PROSE
Elements of
Types of
Introduction Narrative Prose
Prose
INTRODUCTION
• From Latin word prosa, part of the phrase prosa oratio, meaning
straightforward speech/ a natural flow of speech
• Written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical
structure
• Written in full grammatical sentences, which then constitutes
paragraph
Prose vs Poetry
TYPES OF PROSE
• Short story • Biography
Fiction
Non Fiction
• Novel • Autobiography
• Novella • History
• Folktale – legend, • Letter
fable, parable • Diary
• Journal
What is Parable
ELEMENTS OF NARRATIVE
•Is telling stories, true or false,
factual or fictional, in any
medium.
Narrative •Is any activity which results in a
story being told and an event
represented and reported.
ELEMENTS OF NARRATIVE (CONTINUED)
Story (What is
told)
Narrative
Texts
Discourse
(How is it told)
ELEMENTS OF PROSE FICTION
1. Plot
2. Character and
characterization
3. Setting
4. Point of View
5. Theme
PLOT
The structure, “framework” or
“skeleton” of the story
The story arc that holds all the events
of a story in an orderly way (E.M.
Froster)
The casual and logical structure that
connects events (E.M. Froster)
PLOT (CONTINUED)
PLOT (CONTINUED)
Introduction (Exposition) Rising Action
• The beginning of the story • Complications that arise when
where characters and setting the characters take steps to
are established resolve their conflict
Falling Action Climax
• The conflict is in the process of • The turning point of the story
being resolved or “unraveled and is meant to be the moment
of highest interest and emotion
Resolution (Denouement)
• When the problem/conflict is
resolved and the story ends
CHARACTER AND CHARACTERIZATION
• Character : a person or being in a story that performs the
action of the plot.
• Characterization : the process by which the writer reveals
the personality of the character
CHARACTER AND CHARACTERIZATION
(CONTINUED)
Protagonist Dynamic
Antagonist Static
Types of
Character
CHARACTER AND CHARACTERIZATION
(CONTINUED)
• Example: He was a simple, good-natured
Direct man; he was moreover a kind neighbor and
characterization an obedient, henpecked husband. (‘Rip Van
Winkle’ by Washington Irving)
• Example: I jumped up, knocking over my
Indirect chair, and had reached the door when
Mama called, ‘Pick up that chair, sit down
characterization again, and say excuse me’. (‘The Scarlet Ibis’
by James Hurst)
SETTING
The historical time and place, and the social circumstances in
the ‘world’ of the literature
Geographic Cultural Artificial
Properties
location backdrop environment
• topography • way of life • buildings • furniture
• scenery • gender • cities • clothing
roles • villages
• beliefs
• values
SETTING
Like as he is to look at, so is his apartment in the dusk of the present
afternoon. Rusty, out of date, withdrawing from attention, able to afford
it. Heavy broad-backed old-fashioned mahogany and horsehair chairs,
not easily lifted, obsolete tables with spindle-legs and dusty baize
covers, presentation prints of the holders of great titles in the last
generation, or the last but one, environ him. A thick and dingy Turkey-
carpet muffles the floor where he sits, attended by two candles in old-
fashioned silver candlesticks, that give a very insufficient light to his large
room.
(Dickens, Bleak House, ch. 10).
POINT OF VIEW
Point of view is how an author tells his or her reader about a character.
• Involving the • Employing the • Entering the • Entering the
use of either pronoun thought of thought of
of the two “you” every one
pronouns “I” character character
and “we
Second Third person Third person
First person
person omniscient limited
POINT OF VIEW
“I have of late,—but wherefore I know
not,—lost all my mirth, forgone all custom
of exercises; and indeed, it goes so heavily
with my disposition that this goodly frame,
the earth, seems to me a sterile
promontory.”
‘Hamlet’ by Shakespeare
Harry had taken up his place at wizard
school, where he and his scar were
famous ...but now the school year was
over, and he was back with the Dursleys
for the summer, back to being treated like
a dog that had rolled in something smelly.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
by J.K. Rowling
THEME
• A main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work that may be stated
directly or indirectly.
• Examples of themes:
Love and
War
friendship
Crime and
Revenge
mystery
