lot about someones character
4. Provides mood or atmosphere
- Mood- the feeling WE get when we read a
story
5. Can paint images for the reader
- Images words that call forth the 5 senses

Theme
Definition: The insight about human
life that is revealed in a literary work.
The golden thread woven
throughout the story.
-The theme is what the author is saying
through the story (its a deeper truth
about reality)
- The plot how he says it : it is the story he
uses to get this point across

Point of View
Definition: The
direction from which
the writer has chosen
to tell the story

Conflict

Definition- It exists when a character is

struggling with something or someone
- Could be a number of things:
- Another person, an animal,
- an inanimate object- a rock, the
weather
- The characters own personality

External Conflict
External Conflict- Caused by something
OUTSIDE the character
- Example: an another character, a
river, weather, society
- Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, Man
vs. Society

Internal Conflict
Internal Conflict- Character struggles
with some personal quality that is
causing trouble
- Example: vanity, pride, selfishness,
grief
- Man vs. Self