As we’ve already learned, the exposition is where authors lay the foundation for their stories. It’s where they give you, the reader, the necessary information for you to understand their story. If you don’t know what’s going on, you’re less likely to enjoy or even finish the narrative.
Let’s look at an example. In this story, “The Reef” by Samuel Scoville, Jr., we’re introduced to two characters, Jim Tom and Jimmy Tom, two “caribs” who are traveling to a reef in search of underwater shells and rare items that they can take home and sell.
As you can see, this exposition does all the things an exposition should do. If you were to read further, you’d see more of the conflict exposed, and you’d see that the author further describes the setting and characters as he begins to unravel the plot.
IT’S YOUR TURN.
Take a look at the stories linked here. I’ve given you just the first page of three stories. Choose one, open it in Kami, and annotate it like I did in the example. Identify
- where the conflict is introduced.
- where you see a setting description.
- where the characters are introduced.
- if you can, where characters’ personalities are developed further (through dialogue, description, etc.) and maybe make a note about what you think the conflict is in the story.
Here are the stories: