What is a novel? Three elements of a novel?

Novel is a literary genre that focuses on portraying characters and reflects social life through complete stories and specific environmental descriptions. A novel has three elements: characters, plots and environment (natural environment and social environment). The main means by which novels reflect social life is to portray characters. The characters in the novel are called typical characters; This character was created by the author according to real life. He is different from the real person, "eclectic, integrated." It is more concentrated and representative to reflect life through such typical figures. The means of shaping characters in novels can be general introduction, specific description, description of characters' appearance and psychological activities. It can be either the action dialogue of the characters or the comments of the author. You can use the pen from the front or from the side. The novel mainly shows the character and performance center through stories. The story comes from life, but after sorting, refining and arranging, it is more concentrated, complete and representative than the real things that happen in current life. The description of the environment and the characterization of the novel have an extremely important relationship with the central idea. In the description of environment, social environment is the key point, which reveals all kinds of complex social relations, such as identity, status, historical background of growth and so on. The natural environment includes place, time, season, climate, scenery and so on. The description of the natural environment plays a great role in expressing the emotions of characters and rendering the atmosphere. Simply put, the novel is centered on shaping characters, and reflects social life through the narrative of stories and the description of the environment. Fiction is the essence of this novel. "Capturing the emotional experience of characters' lives" is the artistic content that the novel tries to explore. The more fresh, subtle, unique, accurate and profound the feeling experience is, the more novel it is. "Fiction" and "capturing the emotional experience of the characters' lives" are the things that can best reflect the essence of the novel. The word "novel" was first seen in Zhuangzi Foreign Things: "It is far from big to decorate a novel as a county magistrate." (The novel is "obscene words, not Tao", doing and pursuing; County magistrate, good reputation. ) "trivial words" and "superficial knowledge of the path" are the original meaning of the novel. Huan Tan said to the novel in "New Theory": "If his novelists combine small words, draw inferences from others and make a short book, they will have considerable words to manage their bodies and families. "The novel is still a short book of" governing the body and managing the family ",not a" avenue "for governing the people. Ban Gu believes that novels are written by people who listen to gossip and gossip. Although he thinks that the novel is still a little knowledge and a small way, it touches on the characteristics of the novel from another angle and is rooted in life. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, Liang Qichao, a reformist, vigorously advocated the "novel revolution", and the novel theory took on a new look. The status of novels has been upgraded as never before, and they are even regarded as "the soul of the people", "the root of official history" and "the best of literature", and are no longer insignificant "gossip" and "trivial words". The three elements of the novel are the characters, the plot and the environment. Novels must portray characters, which can be negative or positive. A novel can create a character image or multiple characters. Plot is another element of this novel. The character's character must be reflected in the corresponding activities, which constitute the plot of the novel. The plot of the novel should be attractive and reasonable, and the plot should not be divorced from life. Environment is the third element of the novel. Environment is divided into natural environment and social environment. The environment should adapt to the performance, mood, identity and times of the characters. * Ancient novels refer to novels before the May 4th New Literature Movement, which can be divided into classical Chinese novels or semi-classical Chinese and semi-vernacular novels. China's classical novels are mostly short stories, with themes of strangeness, ambition, love, history, chivalry and philosophy. Famous works include Shi Shuo Xin Yu and Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio. Half-written and half-white novels include novels and short stories. Representative novels include Water Margin, Romance of Three Kingdoms, The Journey to the West, Scholars, Dream of Red Mansions, etc. These novels are divided into chapters and chapters, and the language retains the characteristics of folk storytelling art, so the history of literature is called "chapters and chapters novels" The representative works of short stories include Feng Menglong's Yu Shi Ming Yan, Shi Jing Yan, Xing's Shi Heng Yan (referred to as Sanyan), Ling Mengchu's Surprise at the First Moment and Surprise at the Second Moment (collectively referred to as Erpai). Modern novels refer to novels written in vernacular after the May 4th New Literature Movement. If classified by content, it can be divided into life novels, social novels, love novels, psychological novels, stream-of-consciousness novels, historical novels, supernatural novels, horror novels, science fiction novels, detective novels, martial arts novels and so on. According to the weight of length and content, it can be divided into the following four categories: novels with more than 100 thousand words are generally large in capacity, long in length and many in characters, and always take the broad social outlook and specific social background as the writing background of novels. Short Stories Novels with 20,000 words to100,000 words usually reflect major events in life, and their structures cannot be as complicated as novels, nor are they different from short stories. Novelists with 2000 to 20000 words are small in capacity, short in space and small in characters. The biggest feature is that the plot is simple, and they usually depict a side or fragment of characters and events, thus presenting the theme. Short stories, also known as mini-novels, delete the description of the environment, leaving simple plots and characters, expressing only a cross section of life, and the theme mostly depends on the reader's self-reflection.