Slide 1

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The process by which an author introduces anddescribes the characters in a story.

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Authors use many methods to tell you about a character.

An author may develop a character by telling the readerdirectly by giving a physical description.

by using the thoughts or feelings of the character.

The author may also give information about acharacter by what the character says or by theiractions.

In addition, the author may tell you about thecharacter by how others respond to or treat them.

Protagonist

*central character

*action centers around this character

*character attempts to accomplish a task

*described in detail

*usually grows and changes throughout a story

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Antagonist

*character or force that holds the action back

*tries to oppose the protagonist

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Place might include such things as a city, state,country, castle, cottage, playground, ship ormountain.

Environment might include details thatdescribe the weather, the noise level ordarkness.

Time might include clues that let us know it isthe afternoon, evening, the future, colonialtimes or clock time

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Foreshadowing: When an author mentions or hints at

something that will happen later in the story.

Break the word apart:

Fore means ahead

A shadow is a glimpse of something without details.

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Flashback: When the author refers back to

something that has already taken place.

Break the word apart:

Flash- a quick glimpse

Back- a look at something that has alreadyhappened

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Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived withher mother. One day, her mother asked her to takesome food to her old and lonely grandmother.

“Don’t stop along the way. Go straight to yourgrandmother’s house and back. Do not talk to anystrangers and watch out for the wolf in the woods!”

Foreshadowing-a hint at what may come next

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While she was walking through the woods, a wolfwalked past her. “I bet I can convince her to takethe long way so that I can get to her grandmother’shouse first. Then I can have a feast of both thegrandmother and the child.” he thought.

The wolf told the little girl about the short cutand it wasn’t until she was well on her waythat she remembered her mother’s words“Don’t talk to strangers and watch out forthe wolf in the woods.”

Flashback-a look back in the story

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In literature, point of view is the vantage point

from which a story is told.

If a story is written in the first person point ofview, a character in the story is the narrator

“I myself had two separate encounters with witchesbefore I was eight years old. From the first I escapedunharmed, but on the second occasion I was not solucky.”

The main character in this story is an orphanedboy who lives with his grandmother. The boy istelling the story. You know this because theauthor uses pronouns like I and me.

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If a story is written in the third person point of view,the story is told from the eyes of someone else.

“Bezzus felt that the biggest problem with four-year-oldRamona was that she was just plain exasperating. IfRamona drank lemonade through a straw, she blew intothe straw as hard as she could to see what wouldhappen. If she played with finger paints in the frontyard, she wiped her hands on the neighbor’s cat.”

The author is telling a story about two charactersnamed Beezus and Ramona. As the author tellsthe story, she uses pronouns such as she and her.

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The plots of most stories center around conflict. Aconflict is a struggle between opposing forces.

There are two main kinds of conflict instories : internal and external.

Conflict adds excitement and suspense to a story.The conflict usually becomes clear at the beginning ofthe story. As the plot unfolds, the reader starts towonder what will happen next and how the characterswill handle the situation.

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A woman is tempted to steal money from her employer in orderto feed her family.

A teenager is torn between ditching school with her friends orstaying to take a test in a class she is failing.

An internal conflict that involves thestruggle between the character andhis/her conscience.

Examples:

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A family is stranded in a snowstorm.

A man is stalked by a wild animal in the forest.

A farmer has his crops eaten by locusts.

An external conflict that involves a struggle betweenthe character and the elements of nature that arebeyond his/her control.

Examples:

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A husband and wife disagree about how their money should bespent.

Two little boys get into a fistfight.

A boss fires an employee.

An external conflict that involves a struggle,mental or physical, between two charactersor groups in a story.

Example:

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A teenager breaks the curfew set by his parents.

A family hides a Jewish child even though it is illegal.

 A white man helps a slave escape to Canada.

An external conflict that involves thestruggle between a character and the rulesor laws that govern the society in whichhe/she lives.

Example:

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