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Literary Elements In Susan Beth Pfeffer's Ashes

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Literary Elements Essay Literary elements are like weather, they are always there and add more to the book like excitement or suspense.they also give the book a little more interesting instead of something being always the exact same. figurative language can be compared to rainy, sunny, and snowy weather “Ashes” is a short story that features the protagonist Ashleigh struggles inside to help her dad as well to do the right thing. Susan Beth Pfeffer’s short story “Ashes” included many different literary elements such as figurative language, theme, and conflict. Figurative language is like a rainy day, it is not uncommon and can make the book more fun to read and make you see things differently. When introducing Dad, Pfeffer used figurative …show more content…

it is very common and adds excitement to the story. The conflict of “Ashes” is character vs self. This is because Ashleigh is fighting against herself to do what is morally right or to help her father by stealing for him. When Ashleigh “lifted its lid and stared at her emergency money“ she had to make a decision on whether to make take the money or leave it this and the final outcome is unknown(Pfeffer 4). This moment in the story was crucial in the plot because it starts the climax and when both sides of Ashleigh are fighting the hardest against the other. Another quote that demonstrates conflict is,”’No, Ashes the teapots the way to go”’(Pfeffer 4). This is actually a bit of character vs character conflict between Ashleigh and her father because she is trying to get him to to sell his car instead of stealing from mom. Instead of agreeing Dad says no and continues to drive the plot forward through conflict. The climax is the resolution to the plot. Though the climax in “Ashes” does not provide a clear resolution it still is the height of conflict in the short story:”Her earthquake money. Her martian money. What should I do?”(Pfeffer 4). This quote shows Ashleigh's internal conflict with herself because she is still struggling to decide whether or not to help her dad. This shows that she loves both of her parents very much because she can’t decide whether to steal from her mom to help her dad or

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