Fiction belongs to a large category of communication called narrative. The kind of narrative most people associate with literature is fiction. There are many aspects that make up fiction. The first is the theme. When you are stating and describing the theme notice that the subject is what the work is about. You can state the subject in a word or phrase. The theme is what the work says about the subject. Stating a theme requires a complete sentence or in some cases, several. A theme applies to the world outside of the work. It may also be presented as a dilemma rather than a message. In some works, like long and complex ones, the author may choose to include multiple themes. Whereas in other cases some works have no clear themes. Instead they may display images, actions, atmosphere, and characters that have no apparent relationship to the world outside the works.

Another aspect that makes up fiction to look for when you are analyzing something is the point of view. It is the narrator's relationship to the world of the work. Authors put their works into four basic point of views:

1.) Third-person omniscient point of view: A narrator from "outside" the story world tells the story. It is third person because the narrator refers to all the characters in the third person as "he" or "she". It is omniscient because the narrator assumes the knowledge of the characters' actions, thoughts, and locations. Omniscient narrators will sometimes speak directly to the reader.

2.) Third-Person limited point of view: Narrators in this view still continue to use "he" or "she" and still have knowledge of the fictional world than we do of our worlds. However they restrict their perspective to the mind of one character. This character may be either a main or just another character. Sometimes the author restricts this point of view so severely that we see everything solely through the mind of a single character.

3.) Third-person objective (dramatic) point of view: Narrators in the objective point of view refer to characters in the third person and display omniscient knowledge of places, times, and events. They do not, however, enter the minds of any character. We see the characters as we do people in real life or as we might observe them in a play. We learn about them from what they say and do, how they look, and what other characters say about them. We do not learn what they think unless the character tells us.

4.) First-person Point of View: One of the characters tells the story and uses the first person pronoun, "I". The narrator may be a major character located at the center of events or a minor character who observes the action from the side.

When looking to choose which person you are reading from keep in mind the tone. It is the narrator's attitude toward the subject, whether the subject is a place, event, character, or idea.

Another aspect to look for when analyzing fiction is the plot of the story. It consists of three things. First it is the work itself, the author's arrangement of events from the first page to the last. By reading the work, we experience the events as the author has arranged them. Second, plot includes the linkage of events by cause and effect. Third, plot is the author's presentation of events so as to engage readers intellectually and emotionally. Authors do this through such devices as pacing, intense conflict, surprise, rising action, climax, withheld information, and foreshadowing of later events. There is a traditional pattern that many authors use to arrange events. It is called Fretag's pyramid. See the image for a better look.

Another thing to look for when analyzing fiction is characters. There are two types: static and dynamic. Static characters are ones that remain almost the same throughout the entire story. Dynamic characters are ones that change throughout the story. They typically grow in understanding.

Setting is another important aspect in analyzing fiction. It includes several closely related aspects of a world of fiction. First, setting is the physical, sensuous world of the work. Second, it is the time in which the action of the work takes place. And third, it is the social environment of the characters: the manners customs, and moral values that govern the characters' society. Atmosphere is largely, but not entirely, an effect of setting.

Authors use irony pervasively to convey ideas. There are four types of irony:

1.) Verbal Irony- people say the opposite of what they mean. It is more empathetic than a point blank statement of the truth. It achieves its affect by reminding you of the opposite reality and thus providing a scale by which to judge the present reality. It often displays a mental wit that people find striking and entertaining.

2.) Situational Irony-the situation differs from what common sense indicates it is. Authors often use situational irony to expose hypocrisy and injustice.

3.) Attitudinal Irony- Results from what one person expects. In attitudinal irony an individual thinks that reality is one when, in fact, it is very different.

4.) Dramatic Irony- Occurs in plays when a character states or hears something that means more to the audience than to the character. It occurs in all forms of literature. The key to dramatic irony is the reader's foreknowledge of coming events. Many works become newly interesting when we reread them because we now know what will happen while the characters do not; this dramatic irony intensifies characterization and makes us aware of tensions that we could not have known about during our initial reading.

The next aspect in analyzing literature is symbolism. There are two kinds of symbol: public and private. Public symbols are conventional, those that most people in a particular culture or community would recognize as meaning something fairly definite. Private symbols are unique to an individual or to a single work. Only from clues in the work itself can we learn the symbolic value of the object.

Drama is different from fiction and most poetry in one essential way: It is meant to be performed. Some theorists of drama argue that a play is incomplete until it is performed. Just like poetry and fiction there are many aspects and elements that make up drama when one is to analyze it.

Plot and Story- It has a different meaning from poetry and fiction. It is the playwright's arrangements of events, which we experience as the performance or reading of the play. It is also the connection of events by cause and effect, which gives ride to conflict. It is also the device the playwrights use to engage us emotionally and intellectually, such as pacing, rising action, climax, surprise, intensification of conflict and foreshadowing. Story is the entire sequence of events, arranged in chronological order, of which the play is a part. The playwright must keep the plot simple and clear enough for an audience to grasp during the length of the performance. The playwright cannot indulge in numerous subplots or in intricate plot complications; otherwise the audience will become confused. 

Dialogue-Although the playwright can present physical action without having to use words, the action must be understandable to the audience. The most important means for doing this is people talking to people-through the dialogue. Playwrights strive to make every word of dialogue help move the plot forward. Plays sometimes do portray conflicts between people and nonhuman forces, but these conflicts are revealed through dialogue and usually through conflicts between the characters.

Characterization-Similar to plot, the playwright must keep character portrayal simple enough for an audience to understand during the course of a single performance. They rely heavily on flat characters whose personalities and moral traits are easily caught and remembered by the audience. When the play includes round characters, the plot deals largely with internal conflicts, the focus is on characterization.

Setting-A play cannot create a "world" in the same detail a novel could because of the limited time. Rather, such worlds can be represented fragmentarily. The director must use a shorthand method of presenting the setting so that the playgoer grasps enough information about it to understand whatever relationship it might have to characterization and theme. Sometimes the relationship is minimal, sometimes very close. Setting in drama is the same as in fiction: the social mores, values, and customs of the world in which the characters live; the physical world; and the time of the action, including historical circumstances. There are three main ways of communicating setting to an audience:

1.) First we learn about setting from the characters' dialogue, dress, and behavior.

2.) Second we learn about setting from the sets produced by the set designer.

3.) The third way is through the knowledge WE bring to the performance.

Playwrights and set designers can choose to give their sets symbolic value if they choose. Sets do not have to be symbolic.