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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background
A story is the telling of an event, either true or fictional, in such a way that the
listener experiences or learns something just by the fact that he heard the story. A story is a
means of transferring information, experience, attitude or point of view. Every story has a
teller and a listener.
A story is a series of events we either create or remember or imagine which we tell
ourselves because we want or need to hear them. Perhaps we create stories because we
want or need to know something, or learn something, or answer a question. Perhaps it is
the listener within us that demands the story and the teller within us that does its best to
accommodate
Much of writing is instinctual, born of exposure to good stories and a lot of
practice. However, there are some tools every writer needs to make their story professional
and effective. Grammar and spelling are the obvious ones, but in this paper , we will
discuss about the elements of fiction: character, plot, setting, point of view, theme, tone
and style.
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BAB II
DISSCUSSION

2.1 Character
Characterization is a means by which writers present and reveal characters – by
direct description, by showing the character in action, or by the presentation of other
characters that help to define each other.
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. 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 characters
whose function is partly to illuminate the major characters. Minor characters are often
static or unchanging: they remain the same from the beginning of a work to the end.
Dynamic characters, on the other hand, exhibit some kind of change – of attitude, purpose,
behavior, as the story progresses. There are types of characteristics:
 Protagonist - the central or main character struggling for or against something.
 Antagonist - the person, thing, or force struggling against the protagonist.
 Flat or Static Character - a minor, oversimplified character who is not well
developed and who does not change, grow, or develop as the story progresses; their
personalities are easily summed up because they are usually one dimensional
possessing one or two main character traits; as a result, their actions are often easy
to predict; these characters’ personality and values remain unchanged by the events
of the story.
 Round or Dynamic Character - a complex character with several developed
personality traits (sometimes contradictory ones); they are usually the character in
conflict in a short story; they grow, change, and develop as the story unravels;
round characters often have mixed thoughts and feelings so their actions are
difficult to predict.
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 Stock or Stereotyped Character - a character who at one time might have been
fresh and original, but has become, through overuse, trite, conventional, and
boring; often these characters are just caricatures or exaggerated, flat, and
familiar characters having one main character trait, feature gesture, mannerism, or
speech pattern (examples: bully, jock, nag, miser, villain, cop, detective,
Newfoundlander, gossip, absent-minded professor, etc.); their actions are easy to
predict because we all recognize their character traits.

2.2 Style
Style is the way a writer chooses words (diction), arranges them in sentences and
longer units of discourse (syntax) and exploits their significance. Style is the verbal
identity of a writer, as unmistakable as his or her face or voice. Reflecting their
individuality, writers’ styles convey their unique ways of seeing the world.
Writers use many, many different techniques to attract reader interest and attention
or to accomplish literary purpose in short stories, novels, poems and plays. Several such
techniques follow here:
 Irony
When there is a surprising gap between what might be expected and what actually
occurs. Irony is not so much an element of fiction as a pervasive quality in it. It
may appear in fiction in three ways: in a work’s language, in its incidents, or in its
point of view. But in whatever form it emerges, irony always involves a contrast or
discrepancy between one thing and another. The contrast may be between what is
said and what is meant (verbal irony), what is expected to happen and what
actually happens (situational irony) or between what a character believes or says
and what the reader understands to be true (dramatic irony).

 Satire
Satire is the style of writing that has a goal of mocking or scorning an individual,
institution, or society as a whole. Angry and bitter satire is called Juvenalian satire
while gentle mockery is called Horatian satire.
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 Symbol
A symbol has two levels of meaning: a literal level and a figurative level. Object,
character, event and settings can all be symbolic in that they represent something
else beyond themselves. E.g. the dove is literally a bird, but has become a universal
symbol of peace.

2.3 Plot
The action element in fiction is the arrangement of events that make up a story.
Many fictional plots turn on a conflict, or struggle between opposing forces, that is usually
resolved by the end of the story.
Typical fictional plots begin with an exposition, which provides background
information needed to make sense of the action, describes the setting, and introduces the
major characters; these plots develop a series of complications or intensifications of the
conflict that lead to a crisis or moment of great tension.
The conflict 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 complications are sorted out and
resolved (the resolution). Be aware, however, that much of twentieth-century fiction does
not exhibit such strict formality of design.

2.4 Point of View

Point of view refers to who tells the story and how it is told. The possible ways of
telling a story are many, and more than one point of view can be worked into a single
story. However, the various points of view that storytellers draw upon can be grouped into
two broad categories:
a) Third-Person Narrator (uses pronouns he, she, or they):
1. Omniscient
The narrator is all-knowing and takes the reader inside the characters’
thoughts, feelings, and motives, as well as shows what the characters say
and do.
2. Limited omniscient
The narrator takes the reader inside one (or at most very few characters) but
neither the reader nor the character(s) has access to the inner lives of any of
the other characters in the story.
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3. Objective
The narrator does not see into the mind of any character; rather he or she
reports the action and dialogue without telling the reader directly what the
characters feel and think.

b) First-Person Narrator (uses pronoun I):

The narrator presents the point of view of only one character’s
consciousness, which limits the narrative to what the first-person narrator
knowledge, experiences, infers, or can find out by talking to other characters.

2.5 Setting
Setting is the physical and social context in which the action of a story occurs. The
major elements of setting are the time, the place, and the social environment that frames
the characters. These elements establish the world in which the characters act.
Sometimes the setting is lightly sketched, presented only because the story has to
take place somewhere and at some time. Often, however, the setting is more important,
giving the reader the feel of the people who move through it. Setting can be used to evoke
a mood or atmosphere that will prepare the reader for what is to come.

2.6 Theme
Theme is the central idea or meaning of a story. Theme in fiction is rarely
presented at all; it is abstracted from the details of character and action that compose the
story. It provides a unifying point around which the plot, characters, setting, point of view,
symbols, and other elements of a story are organized.
The theme in a piece of fiction is its controlling idea or its central insight. It is the
author's underlying meaning or main idea that he is trying to convey. The theme may be
the author's thoughts about a topic or view of human nature. The title of the short story
usually points to what the writer is saying and he may use various figures of speech to
emphasize his theme, such as: symbol, allusion, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, or irony.
Some simple examples of common themes from literature, TV, and film are:
 Things are not always as they appear to be
 Love is blind
 Believe in yourself
 People are afraid of change
 Don't judge a book by its cover
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2.7 Tone
Tone is the author’s implicit attitude toward the reader, subject, and/or the people,
places, and events in a work as revealed by the elements of the author’s style. Tone may be
characterized as serious or ironic, sad or happy, private of public, angry or affectionate,
bitter or nostalgic, or any other attitudes and feelings that human beings experience.
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CHAPTER III
CONCLUSION

3.1 Conclusion
Story is the art of literature through story every place in the world can share their
own story. Story is unique, sometimes it is made up and sometimes it is coming from the
true event. Story is unlimited everyone able to make it. Fiction is also kind of story which
is the class of literature comprising works of imaginative narration, especially in prose
form.
We know what you are thinking “this seems like a lot. And you are right, it is”,
however if you are an avid reader, I think you will find that you are already familiar with
most of these concepts. The great stories you know and love all use them, and if you are
passionate about your story, in cooperating theme will not be as hard as might seem.
You can do this! Now go and start writing.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Travis. W. Mark. (2011). what is story and where is it come from. Thewrap.
(https://www.thewrap.com/what-story-and-where-does-it-come-32636/)