Elements of Fiction/Prose
Akhsanul Marom
In
learning to read ficton well, we must understannd something about its plot and
structure, character and characterization, setting, point of view, style and
language, symbol, irony and theme. We will discuss each of these elements
separatly to highlight it special features. Robbert DiYanni (2004, 43).
PLOT
Plot has been defined as “an author’s careful arrangement incident
in narrative to achive a desire effect”. Jane Bachman Gordon and Karen Kuehner
(1999, 7). Meanwhile, Robbert DiYanni said that plot is the arrangement of
events that make up a story. A story plot keeps us turning pages: we read to
find out what will happen next. For a plot to be effective, it must include a
sequence of incidents that bear a significant causal relationship to each
other. Causality is an important feature of realistic fictional plot: it simply
means that one things happens as a result of something else (2004, 43).
A plot is a series of action, often presented in chronological
order, but the inggredient a plot has that a story lack is causality. In
narrative with a plot, ther is little that happens without a cause. For the
example, consider the following two events: The baby cried and the dog growled.
There is no causal relationship suggested between tese two events. The
subtituion of one word, however, not only createsa complex sentence but
establishes a relationship: because the baby cried, the dog growled. To
transform the concert ticket anecdot into a short story, a writer would need to
state to imply causes for why he or she got lost, ran out of gas, and
failed to have enough money to pay for both the parking and the ticket. Suppose
that the writer’s point in writing “My Rotten Day” was to potray the careless
incompetence of the main character. If so, the writer would almost certainly
omet mentioning the lift that the main character gave to friend. Why? Because
that action does not fit the incompetent character’s image and would undercut
the writer’s portrait of undependable and impulse person. Jane Bachman Gordon
and Karen Kuehner (1999, 7).
Many fictional plots turn on a confict, or struggle between
opposing forces, that is ussualy resolved by the end of the story. Typical
fictional plots begin with an exposition that provides background
information we need to make sense of the action, that describe the setting, and
that introduce the major character; these plots develop a serioes of complication
or intensifications of the conflict that lead to a crisis or movement of
great tension. The conflix may reach a climax or turning point, a moment
of greatest tension that fixes the outcome; then, the action falls off as the
plot’s compliccation aare sorted out and resolved. The plot of a typical
realistic short story can be diagrammed in following manner:
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Most
stories, of course, do not exhibit such strict formality of design. A story’s
climatic moment, for example, may occur simultaneously with its ending. With
litle or no formal rsolution. Or its action may rise and fall repeatedly in a
jagged and uneven pattern rather than according to the neat symmetry this
diagram. Robbert DiYanni (2004, 43-44).
CHARACTER
and CHARACTERIZATION
To say that someone is a character suggest that he or she has a
strange or eccentric personality; to say that person has a character implies
his or her moral uprightness; to say something about a person’s characacter
involves a discussion ofhis personal values and behavior. As a literary term,
however, a character is a person created for wor of fiction. Jane Bachman Gordon and Karen Kuehner (1999,
95).
Characters in fiction can be conveniently classified as major and
minor, static and dynamic. A major character is an important figure at the
center of the story’s action or theme. Usually a character’s status as major or
minor is clear. On occasion, however, not one but two characters may dominate a
story. Their relationship being what matters most. The major character is
sometimes called a protagonist whose conflict with an antagonist
may spark the story’s conflict. Supporting the major character are one or more
secondary or minor character whose function is partly to illuminatte the major
characters. Minor characters are often statics or unchanging: they
remain the same from beginning of a work to the end. Dynamic characters,
on the other hand, exhibit some kind of chage- of attitude, of purpose,
of behavior – as the story progresses.we should be careful, however, not to
automaticaly equate major characters with dynamic ones or minor characters with
statics ones. Robbert DiYanni (2004, 54).
Another way of classifying characters is to label them as active
(or dynamic) or static. An active characters is one who change because
of what happens in the plot. Static characters, however, remain unchanged;
their character is the same at the end of the story as as the beginnig.
Just as not all characters in a short story will be round, nor will
all be active, or dynamic; in fact, they should not be. Sometimes the fact that
a character does not change becomes crucial to meaning of story. Jane Bachman
Gordon and Karen Kuehner (1999, 97).
Characterization: characterizaztion is the depicting of clear
emages of a person. There are two methods of characterization: the dramatic and
the analytic. In dramatic we form our opinions of the characters from what they
do and say, from their environment. And from what other characters think of them.
In analytic method the author comment upon the characters, explaining their
motives, their appearence, and their thoughts. Edward H. Jones, Jr (1968, 84).
SETTING
Setting or situation is what gives the reader information he needs
for an intelligent reading of the story. We must know where the story taking
place, and we must know when the story is taking place. Furthermore, it
presents us with a tone or mood that hangsover the story. Edward H. Jones, Jr
(1968, 84).
Setting can be general (a city in the Midwest in the late
nineteenth century), specific (a three story mansion on Pine Street in Chicago
in 1885), or very detailed (the darkened parlor of the mansion at four o’clock
on the first Tuesday in Desembe). Setting usually funtions as more than backdrop
for a story, however. Setting may serve a number of purposes, such as
influencing action, defining character, and contributing to mood. Jane Bachman
Gordon and Karen Kuehner (1999, 97).
POINT
OF VIEW
An author’s decision about who is tell the story and how it is to
be told are emong the most important he or she makes. In a story with an objective
point of view, the writer the writers shows what happents without directly
starting more than readers can infers from its action and dialogue. The
narrator in short, does not tell us anything about what the characters think or
feel. He remains detached observer. Robbert DiYanni (2004,72).
There are two main points of view: first person ( I ) and
third person (he, she, they), but there are variations within these
points of view.
The “I” narrator is not the author, instead, the author creates
persona or mask through which he or she tells the story. While there may be
some or even many biographical details in story, it is never safe to assume
this. Rather, it is better to assume that the author has taken some details
from his or her own life and from other sources and reworked them. To identify
the narrator, ignore all dialogue and look to narrative section. If there are
no “I”s, the story is probably told from the third peson point of view.
The third person point of view may be omniscient; that is, it may
reveal the thoughts of all or most of the characters.in contrast, limited
omniscient point of view focuses on the thoughts of single character. One type
of limited omniscience is the objective point of views, in wich the author
makes no commentary but records only those details that can be seen and heard,
rather as newspaper reported does. This point of view is more common in
nonfiction-historical accounts, for example – than in fiction.
Long works of fiction are often told told from several point of
view, but short story are commonly presented from a single point of view. Jane
Bachman Gordon and Karen Kuehner (1999, 151-153).
STYLE
AND LANGUAGE
Style
: simply speak, style is the way an author expresses himself. Each author,
them, must have his own style, for each writer is an individual. An author
style can, in a way, be compared to a person signature. Each of us have a
different signature. Even if I were to write your name. I would not write it
quite the way you do. We all have our own particular style in writing, style
that are so distinct that we can be identified by our signatures. Not only are
our signatures ditinct, but they are highly revealing as well. A person
expresses his personality in his signature by the clarty of it. By the
florishes,by the size, by the way he forms the letter – all of these tell us
something of the person. Style in writing is much the same, for it is the
author’s characteristic manner of expressinng himself. As with peoples
signatures, some author’s styles will be dull and unattractive, others will be
lively and interesting. Edward H. Jones, Jr (1968, 35).
Style is the verbal identity ofa writer, as unmistakable as his or
her face or voice. Writer’s style convey their distinctive ways of seeing the
world. Robbert DiYanni (2004,79).
·
Diction
Diction refers
to a writer’s choice of words. The word chosen can be described as general or
specific (tree versus weeping willow); formal or informal (“How do you
do” versus “Hello”); abstract or concrete (honor or brotherhood versus desk);
common (drat); jargon (any words understood by members of a specialized group
such as doctors, teachers, astrounot); Latin – based or Anglo – Saxion word
(make a hotel reservation versus book a room). What ever the choice, the
author’s diction needs to be both clear and apropriate. Note, however, that in
fiction the author’s diction does need to be grammatical to be clear or
appropriate.
·
Imagery and
Symbol
most reader
think that imagery refers solely to visual picture, but in literature, where it
may be called sensory imagary, the term extends to all the sences –
sight, taste, smell, touch and hearing. Sensory immagerycan make ideas vivid
and and stir the emotions of a reader. Imagary is also associated with figures
of speech such as simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbolle, analogy, and
others.
In board terms,
a symbol is anything that signifies, or stands for, something else. In
literature, a symbol is anything concrete – an object, a place, a character, an
action – that stands for or suggest something abstract. Literary symbols are not
signs, since a sign such as a red light has only one meaning while a symbol may
have many.
Both literal and figurative images can be symbols. An egg, for
example or beginning of life.
·
Syntax and
Variety
Syntax
or sentence structure, is pattern or arrangement of individual words or
phrases. A young child’s sentence tend to be declarative and follow a basic
pattern or order: the subject (usually noun or pronoun), followed by the
predicate (a verb) and, sometimes, a direct object (also a noun or pronoun). Jane
Bachman Gordon and Karen Kuehner (1999, 244-245).
THEME
The word theme denotes the central idea of serious fictional works
such as novels, plays, poems, or short stories. Theme is an author’s insight or
general observation about human nature or human condition that is conveyed
through characters, plot, and imagery. Jane Bachman Gordon and Karen Kuehner
(1999, 199).
To be clear about theme, we should
distinguish it from plot and from subject, what is story generally about. In
explaining a story’s theme we do more than state its subject or summarize its
plot.
Theme is related to other elements of fiction more as consquence
than as a parallel elements that can be separatly identified. To formulate a
story’s theme, we try to explain what these elements collectively suggest.
Since the theme of the story derives from its details of characters, plot,
setting, structure, language, point of view, any statement of theme is valid
and valuable to extend that it account for these details.
A statement of story derives fromthe
particulars of the story’s language and action. In fact, the very concreteness
and particularly of fiction should make us cautious in searching out theme. We
should avoid thinking of theme as hidden somehow beneath the surface of the
story and instead see theme as the implied significance of the story’s details.
It is important to remember that there are a multiplicity of ways to state a
story’s theme. But any such statement involves a necessary simplification of
the story. In clarifying our sense of story’s idea, we also inevitable exclude
some dimensions of the story and include others. We should be aware that themes
we abstract from stories are provisional understandings that never completely
explain theme. . Edward H. Jones, Jr (1968, 86).
Irony
and Symbol
Two additional
facet of fictional work are irony and symbol. While not as
pervasive as elements such as plot and character, irony and symbol are
tremendously important. Both allow the writers to compress a great deal of
meaning into a brief space. Both require our deliberation if we are to
appreciate and enjoy their full range of significance. And both require us to
be alert to their existence if we are to understand the works in which their
occur. If we do not perceive a writer’s ironic intensions, we may not just
miscontrue a particular story; we may interpret it as suggesting the opposite
of what it actually is intended to mean. And if we over look a story’s symbol,
we may underestimate its achivement and oversimplify its significance.
Irony is not to much an elemen of
fiction as persasive quality in it. It may appear in fiction (and in the
literary genres as well) in three ways: in a work’s language, in its incidents,
or in its point of view. But in whatever forms it emerge, irony always
involves a contrast or discrepancy between one thing and another. The contrast
may be between what is said and what is meant or what happens, and what is
expected to happen.
In vebal irony, for example, we say
the opposite of what we mean. When someone says, “that was a brilliant remark”,
and we know that is was anything but brilliant, we understand the speaker’s
ironic intention. In such relatively simple instances there is usually no
problem in perceiving irony. Beside verbal irony – in which we understand the
opposite of what a speakers says – fiction makes use of irony circumstance
(sometimes called of irony situation).
Although verbal irony and irony of
circumstance or situation are the prevalent form irony assumes in fiction. Two
others deserve mention: dramatic irony and ironic vision. More typical of plays
than stories, dramatic irony is the discrepancy between what characters know
and what readers know. Writers sometimes direct our responses by letting us see
things that their characters do not.
Some writers exploit discrepancy
between readers and characters know to establish an ironic vision in a work. An
ironic vision is establishes in a work as an overall tone that suggest how a
writers views his or her characters and subject.
Symbol in fiction are simply
objects, action, or events that convey meaning. The meaning they convey extends
beyond their literal significance, beyond their more obvious actual reason for
being included in the story. How do we know if a particular detail is symbolic?
How do we decide wether we should look beyond literal meaning of a dialogue or
literal value of an object or action? The simple answer to his question is that
there is no way to be certain about the symbolic value of any particular
details. But we can alert ourselves to the possible symbolic overtones of such
details through the following question. Robbert DiYanni (2004, 92sss-94).
