Plot, Character, and Setting
If you wonder what a story is about, you are thinking about the plot. Plot often involves the goal someone is trying to reach. For instance, mystery stories and novels are usually plot-driven, meaning the plot is the most important element of the story. If we look at the story line of a Harry Potter novel by J.K. Rowling for instance, we will see a definite plot line.
In "The Sorcerer's Stone" Harry and his friends Hermione and Ron are trying to find what the sorcerer's stone is and why it is important. Harry and his friends Hermione and Ron are trying to find what the sorcerer's stone is and why it is important. As you may know, we eventually learn that Harry's nemesis, Lord Voldemort, desires the stone in order to have eternal life. Harry finds the stone and keeps Voldemort from possessing it. This is a very, very loose and sparse summary of the novel, but it is an indication of a plot-driven novel. Yes, we do learn a lot about the characters in the story, and the setting--Hogwarts--is a magnificent place filled with wonderful interior and exterior locations. But the novel, like many novels for young readers, focuses on plot to move the story forward.As you may know, we eventually learn that Harry's nemesis, Lord Voldemort, desires the stone in order to have eternal life. Harry finds the stone and keeps Voldemort from possessing it.
This is a very, very loose and sparse summary of the novel, but it is an indication of a plot-driven novel. Yes, we do learn a lot about the characters in the story, and the setting--Hogwarts--is a magnificent place filled with wonderful interior and exterior locations. But the novel, like many novels for young readers, focuses on plot to move the story forward.
A completely different type of story is the character-driven story. One example of this could be John Gardner's novel "Grendel", which focuses on the first person point-of-view of the titular main character and his attitude and musings of the Norsemen who treat him as a monster. The author investigates ethics, humanity, spirituality, and self awareness in a sometimes humorous tone, but the novel is not centered on an expected conclusion or resolution. We the readers are learning more about Grendel as he learns himself.
Many "adult" novels tend to be character based. This is often to see how people change due to hardships or expectations.
Lastly, setting is sometimes overlooked in stories, which is a shame. As in Harry Potter for instance, Hogwarts School becomes almost a character itself as we see it full of beauty in the early novels and then in ruins in the final novel "The Deathly Hallows". However, in the hands of a masterful writer setting can have a deep metaphorical impact on the reader and give vital information that the author wishes to convey.
One story that does this beautifully if Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants".
In this story, which is character-driven, two lovers converse at a train station in Spain in the 1920s. Their conversation centers around the man's desire to have his young female lover have an "operation". We infer correctly that the operation is an abortion. The two characters throw short, and often coarse, dialogue at each other until eventually the topic is dropped and it is left to the reader to decide what the young woman's decision will be and if it even matters to her.
This character struggle is interesting by itself, but the setting is remarkable. On one side of the train station the landscape is described as dry, lifeless. On the other side there is a river and green grass, and it is fertile. The young woman at one point walks to the side overlooking the fertile countryside and remarks that they (the couple) could have that but every day they make it more impossible. From this brief scene the author allows us to witness the young woman's deepest desires.
The placement of the station is also symbolic in that it is located at a crossroads. The word crossroads is often used to refer to a moment when a person has a critical decision to make.
Lastly, the woman refers to the hills on the opposite side of the station as white elephants. She is merely saying what they look like, but the simile is powerful, since a white elephants is a term related to something unwanted.
So there can be much to appreciate from a setting.
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