Narrator. A narrator is a person or character who tells a story. Works of fiction almost always have a narrator. The narrator in a work of fiction may be a major or minor character or simply someone who witnessed or heard about the events being related. In some stories, the narrator is omniscient, or all-knowing, and knows everything about the characters and events that take place in the story. As you read “The Story-Teller,” look for examples that reveal what type of narrator tells the story.
Conflict. A conflict is a struggle between two people or things in a literary work. Writers develop the plot of a story around a central conflict or main problem or struggle. A struggle that takes place between a character and some outside force, such as another character, society, or nature, is an external conflict. A struggle that takes place within a character is an internal conflict. As you read “The Story-Teller,” decide whether the conflict is external or internal.
Frame Story. A frame story opens and closes with the telling of one story, which forms a frame. Within that story another story is told—or in the case of this selection, two stories. The length of the inner story and the frame story can vary. In this case, the frame story takes up most of the selection, and the inner stories are short. In other cases, the inner story or stories can take up most of the piece. As you read “The Story-Teller,” look for the inner stories. How do they support the conflict? Use the graphic organizer below as a model to create a visual representation of the structure of “The Story-Teller.” Show how the frame story and inner stories fit together. Make notes about the frame story and each inner story in your organizer. Also, note any conflicts that become apparent at the beginning or end of each part of “The Story-Teller.”
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- History Connection. In cultures throughout history, people have loved to tell stories. Storytelling existed long before people started writing things down. The first forms of storytelling in ancient human societies may have been chants that praised the sun and stars as well as chants that were sung while performing certain tasks such as sharpening weapons or grinding corn. As humans began to wonder about the world they lived in, they composed songs, stories, poems, and mythical tales about their experiences. Myths also helped societies to explain where things came from and how the world took the form that it has today.
- Before the development of writing, storytellers were also the historians for social groups. Storytellers were responsible for remembering and sharing the history, myths, and stories that defined the social group. In addition, the storyteller also entertained the community.
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