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cigarettes, tiny restaurants — maps of opening businesses, but most of them are very
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Afghanistan painted on their windows — all poor.” He tsk’ed his tongue and sighed. “Anyway,
interlaced with backstreet aid agencies. “Many we’re getting close now.”
of your brothers in this area, yar. They are 2003
Plot
Essentially, plot is what happens in a narrative. Yet plot is more than a series of events
because authors must arrange conflicts and resolutions to create logical patterns of
Analyzing Short Fiction
cause-and-effect and to develop characters’ relationships with each other. The conflicts
characters experience often arise because of these relationships, so character and plot
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go hand in hand. This means readers must understand not just what is happening but
DIFFERENTIATION also why it’s happening as well as how plot elements work together to create meaning.
Scaffolding Additionally, a plot must be believable even though it does not have to be realistic.
A conventional narrative, especially in short stories, typically involves five main
Select a fairy tale, possibly one that could stages:
be used to introduce themes that you
wish to address in grade-level appropriate climax
texts. Ask students in small groups to
track the plot of the fairy tale using the
conventional narrative structure and then rising action falling action
share their findings with the whole class. turning point
You might extend the conversation to
discuss differences of opinion regarding exposition denouement
plot development.
inciting incident resolution

• Exposition: This opening section of a story provides background information about
the characters, the setting, and the basic situation. The exposition also describes
the nature of key conflicts generally creating an unstable situation.
• Rising action: After an inciting incident or event, the conflict and complications the
main character experiences begin to build.
• Climax: The climax occurs when the emotional tension or suspense of the plot
reaches its peak. It may include a turning point where the fortunes of the protagonist
improve or worsen. Building to the climax usually occupies most of a story, and
what follows is comparatively brief.
• Falling action: This section details the result (or fallout) of the climax or turning
point. In this phase, conflicts often get resolved.
• Denouement (pronounced day-noo-mah): This French word means “untying the
knot.” In this often very brief phase, the conflict has been resolved, and balance is
restored to the world of the story. Fairy tales often abbreviate this phase further:
“And they lived happily ever after.” Traditionally, the denouement was also used to
tell “the moral of the story,” but writers in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries

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