Literary Elements: Plot and Setting

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We will first focus on plot and setting.

Plot

Most of plot should be a review because we talked about it in Week 2.

"Plot: It is the logical sequence of events that develops a story."

This sequence of events in plot has a structure, this is called plot structure. As we discussed in Week 2, plot is made up of the exposition (or introduction), the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the denouement (or resolution and conclusion).

As a review please click through the slides below on plot.

Setting

Let's move onto setting now.

"Setting: It refers to the time and place in which a story takes place." It is the physical, touchable world in which the story develops. Setting is often during a specific time (occasionally some plots move through different times) and contains particular social environment (meaning it contains customs, manners, and values. Think of this as the culture seen in the story).

Setting can play an important role because it can create an atmosphere for the reader (which we will discuss more in the next lesson) and sometimes conflicts within the story are dependent on the setting. For example, you can't have a story about people surviving in the wilderness if there was no wilderness!

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