The Personal Narrative

PowerPoint Presentation

The Personal NarrativeOur Milestones of Light and Dark: Two Perspectives

David Sedaris and Susan Sontag

Five Main Elements

Plot Point of ViewCharacter SettingTheme

The Shortest Short StoryThe Shortest Horror Story

The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.PLOT STORY

Story = a chronological sequence of events

Plot need not be chronological and canrearrange elements of story so that the end is narrated before the beginning.Plot can contain: IronySuspenseFlashback

Plot will contain:ExpositionComplicationClimaxResolutionE.M. Forster illustrated the difference between PLOT and STORY thusly:STORY: The King died, and then the Queen died.(thequestion that propels the story forward is what happened next?)

PLOT: The King died, and then the Queen died of grief.(thequestion addressed by the plot is why/how is the second event caused by the first?)

STORY = SEQUENCE

PLOT = CAUSAL

Who is David Sedaris?

David Sedaris is the difference betweenImagine the meanest, most merciless teacher ever.OR

Imagine a teacher as cruel as the harsh winters of Alaska, as vicious and merciless as a hungry grizzly bear in a one-room cabin with nothing to eat but you and a loaf of bread.

Me Talk Pretty One Day Chapter 15

Look for use of ETHOS, LOGOS, and PATHOS

Answer the questions on the handout for tomorrow.Who is Susan Sontag?

1933-2004The Way We Live NowSusan Sontag's "The Way We Live Now" first appeared in theNew Yorker in 1986.

Narrated almost exclusively through dialogue- an unnamed man's struggle with AIDS through the reactions of his large circle of friends.

Sontag began writing the story on night she learned a close friend had been diagnosed with AIDS. Upset and unable to sleep, she took a bath; there the story took shape.

"It was given to me, ready to be born. I got out of the bathtub and started to write very quickly standing up. I wrote the story in two days, drawing on experiences of my own cancer and a friend's stroke."