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ELA 4: Complete Sentences
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In this lesson we'll subject you to some verbs and predicates. Each one is a necessary part of a complete breakfas—er...sentence.

ELA 4: Word Choice
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Choosing words carefully is important. You may end up vexing the assemblage of citizens you're conversing with...or you might even just plain bore...

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ELA 4: Protagonists and Antagonists 120 Views


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Description:

What's a protagonist? Is it just someone who's in favor of tagonists? If so, what's a tagonist? Is it someone who plays tag professionally? So many questions, so little time.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:13

Most stories are based around some sort of conflict. [Man wearing a Sherlock costume]

00:16

Y'know, like…the detective needs to catch the murderer, the guy needs to beat the other

00:20

team to win the sportsball tournament, the ring must be destroyed…not all at once of [Guy dives onto a football]

00:24

course, but you get the picture. [Man hits a ring with a hammer]

00:26

Often the main conflict will be between two particular characters: the protagonist and

00:30

the antagonist.

00:31

The protagonist is the main character of the story. [Batman sign being projected into the sky]

00:34

They're the good guy, the square-jawed hero, the one we're supposed to be rooting for. [Batman appears]

00:38

The antagonist, on the other hand, is the bad guy…no word on what his jaw looks like, [Joker appears and an explosion goes off]

00:42

though.

00:43

Their main function in the story is to cause problems for the protagonist.

00:45

The protagonist is not a big fan of this guy.

00:48

He is a problem causer after all. [Batman punches the joker]

00:51

And as the reader, you're not supposed like him either.

00:53

That said, not all antagonists are stereotypical villains, with twirly moustaches and top hats. [Man wearing the typical villain costume]

00:57

They can be anything that causes trouble for the protagonist.

01:00

Lots of stories are about a protagonist grappling with some huge problem: maybe a natural disaster, [House takes off in a storm]

01:05

or some kind of harsh environment.

01:06

In cases like this, nature itself is the antagonist, since it's the thing that's causing all the [Witch in a window turns into 'nature']

01:11

trouble for the protagonist.

01:13

And an antagonist like nature must be dealt with very differently than a human antagonist. [Man punches a tree that has nature written on it]

01:18

Fist fights won't do much good.

01:20

Another option is for the protagonist to be their own antagonist.

01:23

Whoooa.

01:24

Trippy.

01:25

This doesn't mean that the protagonist wants to trick himself into stepping on a bear trap,

01:28

or anything.

01:29

It just means that the protagonist might be their own worst enemy. [Man walks onto a bear trap]

01:33

In stories like this, the protagonist tends to have a personal weakness, or maybe they

01:37

made some sort of big mistake.

01:38

By solving these personal problems, the protagonist "defeats" their internal antagonist. [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

01:43

For example, maybe the protagonist has a really bad cookie addiction. [Man takes a cookie out a pot]

01:47

We're…not speaking from experience here or anything.

01:50

Ahem.

01:51

In this case, cookies aren't the antagonist: the protagonist is. [Jars of cookies are crossed out and the man is circled]

01:54

However, if through the story he manages to overcome this addiction, he can defeat the

01:58

antagonist within and resolve the conflict of the story. [Man chucks a cookie jar in the bin]

02:01

Yeah, it's not exactly Rocky, but hey, it works.

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