COLORADO TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY | LITERATURE: REFLECTING ON THE BIG PICTURE | Phase 5 Individual Project | LITR240-1204A-10 | Kerri Dainty | 11/12/2012 |

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When we think of literature we as readers think of stories that are written down. Literature is more than just stories. Literature is short stories, novels, poetry and dramas. Literature allows a reader to escape into a different time periods, a place a reader can visit different parts of the world and even into space. Literature can bring out different emotions in a reader like joy, sadness, anger and even empathy towards a character in literature. Within this paper I will discuss the elements of short stories, poetry, and drama and discuss the morals and values that are in some of the works that we were assigned to read during this class. The elements of fiction helps to form and make a short story complete. There are eight basic elements of fiction. The elements of fiction are setting, characters, point of view, plot, symbolism, themes, tone, and irony (Meyer, 2011). The first element is the setting. In a short story the setting can have the setting of a physical location and the time the story is in. Settings can be given to the reader by direct words that describes the scene or by hints from the characters and even by what the characters are doing (Meyer, 2011). An example of this is in the short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, the setting is on the road and based on the details about the time period based on the car, what the grandmother is wearing and also by the mannerisms of the characters (O'Conner, 1953). Even the Misfit helps give the reader subtle hints about the time period. The characters in short stories can be the person who is actually in the story and can be the main character in the story or other characters in the story that help bring importance to the primary character. A character can also be brought to life and not be physically in the story by other characters or even by the author. The characteristic of a person is what helps the character seem real. An author uses characteristics to give information to the reader about the character. The author can do this by describing the characters physical appearance, describe what the character feels or thinks and also by what other characters are saying about a certain character. In the short story “A Hard Man Is Hard to Find”, we as the reader learn about the character the Misfit through the grandmother wanting her son Bailey to read the article about the Misfit so the family does not have to take the family trip to Florida (O'Conner, 1953). The point of view of a story is how the story is told. In this class we have read stories that have been told in first person as well as third person. When a story is told in first person, the story is told by one of the characters in that story (Meyer, 2011). With a story being told in first person, we as the reader see the story through the characters eyes as they experience it. In third person the story is told by the author (Meyer, 2011). With a story being told in third person it allows the author to move to different characters in the story (Meyer, 2011). An example of a story being told in first person is in the story “Battle Royal”. With “Battle Royal” being told in first person gives the story more of a personal feel for the reader. An example of a story being told in third person is the story “Love in LA”. The story is told by the author. In a short story the plot consists of an introduction, rising action, climax, falling action and the conclusion (Meyer, 2011). The introduction is where the author introduces the setting, characters and the initial conflict (Meyer, 2011). The rising action is when the stories conflict is being introduced (Meyer, 2011). The climax is where the highest point of interest is and where the turning point of the story (Meyer, 2011). The falling action in a short story is where the conflicts in the