Novels, Fables and Memoirs: the Forms, Types and Key Elements of Prose – Living Together in Community (Senior 4 English (Languages)) | Ganzaa

Living Together in Community

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Senior 4 · English (Languages)

Living Together in Community

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Lesson 4 of 5

Novels, Fables and Memoirs: the Forms, Types and Key Elements of Prose

40 min

Let's begin

A fable of six sentences and a novel of four hundred pages are both prose, and so are a newspaper report, a diary and the story you read in Lesson 1. What they share is their medium: ordinary sentences grouped in paragraphs, running to the edge of the page, not arranged in lines like a poem or in speeches like a play. What divides them is their purpose and their relationship to the truth. This lesson gives you the map: the two types of prose, the forms within each type, and the key elements you analyse in any piece of prose fiction.

Definition

Key terms

prose (n): written or spoken language in its ordinary form, in sentences and paragraphs, without the line structure of verse. Novels and essays are written in prose.
fiction (n): prose that tells invented events about imagined people, even if it is set in a real place.
non-fiction (n): prose that presents facts, real events and real people.
form (n): a recognised kind of prose with its own length, structure and purpose, such as the novel or the memoir.
novella (n): a work of fiction longer than a short story but shorter than a novel, usually focused on one main conflict.
memoir (n): a non-fiction account of part of the writer's own life, focused on particular experiences or a theme; an autobiography covers the whole life in order.
parable (n): a short, simple story with human characters that teaches a moral or spiritual lesson.

1 Types and forms of prose

Form	Type	Features	Example
Novel	fiction	long; many characters; main plot and subplots; develops characters over time	Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe (Nigeria, 1958)
Novella	fiction	medium length; one main conflict; few characters	Animal Farm, George Orwell (1945)
Short story	fiction	read at one sitting; one situation; few characters; often a single turning point	"The First Calf" (Lesson 1)
Fable	fiction	very short; often animals; moral stated or clear	Aesop's "Father and Sons" (below)
Parable	fiction	very short; human characters; moral or spiritual lesson	the blind men and the elephant, an ancient story from India
Folktale	fiction	traditional, first oral; stock characters	"The Robin-Chat Who Heard Wrong" (Unit 1)
Biography	non-fiction	a life written by someone else, in the third person	a biography of a national hero
Autobiography	non-fiction	the writer's whole life, in the first person	Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela (1994)
Memoir	non-fiction	selected experiences, often on one theme, first person	Unbowed, Wangari Maathai (2006)
Essay	non-fiction	a short piece arguing or reflecting on one subject	an opinion essay on umuganda
Diary and letters	non-fiction	dated, personal, written at the time of events	The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank (1947)
Report and journalism	non-fiction	factual, current, organised for quick reading	a news report in The New Times

2 A fable to analyse: Father and Sons

Aesop, translated by V. S. Vernon Jones (1912); public domain. Reproduced in full.

A certain man had several Sons who were always quarrelling with one another, and, try as he might, he could not get them to live together in harmony. So he determined to convince them of their folly by the following means. Bidding them fetch a bundle of sticks, he invited each in turn to break it across his knee. All tried and all failed: and then he undid the bundle, and handed them the sticks one by one, when they had no difficulty at all in breaking them. "There, my boys," said he, "united you will be more than a match for your enemies: but if you quarrel and separate, your weakness will put you at the mercy of those who attack you."

Union is strength.

in harmony: peacefully, in agreement; folly: foolishness; bidding: telling, ordering; more than a match for: stronger than.

3 The key elements of prose fiction

Element	What it is	In "Father and Sons"	In "The First Calf"
Plot	the sequence of connected events, driven by cause and effect	quarrels → the test with the bundle → the single sticks → the lesson	the calf's birth → the committee's choice → the family's argument → the handover → the gift of milk
Character	the people (or animals) in the story, and how they are presented	a wise father; sons who are not individualised (flat)	Keza, who changes; Grandmother, the voice of tradition; Byiringiro, the honest child
Setting	time, place and social world	none given: any family, any time	a hillside village in present-day Rwanda, in the time of Girinka
Conflict	the struggle that drives the plot: external (between characters, or with nature or society) or internal (within a character)	external: the sons against one another	external: Gatete and Mutesi; internal: Keza's love for the calf against her duty
Theme	the central idea about life that the story explores	unity gives strength; division brings weakness	generosity heals quarrels; a gift binds families
Point of view	who tells the story and how much they know	third person, outside the characters	third person, close to Keza's thoughts and feelings
Style and language	the writer's choice of words and sentences	formal, slightly old-fashioned ("Bidding them fetch")	plain, with short sentences and understatement ("Neither of them mentioned the beans.")
Tone and mood	tone: the writer's attitude; mood: the feeling the reader gets	tone: instructive; mood: serious	tone: warm and gently humorous; mood: hopeful

Worked example: writing about an element

Question: How does the writer of "Father and Sons" make the theme memorable?

Identify the theme: unity gives strength.
Find the technique: a concrete demonstration (the bundle that will not break and the single sticks that will) instead of an abstract argument; then a stated moral.
Quote briefly: "All tried and all failed"; "they had no difficulty at all in breaking them".
Explain the effect: the reader, like the sons, sees the idea before hearing it, so the moral feels proved rather than preached. The short, balanced moral "Union is strength" is easy to remember and repeat.

Model paragraph: Aesop makes the theme of unity memorable by turning it into a physical test. The sons cannot break the bundle ("All tried and all failed"), yet they snap the single sticks with "no difficulty at all". The contrast lets the reader see the lesson before the father states it, so his final words feel like a conclusion drawn from evidence. The closing moral, "Union is strength", compresses the whole story into three words.

Tip

Theme is a sentence, not a word. "Unity" is a topic. "United people can resist what would break them one by one" is a theme. When an exam asks for a theme, write a full statement about life, then support it with evidence from the text.

Warning

Don't confuse fiction with "false" or non-fiction with "true". A novel can be full of truth about people, and a biased report can mislead. The difference is the writer's contract with the reader: fiction asks you to imagine; non-fiction claims to report what happened. Also, a memoir is not an autobiography: a memoir selects; an autobiography covers the whole life.

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Practice

Fiction or non-fiction? Name the form. (a) Long Walk to Freedom; (b) a 200-page story about a boy who builds a radio, with several subplots; (c) a short story about a hare who tricks a hyena, ending "Greed blinds the eye"; (d) a dated notebook kept by a soldier during a war.
Explain the difference between (a) a biography and an autobiography; (b) a fable and a parable.
Identify the type of conflict: (a) a farmer battles a drought; (b) Keza wants to keep the calf but knows she must not; (c) two neighbours quarrel over a hedge.
Write the theme of "Father and Sons" as a full sentence, then suggest a Kinyarwanda proverb from Unit 1 that expresses it.
Describe the setting of "The First Calf" in two sentences, and explain why the story could not take place in quite the same way before 2006.
"A fable does not need characters with names or a setting." Using "Father and Sons", explain why.

Show answersHide answers

(a) non-fiction, autobiography (b) fiction, novel (c) fiction, fable (d) non-fiction, diary.
(a) A biography is written by someone else, in the third person; an autobiography is written by the subject, in the first person. (b) A fable usually has animal characters and a stated moral; a parable usually has human characters and teaches a moral or spiritual lesson.
(a) external, a character against nature (b) internal (c) external, between characters.
Model: People who stay united can resist what would break them one by one. Proverb: Abishyize hamwe nta kibananira (nothing defeats those who have joined together).
Model: It is set in a hillside village in present-day Rwanda, in a farming community organised in cells, where umuganda is held each month. The plot depends on the Girinka pass-on rule, and Girinka began in 2006.
A fable aims at a general lesson for everyone, so unnamed characters ("a certain man", "Sons") and no fixed setting let any reader apply it to his or her own family. Names and places would make it one family's story instead of a universal one.

Quick check

Match each form of prose to its description.

Tap one on the left, then its partner on the right.

Key points

Prose has two types: fiction (invented) and non-fiction (factual). Forms of fiction include the novel, novella, short story, fable, parable and folktale; forms of non-fiction include biography, autobiography, memoir, essay, diary and letters, and reports.
Analyse prose fiction through its elements: plot, character, setting, conflict, theme, point of view, style, and tone and mood.
State a theme as a full sentence about life, and support it with short quotations.

Sources and credits

Key terms, prose diagram, tables, worked example, questions and practice written by Ganzaa.
Fable: "Father and Sons", from Aesop's Fables: a new translation by V. S. Vernon Jones, 1912, Project Gutenberg; public domain.
Image: Esopo, Diego Velázquez, Museo del Prado, Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

11 Types and forms of prose

22 A fable to analyse: Father and Sons

33 The key elements of prose fiction

1 Types and forms of prose

2 A fable to analyse: Father and Sons

3 The key elements of prose fiction