rules: elements of fiction/POE are for Post 1: Hope this helps

1. Use only the assigned readings to respond to the discussion posts.
2. Your post must include at least one quote from each text used to receive full credit

Week 2 Elements of Fiction

Fiction is a genre that consists of imagined events.  Examples include stories, novels, fables, fairy tales, and the like.  Knowing the terms below will help you understand how fiction is put together and assist you in evaluating and writing about fiction.

Term

Definition

Character

A fictional person.

Round Character

This type of character grows and changes during the course of the story and has a credible personality.

Flat Character

This type of character is one-dimensional and is sometimes presented as a stereotype.  This character will act predictably during the course of the story.

Theme

The dominant idea or overall generalization a reader can make about a story.

Setting

The place, time, and social context of the story.

Irony

The contrast between appearance and reality.  Things are not always as they seem.  The video below illustrates the three types of irony: verbal, situational, and dramatic.

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Embedded Video Player: What is Irony? Three Types of Irony Lesson

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What is Irony? Three Types of Irony Lesson ( of 3:16)ConflictA struggle between two opposing forces.  Conflict is what makes a story interesting. Conflict usually consists of one of the following:

• person vs. person
• person vs. nature
• person vs. society
• person vs. self

Protagonist

The main character.  The protagonist should be considered a separate person from the writer, although in an autobiographical piece, the protagonist can be the writer.

Antagonist

The person or force that works against the protagonist to form the conflict.

Plot

The sequence of the events in a story.  A plot can be arranged using chronological order or in an alternative style such as a flashback.  The five elements of the plot (in the order in which they typically occur) are:exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement.

Exposition

The section of the plot where the characters, situation, and setting are introduced.

Rising Action

The events that complicate the situation.  The conflict begins to become apparent, and the reader becomes invested in the story.

Climax

The highest emotional peak of the story where the conflict is resolved.  The climax, also called the turning point, is typically the “crisis” in the story.

Falling Action

The actions following the climax, where the complications of the story are untangled.

Denouement

The very end of the story, which illustrates the final outcome of the story.

Frame Narrative

A narrative device where the writer tells a story (or series of stories) within a story.  An example of a character telling a single story within a work is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, where the story is told through the eyes of Nick Carraway.  An example of a character telling a series of stories within a work is Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, where individual stories are told by one (anonymous) narrator.  It is called a “frame” because the unifying story is split between the very beginning and the very end of the piece.

Post 1: Choose two terms from the Elements of Fiction lecture and apply them to “The Fall of the House of Usher.”  You learned in the Authors lecture that Poe is considered to be “the father of the modern-day short story.”  Did you find his story engaging?  Why do you think his works remain popular more than 150 years later?  Be sure to quote, cite, and reference from the text(s) using appropriate APA format.  Your post must be at least 250 words.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was born in Boston, Massachusetts.  Both of his parents died while Poe was a small child, and he was subsequently taken to Richmond, Virginia, and raised by a foster family (John and Frances Allan).  He began writing at a very young age, but his foster father and school headmaster discouraged it.  Poe had continued problems with John Allan, which resulted in Poe’s leaving the University of Virginia and subsequently being dismissed from West Point.  When Allan died, Poe was left out of the will.  By that time, Poe was becoming an established writer.  Poe had a difficult life, losing many of the women of his life to early deaths.  Poe’s work is very macabre as a result, and even his own death, the cause of which remains a mystery, seems to have come right from one of his writings. He is  considered the father of the modern-day short story because he broke many of the rules in terms of structure of plot.  “The Tell-Tale Heart,” for example, has no denouement.  Click on the video link below to view a short video about Poe.

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Mini BIO – Edgar Allan Poe

Duration: (3:50)User: biographychannel – Added: 9/21/12

Post 3: According to the biography in your textbook, Paul Laurence Dunbar wanted “to interpret my own people through song and story, and prove to the many that we are more human than African.”  The same argument could be made that Chopin and Gilman, both female, were attempting to prove that they were more human than woman.  From the assigned readings by Dunbar, Chopin and Gilman, choose works from at least two of the authors and explain how the writer attempts to illustrate this idea.  Is he/she successful?  Be sure to quote, cite, and reference from the text(s) using appropriate APA format.  Your post must be at least 250 words.

FOR POST 3 USE NORTON ANTHOLOGY AMERICAN LITERATURE SHORTER 8TH EDITION