El121 Units 3 + 4 Quiz

A character in a story can be anything the writer wants.

Directly = Explicitly - told by the author, by another character or by the character himself.

Indirectly = Implicitly - reader must figure out the qualities of a character based on the thoughts, actions, speech or physical descriptions.

She wanted to teach him wrong from right. If she took him to the police station and was thrown in jail, he wouldn't have learned anything. But by taking him home with her, and by showing him kindness and respect, Roger ended up trusting Mrs Luella and he learned his lesson.

It seemed true in the beginning of the story, but you can tell once you finish reading the story how kind she was to Roger and that she really did care about him. She made him wash his face, fed him and even gave him money to buy the shoes he wanted which ironically was why he tried to steal from her in the first place.

Read page 90 if you don't believe me!

In 'Jack and the Beanstalk' for example the climax is when the Ogre caught Jack stealing from him. Think of the climax for the other stories!

If a character at the beginning of the story is different at the end of the story then we call him a dynamic one.

A flashback is a technique where the present is stopped and the reader is taken back to an event in the past.
'A Sound of Thunder' and 'Araby' are NOT examples of flashbacks because the first one is about time travel using a time machine, and in 'Araby' he is talking about his childhood so we don't have the present being stopped and going back in time.
'A Letter from Gaza' is a good example of a flashback.

The answer here is obvious because we had no idea that the policeman in the beginning was Bob's friend and so we are surprised.

Motivation makes stories more believable and realistic. Just as we in real life do things for certain reasons, so do characters in stories. Jack's motivation for climbing the beanstalk was curiosity. Patrolman Wells's motivation for arresting his friend was his loyalty to his job and so on.

Remember that when you want to know what the plot is in a story, always ask yourself 'what happened?'

If you don't believe me, check page 91.

Roger is both a dynamic and round character. He is dynamic because he is not the same person at the end of the story and because the author gave us information about him physically (tall, skinny), mentally (I could run run run) and emotionally (indirectly told he was a shy and inexperienced young boy), he is therefore a round character.

Without conflict, you would have no story. A story would also be boring without a problem, struggle or a conflict.

I will physically strangle you if you get this wrong!!

The exposition is the first part of the plot and usually the setting and characters are introduced to the reader.

The inner conflict revolves around what the main character should do with his life. Should he stay with his family and suffer in Palestine or leave to a different place and start a new life?

For a surprise ending to work, the author must make sure he doesn't reveal his characters and that's why we don't get much information about the policeman in the beginning of the story.

In most short stories, after the exposition, the inciting incident begins the action or problem of the story and that leads to the rising action. In 'Jack and the Beanstalk' for example, the inciting incident is when the cow suddenly stops giving milk.