The Pilgrims of The Canterbury Tales

 

The Narrator -  The narrator makes it quite clear that he is also a character in his book. Although he is called Chaucer, we should be wary of accepting his words and opinions as Chaucer’s own. In the General Prologue, the narrator presents himself as a gregarious and naïve character. Later on, the Host accuses him of being silent and sullen. Because the narrator writes down his impressions of the pilgrims from memory, whom he does and does not like, and what he chooses and chooses not to remember about the characters, tells us as much about the narrator’s own prejudices as it does about the characters themselves.

The Knight -  The first pilgrim Chaucer describes in the General Prologue, and the teller of the first tale. The Knight represents the ideal of a medieval Christian man-at-arms. He has participated in no less than fifteen of the great crusades of his era. Brave, experienced, and prudent, the narrator greatly admires him.

The Wife of Bath -  Bath is an English town on the Avon River, not the name of this woman’s husband. Though she is a seamstress by occupation, she seems to be a professional wife. She has been married five times and had many other affairs in her youth, making her well practiced in the art of love. She presents herself as someone who loves marriage and sex, but, from what we see of her, she also takes pleasure in rich attire, talking, and arguing. She is deaf in one ear and has a gap between her front teeth, which was considered attractive in Chaucer’s time. She has traveled on pilgrimages to Jerusalem three times and elsewhere in Europe as well.

The Pardoner -  Pardoners granted papal indulgences—reprieves from penance in exchange for charitable donations to the Church. Many pardoners, including this one, collected profits for themselves. In fact, Chaucer’s Pardoner excels in fraud, carrying a bag full of fake relics—for example, he claims to have the veil of the Virgin Mary. The Pardoner has long, greasy, yellow hair and is beardless. These characteristics were associated with shiftiness and gender ambiguity in Chaucer’s time. The Pardoner also a gift for singing and preaching whenever he finds himself inside a church.

The Miller -  Stout and brawny, the Miller has a wart on his nose and a big mouth, both literally and figuratively. He threatens the Host’s notion of propriety when he drunkenly insists on telling the second tale. Indeed, the Miller seems to enjoy overturning all conventions: he ruins the Host’s carefully planned storytelling order; he rips doors off hinges; and he tells a tale that is somewhat blasphemous, ridiculing religious clerks, scholarly clerks, carpenters, and women.

The Prioress -  Described as modest and quiet, this Prioress (a nun who is head of her convent) aspires to have exquisite taste. Her table manners are dainty, she knows French (though not the French of the court), she dresses well, and she is charitable and compassionate.

The Monk -  Most monks of the Middle Ages lived in monasteries according to the Rule of Saint Benedict, which demanded that they devote their lives to “work and prayer.” This Monk cares little for the Rule; his devotion is to hunting and eating. He is large, loud, and well clad in hunting boots and furs.

The Friar -  Roaming priests with no ties to a monastery, friars were a great object of criticism in Chaucer’s time. Always ready to befriend young women or rich men who might need his services, the friar actively administers the sacraments in his town, especially those of marriage and confession. However, Chaucer’s worldly Friar has taken to accepting bribes.

The Summoner -  The Summoner brings persons accused of violating Church law to ecclesiastical court. This Summoner is a lecherous man whose face is scarred by leprosy. He gets drunk frequently, is irritable, and is not particularly qualified for his position. He spouts the few words of Latin he knows in an attempt to sound educated.

The Host -  The leader of the group, the Host is large, loud, and merry, although he possesses a quick temper. He mediates among the pilgrims and facilitates the flow of the tales. His title of “host” may be a pun, suggesting both an innkeeper and the Eucharist, or Holy Host.

 

The Parson -  The only devout churchman in the company, the Parson lives in poverty, but is rich in holy thoughts and deeds. The pastor of a sizable town, he preaches the Gospel and makes sure to practice what he preaches. He is everything that the Monk, the Friar, and the Pardoner are not.

The Squire -  The Knight’s son and apprentice. The Squire is curly-haired, youthfully handsome, and loves dancing and courting.

The Clerk -  The Clerk is a poor student of philosophy. Having spent his money on books and learning rather than on fine clothes, he is threadbare and wan. He speaks little, but when he does, his words are wise and full of moral virtue.

The Man of Law -  A successful lawyer commissioned by the king. He upholds justice in matters large and small and knows every statute of England’s law by heart.

The Manciple -  A manciple was in charge of getting provisions for a college or court. Despite his lack of education, this Manciple is smarter than the thirty lawyers he feeds.

The Merchant -  The Merchant trades in furs and other cloths, mostly from Flanders. He is part of a powerful and wealthy class in Chaucer’s society.

The Shipman -  Brown-skinned from years of sailing, the Shipman has seen every bay and river in England, and exotic ports in Spain and Carthage as well. He is a bit of a rascal, known for stealing wine while the ship’s captain sleeps.

The Physician -  The Physician is one of the best in his profession, for he knows the cause of every malady and can cure most of them. Though the Physician keeps himself in perfect physical health, the narrator calls into question the Physician’s spiritual health: he rarely consults the Bible and has an unhealthy love of financial gain.

The Franklin -  The word “franklin” means “free man.” In Chaucer’s society, a franklin was neither a vassal serving a lord nor a member of the nobility. This particular franklin is a connoisseur of food and wine, so much so that his table remains laid and ready for food all day.

The Reeve -  A reeve was similar to a steward of a manor, and this reeve performs his job shrewdly—his lord never loses so much as a ram to the other employees, and the vassals under his command are kept in line. However, he steals from his master.

The Plowman -  The Plowman is the Parson’s brother and is equally good-hearted. A member of the peasant class, he pays his tithes to the Church and leads a good Christian life.

The Guildsmen -  Listed together, the five Guildsmen appear as a unit. English guilds were a combination of labor unions and social fraternities: craftsmen of similar occupations joined together to increase their bargaining power, and live communally. All five Guildsmen are clad in the livery of their brotherhood.

The Cook -  The Cook works for the Guildsmen. Chaucer gives little detail about him, although he mentions a crusty sore on the Cook’s leg.

The Yeoman -  The servant who accompanies the Knight and the Squire. The narrator mentions that his dress and weapons suggest he may be a forester.

The Second Nun -  The Second Nun is not described in the General Prologue, but she tells a saint’s life for her tale.

The Nun’s Priest -  Like the Second Nun, the Nun’s Priest is not described in the General Prologue. His story of Chanticleer, however, is well crafted and suggests that he is a witty, self-effacing preacher.

 

 

1/27/09

 

 

 

January 2009 (26-30) 1/24

MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY
26  English I QRA (100) Greek Gods WS & PP                   Dialogue HO&Comic Study Groups HO   Review Voc.    HW-Study Voc   #1   English IV QRA(100)   Assembly   HW – HRLP Chapter 2 & Study SAT 1-20	27  English I Test Voc. #1 and WB Greek Goddesses WS & PP Character Read (hats)   HW–Re-read Elements of a Short Story HO   English IV Review Voc. Test SAT 1-20 Review HRLP Chapter 1 & 2  Elements of a Short Story PP and HO   HW – HRLP Chapter 3	28   English I History of Gods WS & PP Play-doh Writing    HW-Voc. #2 WB         English IV Play-doh Writing Review HRLP Chapter 3  Old Eng – Ren PP (part)   HW – HRLP Chapter 4 & read Chaucer   (106-110)	29  English I Greek Myths WS & PP How to Write a SS HO Picture Story      (Brainstorm)   HW-Voc.#2 WB       English IV Review HRLP Chapter 4  How to Write a SS HO Picture Story       (Brainstorm) Canterbury Tales HO   HW – HRLP Chapter 5 & read Read Prologue (111-136)	30 English I Quick Write Odyssey Intro. (886-891) How to Take Tests HO   HW – SS Rough Draft       English IV Quick Write Review HRLP Chapter 5  Present WB Assign Tale – Read & do WBD(141-166) Dialogue HO HW-Voc. SAT (21-40) Review Mon. HRLP Chapter 6 SS Rough Draft

 

SENIOR Research Paper Information – 2009

Due Dates:

            1/13/09 – Paper assigned

By 2/24/09 – Thesis due

By 3/24/09 – Outline due (WITH FINAL THESIS)

By 4/3/09 – EXTRA Credit  Turn-in (5 points)

On 4/21/09 – Paper due (you have had over three months)

4/22/09 – 25% off

4/23/09 – 50% off

4/24/09 – 75% off and LAST DAY TO TURN IN 

Length and form:

·      Double space with standard margins (1 inch).  Font should be no larger than 12.sl

·      Always keep a copy in more than one location.  You must turn in a hard copy (no excuses).

·      You must have a title page.

      Include:

            Full Name     

            Eng IV: Period ___

            Title (required)

                  Date

·       Body 6-12 Pages of text – pictures, etc. do not count as text.

·       Highlight the thesis statement, which should appear in your first paragraph.

·       APA Citation (see hand-out or look online).  Don’t forget parenthetical notations in text.

·       Authoritative References (Minimums).  At least 50% must be literary.  Properly site for credit.

10 Total:

2 must be from books

2 may be from the Internet (watch that it is not just uneducated opinion)

6 must be authoritative  – books, journals, etc.

More and premium research will earn you a better grade.  The above are minimums.  This is a training tool for college.  Start now and you will benefit more.  Wait to the last minute and you will get a poor grade and miss the process.  If you need help, talk to me (before or after school) – early.

 

Research Paper Helps:

·      Use the sites on the student portal & my site.  These are easy and free to you.

·      Go to a public or college library and talk to the research librarian.  Two visits required.

·      Look for versions of novels you may use that include literary analysis (Norton Critical Edition, New Riverside Editions, etc).  This material can be used as reference and will help you with your thesis.

·      Supplement handouts with additional research on the Internet.

·      Start with a strong thesis statement (what your paper is trying to prove).   – Handout

 

·      Introduce content of your paper in your first paragraph (essay style)  - Handout

 

·      Document everything using APA style. – Handout

 

·      Be mindful of the research grading rubric – Handout

 

·      Look through and check-out a research notebook – Available in Class

 

Remember:

 

·      The paper must be a on a literary subject (novel, play, poetry, character, writing style, theme, motif, symbolism, etc.), not world hunger, global warning, etc.   If in question please get approval from the teacher.  This is a major grade and you do not want a zero for picking the wrong topic.

·      The paper must have a strong thesis that you are proving by your argument.   The form may be compare/contrast, or the following through on a theme, symbol, etc. 

·      Must have authoritative sources (literary and information relating to your topic).

·      Modern works will be harder to get authoritative sources for. 

 

Have Research Librarian sign (minimum of two times):

 

___________________     _____________________    __________________     ______________     _____

Print Name                               Signature                                                       Library                                Contact Number      Date

 

___________________     _____________________    __________________     ______________     _____

Print Name                               Signature                                                       Library                                Contact Number      Date

 

___________________     _____________________    __________________     ______________     _____

Print Name                               Signature                                                         Library                              Contact Number      Date

 

___________________     _____________________    __________________     ______________     _____

Print Name                               Signature                                                       Library                                Contact Number      Date

 

From How to Read Literature Like a Professor

Thomas C. Foster

 

1.     Every Trip is a Quest (except when it’s not):

a.     A quester

b.     A place to go

c.     A stated reason to go there

d.     Challenges and trials

e.     The real reason to go—always self-knowledge

2.     Nice to Eat With You: Acts of Communion

a.     Whenever people eat or drink together, it’s communion

b.     Not usually religious

c.     An act of sharing and peace

d.     A failed meal carries negative connotations

3.     Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires

a.     Literal Vampirism: Nasty old man, attractive but evil, violates a young woman, leaves his mark, takes her innocence

b.     Sexual implications—a trait of 19^th century literature to address sex indirectly

c.     Symbolic Vampirism: selfishness, exploitation, refusal to respect the autonomy of other people, using people to get what we want, placing our desires, particularly ugly ones, above the needs of another.

4.     If It’s Square, It’s a Sonnet

5.     Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?

a.     There is no such thing as a wholly original work of literature—stories grow out of other stories, poems out of other poems.

b.     There is only one story—of humanity and human nature, endlessly repeated

c.     “Intertexuality”—recognizing the connections between one story and another deepens our appreciation and experience, brings multiple layers of meaning to the text, which we may not be conscious of. The more consciously aware we are, the more alive the text becomes to us.

d.     If you don’t recognize the correspondences, it’s ok. If a story is no good, being based on Hamlet won’t save it.

6.     When in Doubt, It’s from Shakespeare…

a.     Writers use what is common in a culture as a kind of shorthand. Shakespeare is pervasive, so he is frequently echoed.

b.     See plays as a pattern, either in plot or theme or both. Examples:

                                      i.     Hamlet: heroic character, revenge, indecision, melancholy nature

                                    ii.     Henry IV—a young man who must grow up to become king, take on his responsibilities

                                   iii.     Othello—jealousy

                                   iv.     Merchant of Venice—justice vs. mercy

                                    v.     King Lear—aging parent, greedy children, a wise fool

7.     …Or the Bible

a.     Before the mid 20^th century, writers could count on people being very familiar with Biblical stories, a common touchstone a writer can tap

b.     Common Biblical stories with symbolic implications

                                      i.     Garden of Eden: women tempting men and causing their fall, the apple as symbolic of an object of temptation, a serpent who tempts men to do evil, and a fall from innocence

                                    ii.     David and Goliath—overcoming overwhelming odds

                                   iii.     Jonah and the Whale—refusing to face a task and being “eaten” or overwhelmed by it anyway.

                                   iv.     Job: facing disasters not of the character’s making and not the character’s fault, suffers as a result, but remains steadfast

                                    v.     The Flood: rain as a form of destruction; rainbow as a promise of restoration

                                   vi.     Christ figures (a later chapter): in 20^th century, often used ironically

                                 vii.     The Apocalypse—Four Horseman of the Apocalypse usher in the end of the world.

                                viii.     Biblical names often draw a connection between literary character and Biblical charcter.

8.     Hanseldee and Greteldum–using fairy tales and kid lit

a.     Hansel and Gretel: lost children trying to find their way home

b.     Peter Pan: refusing to grow up, lost boys, a girl-nurturer/

c.     Little Red Riding Hood: See Vampires

d.     Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz: entering a world that doesn’t work rationally or operates under different rules, the Red Queen, the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, the Wicked Witch of the West, the Wizard, who is a fraud

e.     Cinderella: orphaned girl abused by adopted family saved through supernatural intervention and by marrying a prince

f.      Snow White: Evil woman who brings death to an innocent—again, saved by heroic/princely character

g.     Sleeping Beauty: a girl becoming a woman, symbolically, the needle, blood=womanhood, the long sleep an avoidance of growing up and becoming a married woman, saved by, guess who, a prince who fights evil on her behalf.

h.     Evil Stepmothers, Queens, Rumpelstilskin

i.      Prince Charming heroes who rescue women. (20^th c. frequently switched—the women save the men—or used highly ironically)

9.     It’s Greek to Me

a.     Myth is a body of story that matters—the patterns present in mythology run deeply in the human psyche

b.     Why writers echo myth—because there’s only one story (see #4)

c.     Odyssey and Iliad

                                      i.     Men in an epic struggle over a woman

                                    ii.     Achilles—a small weakness in a strong man; the need to maintain one’s dignity

                                   iii.     Penelope (Odysseus’s wife)—the determination to remain faithful and to have faith

                                   iv.     Hector: The need to protect one’s family

d.     The Underworld—an ultimate challenge, facing the darkest parts of human nature or dealing with death

e.     Metamorphoses by Ovid—transformation (Kafka)

f.      Oedipus: family triangles, being blinded, dysfunctional family

g.     Cassandra: refusing to hear the truth

h.     A wronged woman gone violent in her grief and madness—Aeneas and Dido or Jason and Medea

i.      Mother love—Demeter and Persephone

10.  It’s more than just rain or snow

a.     Rain

                                      i.     fertility and life

                                    ii.     Noah and the flood

                                   iii.     Drowning—one of our deepest fears

b.     Why?

                                      i.     plot device

                                    ii.     atmospherics

                                   iii.     misery factor—challenge characters

                                   iv.     democratic element—the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike

c.     Symbolically

                                      i.     rain is clean—a form of purification, baptism, removing sin or a stain

                                    ii.     rain is restorative—can bring a dying earth back to life

                                   iii.     destructive as well—causes pneumonia, colds, etc.; hurricanes, etc.

                                   iv.     Ironic use—April is the cruelest month (T.S. Eliot, The Wasteland)

                                    v.     Rainbow—God’s promise never to destroy the world again; hope; a promise of peace between heaven and earth

                                   vi.     fog—almost always signals some sort of confusion; mental, ethical, physical “fog”; people can’t see clearly

d.     Snow

                                      i.     negatively—cold, stark, inhospitable, inhuman, nothingness, death

                                    ii.     positively—clean, pure, playful

11.  …More Than It’s Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence

a.     Violence can be symbolic, thematic, biblical, Shakespearean, Romantic, allegorical, transcendent.

b.     Two categories of violence in literature

                                      i.     Character caused—shootings, stabbings, drownings, poisonings, bombings, hit and run, etc

                                    ii.     Death and suffering for which the characters are not responsible. Accidents are not really accidents.

c.     Violence is symbolic action, but hard to generalize meaning

d.     Questions to ask:

                                      i.     What does this type of misfortune represent thematically?

                                    ii.     What famous or mythic death does this one resemble?

                                   iii.     Why this sort of violence and not some other?

12.  Is That a Symbol?

a.     Yes. But figuring out what is tricky. Can only discuss possible meanings and interpretations

b.     There is no one definite meaning unless it’s an allegory, where characters, events, places have a one-on-one correspondence symbolically to other things. (Animal Farm)

c.     Actions, as well as objects and images, can be symbolic. i.e. “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost

d.     How to figure it out? Symbols are built on associations readers have, but also on emotional reactions. Pay attention to how you feel about a text.

13.  It’s All Political

a.     Literature tends to be written by people interested in the problems of the world, so most works have a political element in them

b.     Issues:

                                      i.     Individualism and self-determination against the needs of society for conformity and stability.

                                    ii.     Power structures

                                   iii.     Relations among classes

                                   iv.     issues of justice and rights

                                    v.     interactions between the sexes and among various racial and ethnic constituencies.

14.  Yes, She’s a Christ Figure, Too

a.     Characteristics of a Christ Figure:

                                      i.     crucified, wounds in hands, feet, side, and head, often portrayed with arms outstretched

                                    ii.     in agony

                                   iii.     self-sacrificing

                                   iv.     good with children

                                    v.     good with loaves, fishes, water, wine

                                   vi.     thirty-three years of age when last seen

                                 vii.     employed as a carpenter

                                viii.     known to use humble modes of transportation, feet or donkeys preferred

                                   ix.     believed to have walked on water

                                     x.     known to have spent time alone in the wilderness

                                   xi.     believed to have had a confrontation with the devil, possibly tempted

                                  xii.     last seen in the company of thieves

                                xiii.     creator of many aphorisms and parables

                                xiv.     buried, but arose on the third day

                                  xv.     had disciples, twelve at first, although not all equally devoted

                                xvi.     very forgiving

                               xvii.     came to redeem an unworthy world

b.     As a reader, put aside belief system.

c.     Why use Christ figures? Deepens our sense of a character’s sacrifice, thematically has to do with redemption, hope, or miracles.

d.     If used ironically, makes the character look smaller rather than greater

15.  Flights of Fancy

a.     Daedalus and Icarus

b.     Flying was one of the temptations of Christ

c.     Symbolically: freedom, escape, the flight of the imagination, spirituality, return home, largeness of spirit, love

d.     Interrupted flight generally a bad thing

e.     Usually not literal flying, but might use images of flying, birds, etc.

f.      Irony trumps everything

16.  It’s All About Sex…

a.     Female symbols: chalice, Holy Grail,  bowls, rolling landscape, empty vessels waiting to be filled, tunnels, images of fertility

b.     Male symbols: blade, tall buildings

c.     Why?

                                      i.     Before mid 20^th c., coded sex avoided censorship

                                    ii.     Can function on multiple levels

                                   iii.     Can be more intense than literal descriptions

17.  …Except Sex. When authors write directly about sex, they’re writing about something else, such as sacrifice, submission, rebellion, supplication, domination, enlightenment, etc.

18.  If She Comes Up, It’s Baptism

a.     Baptism is symbolic death and rebirth as a new individual

b.     Drowning is symbolic baptism, IF the character comes back up, symbolically reborn. But drowning on purpose can also represent a form of rebirth, a choosing to enter a new, different life, leaving an old one behind.

c.     Traveling on water—rivers, oceans—can symbolically represent baptism. i.e. young man sails away from a known world, dies out of one existence, and comes back a new person, hence reborn. Rivers can also represent the River Styx, the mythological river separating the world from the Underworld, another form of transformation, passing from life into death.

d.     Rain can by symbolic baptism as well—cleanses, washes

e.     Sometimes the water is symbolic too—the prairie has been compared to an ocean, walking in a blizzard across snow like walking on water, crossing a river from one existence to another (Beloved)

f.      There’s also rebirth/baptism implied when a character is renamed.

19.  Geography Matters…

a.     What represents home, family, love, security?

b.     What represents wilderness, danger, confusion? i.e. tunnels, labyrinths, jungles

c.     Geography can represent the human psyche (Heart of Darkness)

d.     Going south=running amok and running amok means having a direct, raw encounter with the subconscious.

e.     Low places: swamps, crowds, fog, darkness, fields, heat, unpleasantness, people, life, death

f.      High places: snow, ice, purity, thin air, clear views, isolation, life, death

20.  …So Does Season

a.     Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter=youth, adulthood, middle age, old age/death.

b.     Spring=fertility, life, happiness, growth, resurrection (Easter)

c.     Fall=harvest, reaping what we sow, both rewards and punishments

d.     Winter=hibernation, lack of growth, death, punishment

e.     Christmas=childhood, birth, hope, family

f.      Irony trumps all “April is the cruelest month” from The Wasteland

 

21.  Marked for Greatness

a.     Physical marks or imperfections symbolically mirror moral, emotional, or psychological scars or imperfections.

b.     Landscapes can be marked as well—The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot

c.     Physical imperfection, when caused by social imperfection, often reflects not only the damage inside the individual, but what is wrong with the culture that causes such damage

d.     Monsters

                                      i.     Frankenstein—monsters created through no fault of their own; the real monster is the maker

                                    ii.     Faust—bargains with the devil in exchange for one’s soul

                                   iii.     Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde—the dual nature of humanity, that in each of us, no matter how well-made or socially groomed, a monstrous Other exists.

                                   iv.     Quasimodo, Beauty and the Beast—ugly on the outside, beautiful on the inside. The physical deformity reflects the opposite of the truth.

22.  He’s Blind for a Reason, You Know

a.     Physical blindness mirrors psychological, moral, intellectual (etc.) blindness

b.     Sometimes ironic; the blind see and sighted are blind

c.     Many times blindness is metaphorical, a failure to see—reality, love, truth, etc.

d.     darkness=blindness; light=sight

23.  It’s Never Just Heart Disease…

a.     Heart disease=bad love, loneliness, cruelty, disloyalty, cowardice, lack of determination.

b.     Socially, something on a larger scale or something seriously amiss at the heart of things (Heart of Darkness)

24.  …And Rarely Just Illness

a.     Not all illnesses are created equal. Tuberculosis occurs frequently; cholera does not because of the reasons below

b.     It should be picturesque

c.     It should be mysterious in origin

d.     It should have strong symbolic or metaphorical possibilities

                                      i.     Tuberculosis—a wasting disease

                                    ii.     Physical paralysis can mirror moral, social, spiritual, intellectual, political paralysis

                                   iii.     Plague: divine wrath; the communal aspect and philosophical possibilities of suffering on a large scale; the isolation an despair created by wholesale destruction; the puniness of humanity in the face of an indifferent natural world

                                   iv.     Malaria: means literally “bad air” with the attendant metaphorical possibilities.

                                    v.     Venereal disease: reflects immorality OR innocence, when the innocent suffer because of another’s immorality; passed on to a spouse or baby, men’s exploitation of women

                                   vi.     AIDS: the modern plague. Tendency to lie dormant for years, victims unknowing carriers of death, disproportionately hits young people, poor, etc. An opportunity to show courage and resilience and compassion (or lack of); political and religious angles

                                 vii.     The generic fever that carries off a child

25.  Don’t Read with Your Eyes

a.     You must enter the reality of the book; don’t read from your own fixed position in 2005. Find a reading perspective that allows for sympathy with the historical movement of the story, that understands the text as having been written against its own social, historical, cultural, and personal background.

b.     We don’t have to accept the values of another culture to sympathetically step into a story and recognize the universal qualities present there.

26.  Is He Serious? And Other Ironies

a.     Irony trumps everything. Look for it.

b.     Example: Waiting for Godot—journeys, quests, self-knowledge turned on its head. Two men by the side of a road they never take and which never brings anything interesting their way.

c.     Irony doesn’t work for everyone. Difficult to warm to, hard for some to recognize which causes all sorts of problems. Satanic Verses

27.  Test Case: A Reading of “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield

 

 

 

 

 

Works referenced in How to Read Literature Like a Professor

 

Chapter	Title	Genre	Author
1. Quest	The Crying of Lot 49	novel	Thomas Pynchon
	Adventures of Huckleberry Finn	novel	Mark Twain
	Lord of the Rings	novel	J.R.R. Tolkein
	Star Wars	movie	George Lucus
	North by Northwest	movie	Alfred Hitchcock
2. Food as Communion	Tom Jones (excerpt)	novel	Henry Fielding
	Cathedral	SS	Raymond Carver
	Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant		Anne Tyler
	The Dead	SS	James Joyce
3. Vampires and Ghosts	Dracula	novel	Bram Stoker
	Hamlet	play	William Shakespeare
	A Christmas Carol	novel	Charles Dickens
	Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde	novel	Robert Louis Stevenson
	The Turn of the Screw	novella	Henry James
	Daisy Miller	novel	Henry James
	Tess of the Dubervilles	novel	Thomas Hardy
	Metamorphosis and Hunger Artist	novel	Franz Kafka
	A Severed Head, The Unicorn	novels	Iris Murdoch
4. Sonnets
5. Intertextuality	Going After Cacciato	novel	Tim O’Brien
	Alice in Wonderland	novel	Lewis Carroll
	The Overcoat	SS	Nikolai Gogal
	The Overcoat II”	SS	T. Coraghessan Boyle
	Two Gallants	SS	James Joyce
	Two More Gallants	SS	William Trevor
	Beowulf	poem
	Grendel	novel	John Gardner
	Wise Children	novel	Angela Carter
	Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing	play	William Shakespeare
6. Shakespeare Allusions	Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead	play	Tom Stoppard
	A Thousand Acres	novel	Jane Smiley
	The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock	poem	T.S. Eliot
	Master Harold…and the boys	play	Athol Fugard
	numerous TV shows and movies
7. Biblical Allusions	Araby	SS	James Joyce
	Beloved	novel	Toni Morrison
	The Sun Also Rises	novel	Hemingway
	Canterbury Tales	poem	Geoffrey Chaucer
	Holy Sonnets	poems	John Donne
	The Wasteland	poem	T.S. Eliot
	Why I Live at the P.O.	SS	Eudora Welty
	Sonny’s Blues, Go Tell It on the Mountain	SS	James Baldwin
	Pulp Fiction	movie	Quentin Tarantino
	East of Eden	novel	John Steinbeck
8. Fairy Tales	Alice in Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty, Snow white, Cinderella, Prince Charming, Hansel and Gretel,		Angela Carter
	The Gingerbread House	SS	Robert Coover
	The Bloody Chamber (collection of stories)	SS	Angela Carter
9. Greek Mythology	Song of Solomon	novel	Toni Morrison
	Musee des Beaux Arts	poem	W. H. Auden
	Landscape with Fall of Icarus	poem	William Carlos Williams
	Omeros (based on Homer)	novel	Derek Walcott
	O Brother, Where Art Thou	movie	Joel and Ethan Coen
	Ulysses	novel	James Joyce
10. Weather	The Three Strangers	SS	Thomas Hardy
	Song of Solomon	novel	Toni Morrison
	A Farewell to Arms	novel	Earnest Hemingway
	The Dead	SS	James Joyce
	The Wasteland	poem	T.S. Eliot
	The Fish	poem	Elizabeth Bishop
	The Snow Man	poem	Wallace Stevens
11. Violence	Out, Out…	poem	Robert Frost
	Beloved	novel	Toni Morrison
	Women in Love	novel	D.H. Lawrence
	The Fox	novella	D. H. Lawrence
	Barn Burning	SS	William Faulkner
	Beloved	novel	Toni Morrison
12. Symbolism	Pilgrim’s Progress	allegory	John Bunyan
	Passage to India	novel	E.M. Forster
	Parable of the Cave (The Republic)		Plato
	The Bridge (poem sequence)	poem	Hart Crane
	The Wasteland	poem	T.S. Eliot
	Mowing, After Apple Picking, The Road Not Taken, Birches	poems	Robert Frost
13. Political Writing	A Christmas Carol	novel	Charles Dickens
	Masque of the Red Death, The Fall of the House of Usher	SS	Edgar Allen Poe
	Rip Van Winkle	SS	Washington Irving
	Oedipus at Colonus	play	Sophocles
	A Room of One’s Own	NF	Virginia Woolf
	Mrs. Dalloway	novel	Virginia Woolf
14. Christ Figures	Old Man and the Sea	novella	Earnest Hemingway
15. Flight	Song of Solomon	novel	Toni Morrison
	Nights at the Circus	?	Angela Carter
	A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings	SS	Gabriel Garcia Marquez
	Satanic Verses	novel	Salmon Rushdie
	Portrait of and Artist as a Young Man	novel	James Joyce
	Wild Swans at Coole	poem	William Butler Yeats
	Birches	poem	Robert Frost
16. All About Sex	North by Northwest	movie	Alfred Hitchcock
	Janus	SS	Ann Beattie
	Lady Chatterly’s Lover, Women in Love, The Rocking-Horse Winner (SS)	novel	D.H. Lawrence
17. Except Sex	French Lieutenant’s Woman	novel	John Fowles
	A Clockwork Orange	novel	Anthony Burgess
	Lolita	novel	Vladimir Nabokov
	Wise Children	novel	Angela Carter
18. Baptism	Ordinary People	novel	Judith Guest
	Love Medicine	novel	Louise Erdrich
	Song of Solomon, Beloved	novel	Toni Morrison
	The Horse Dealer’s Daughter	SS	D.H. Lawrence
	The Unicorn	novel	Iris Murdoch
19. Geography	The Old Man and the Sea	novel	Earnest Hemingway
	The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn	novel	Mark Twain
	The Fall of the House of Usher	SS	Edgar Allen Poe
	Bean Trees	novel	Barbara Kingsolver
	Song of Solomon	novel	Toni Morrison
	A Room with a View, A Passage to India	novel	E.M. Forster
	Heart of Darkness	novel	Joseph Conrad
	In Praise of Prairie	poem	Theodore Roethke
	Bogland	poem	Seamus Heaney
	In Praise of Limestone	poem	W.H. Auden
	The Snows of Kilimanjaro	novel	Earnest Hemingway
20. Seasons	Sonnet 73, Richard III opening, etc.	poem	William Shakespeare
	In Memory of W.B. Yeats	poem	W.H. Auden
	After Apple Picking	poem	Robert Frost
	The Wasteland	poem	T.S. Eliot
21. Physical Marks	Richard III	play	William Shakespeare
	Song of Solomon, Beloved	novel	Toni Morrison
	Oedipus Rex	play	Sophocles
	The Sun Also Rises	novel	Earnest Hemingway
	The Wasteland	poem	T.S. Eliot
	Frankenstein	novel	Mary Shelley
	versions of Faust, Dr. Faustus, The Devil and Daniel Webster, Bedazzled (movie), Star Wars	novel, play	Goethe, Marlowe, Stephen Vincent Benet
	The Hunchback of Notre Dame	novel	Victor Hugo
	Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde	novel	Robert Louis Stevenson
22. Blindness	Oedipus Rex	play	Sophocles
	Araby	SS	James Joyce
	Waiting for Godot	play	Samuel Beckett
23. Heart Disease	The Good Soldier	novel	Ford Madox Ford
	The Man of Adamant	SS	Nathaniel Hawthorne
	Lord Jim	novel	Joseph Conrad
	Lolita	novel	Vladimir Nabokov
24. Illiness	The Sisters (Dubliners)	SS	James Joyce
	Illness as Metaphor (literary criticsm)	NF	Susan Sontag
	The Plague	novel	Albert Camus
	A Doll’s House	play	Henrik Ibsen
	The Hours	novel	Michael Cunningham
	The Masque of the Red Death	SS	Edgar Allen Poe
25. Don’t Read with Your Eyes	The Dead	SS	James Joyce
	Sonny’s Blues	SS	James Baldwin
	The Merchant of Venice	play	William Shakespeare
26. Irony	Waiting for Godot	play	Samuel Beckett
	A Farewell to Arms	novel	Earnest Hemingway
	The Importance of Being Earnest	play	Oscar Wilde
	Howard’s End	novel	E.M. Forster
	A Clockwork Orange	novel	Anthony Burgess
	Writers who frequently take ironic stance: Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, Vladimir Nabokov, Angela Carter, T. Coraghessan Boyle, Salman Rushdie
27. A Test Case	Uses “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield as an application of the concepts found in this book.

 

Writing Assignments for How to Read Literature Like a Professor

by Thomas C. Foster (Adapted from Donna Anglin)

 

Assignment Details:

 

These short writing assignments will let you practice your literary analysis and they will help me get to know you and your literary tastes.  Whenever I ask for an example from literature, you may use short stories, novels, plays, or films (Yes, film is a literary genre).  If your literary repertoire is thin and undeveloped, use the Appendix to jog your memory or to select additional works to explore.  At the very least, watch some of the “Movies to Read” that are listed on pages 293-294.  Please note that your responses should be paragraphs — not pages! 

Put the title on the top of each paper turned in so that I will know which chapter you are referring to.  Turn in on the date due (you will fill in blanks as they are announced), or on the day you return when absent (with appropriate form).  Late work will require a Paynter Point for each day late.  Use the HRLP notes given you to help you identify works that might be used in your answer.  Remember that many of these works can be found online in full-text.  Use the Internet for any definition clarification or identifications (such as Greek gods) you may need. 

Concerning mechanics, pay special attention to pronouns.   Be clear on you identifications.  Example: Say Foster first; not “he.”  Remember to capitalize and punctuate titles properly for each genre.   This is a writing assignment, so do not get sloppy.   You may type your answer or it can be hand-written (legible, please).  There is no minimum or maximum, but you know if you have answered the question or just put “stuff” on the page.  Grades are for answers only.   Put your name on the paper.  Any without a name will just be put in the trash.

These are a daily grade, but there will not be an automatic 100.  If you do not answer the question or are “off base” to an extent that it is obvious that you did not read the chapter, you will receive little if any credit.  If it is reasonably clear that you copied your response from another (including Internet sources), you will receive a zero and if identified as the work of another student, so will your provider.  DO NOT COPY FROM ONE ANOTHER. 

_______Introduction: How’d He Do That?

 

How do memory, symbol, and pattern affect the reading of literature? How does the recognition of patterns make it easier to read complicated literature? Discuss a time when your appreciation of a literary work was enhanced by understanding symbol or pattern.

 

_______Chapter 1 — Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It’s Not)

 

List the five aspects of the QUEST and then apply them to something you have read (or viewed) in the form used on pages 3-5.

 

_______Chapter 2 — Nice to Eat with You: Acts of Communion

Choose a meal from a literary work and apply the ideas of Chapter 2 to this literary depiction.

 

 

 

 

 

_______Chapter 3: –Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires

 

What are the essentials of the Vampire story? Apply this to a literary work you have read or viewed.

 

_______Chapter 4 — If It’s Square, It’s a Sonnet

 

Select three sonnets and show which form they are. Discuss how their content reflects the form. (Submit copies of the sonnets, marked to show your analysis).

 

_______Chapter 5 –Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?

 

Define intertextuality. Discuss three examples that have helped you in reading specific works.

 

_______Chapter 6 — When in Doubt, It’s from Shakespeare…

 

Discuss a work that you are familiar with that alludes to or reflects Shakespeare. Show how the author uses this connection thematically. Read pages 44-46 carefully. In these pages, Foster shows how Fugard reflects Shakespeare through both plot and theme. In your discussion, focus on theme.

 

_______Chapter 7 — …Or the Bible

 

Read “Araby” (available online). Discuss Biblical allusions that Foster does not mention. Look at the example of the “two great jars.” Be creative and imaginative in these connections.

 

_______Chapter 8 — Hanseldee and Greteldum

 

Think of a work of literature that reflects a fairy tale. Discuss the parallels. Does it create irony or deepen appreciation?

 

_______Chapter 9 — It’s Greek to Me

 

Write a free verse poem derived or inspired by characters or situations from Greek mythology. Be prepared to share your poem with the class. Note that there are extensive links to classical mythology on the Internet.

 

­_______Chapter 10 — It’s More Than Just Rain or Snow

 

Discuss the importance of weather in a specific literary work, not in terms of plot.

 

Interlude — Does He Mean That

 

_______Chapter 11 –…More Than It’s Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence

 

Present examples of the two kinds of violence found in literature. Show how the effects are different.

 

 

 

 

_______Chapter 12 — Is That a Symbol?

 

Use the process described on page 106 and investigate the symbolism of the fence in “Araby.” (Mangan’s sister stands behind it.)

 

_______Chapter 13 — It’s All Political

 

Assume that Foster is right and “it is all political.” Use his criteria to show that one of the works you have read in high school is political.

 

_______Chapter 14 — Yes, She’s a Christ Figure, Too

 

Apply the criteria on page 119 to a major character in a significant literary work. Try to choose a character that will have many matches. This is a particularly apt tool for analyzing film — for example, Star Wars, Cool Hand Luke, Excalibur, Malcolm X, Braveheart, Spartacus, Gladiator and Ben-Hur.

 

_______Chapter 15 — Flights of Fancy

 

Select a literary work in which flight signifies escape or freedom. Explain in detail.

 

  Chapter 16 — It’s All About Sex…

­_______Chapter 17 — …Except the Sex

 

OK ..the sex chapters. The key idea from this chapter is that “scenes in which sex is coded rather than explicit can work at multiple levels and sometimes be more intense that literal depictions” (141). In other words, sex is often suggested with much more art and effort than it is described, and, if the author is doing his job, it reflects and creates theme or character. Choose a novel or movie in which sex is suggested, but not described, and discuss how the relationship is suggested and how this implication affects the theme or develops characterization.

 

_______Chapter 18 — If She Comes Up, It’s Baptism

 

Think of a “baptism scene” from a significant literary work. How was the character different after the experience? Discuss.

 

_______Chapter 19 — Geography Matters…

 

Discuss at least four different aspects of a specific literary work that Foster would classify under “geography.”

 

_______Chapter 20 — …So Does Season

 

Find a poem that mentions a specific season. Then discuss how the poet uses the season in a meaningful, traditional, or unusual way. (Submit a copy of the poem with your analysis.)

 

_______Interlude — One Story

 

Write your own definition for archetype. Then identify an archetypal story and apply it to a literary work with which you are familiar.

 

_______Chapter 21 — Marked for Greatness

 

Figure out Harry Potter’s scar. If you aren’t familiar with Harry Potter, select another character with a physical imperfection and analyze its implications for characterization.

 

  Chapter 22 — He’s Blind for a Reason, You Know

  Chapter 23 — It’s Never Just Heart Disease…

_______Chapter 24 — …And Rarely Just Illness

 

Recall two characters who died of a disease in a literary work. Consider how these deaths reflect the “principles governing the use of disease in literature” (215-217). Discuss the effectiveness of the death as related to plot, theme, or symbolism.

 

_______Chapter 25 — Don’t Read with Your Eyes

 

After reading Chapter 25, choose a scene or episode from a novel, play or epic written before the twentieth century.  Contrast how it could be viewed by a reader from the twenty-first century with how it might be viewed by a contemporary reader (from the century written).  Focus on specific assumptions that the author makes, assumptions that would not make it in this century.

 

_______Chapter 26 — Is He Serious? And Other Ironies

 

Select an ironic literary work and explain the multivocal nature of the irony in the work.

 

_______Chapter 27 — A Test Case

 

Read “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield, the short story starting on page 245. Complete the exercise on pages 265-266, following the directions exactly. Then compare your writing with the three examples. How did you do? What does the essay that follows comparing Laura with Persephone add to your appreciation of Mansfield’s story?

 

_______Envoi

 

Choose a motif not discussed in this book (as the horse reference on page 280) and note its appearance in three or four different works. What does this idea seem to signify?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                            Given____________

About the Work

A Brief Synopsis

Beowulf is the longest and greatest surviving Anglo-Saxon poem. The setting of the epic is the sixth century in what is now known as Denmark and southwestern Sweden. The poem opens with a brief genealogy of the Scylding (Dane) royal dynasty, named after a mythic hero, Scyld Scefing, who reached the tribe’s shores as a castaway babe on a ship loaded with treasure. Scyld’s funeral is a memorable early ritual in the work, but focus soon shifts to the reign of his great-grandson, Hrothgar, whose successful rule is symbolized by a magnificent central mead-hall called Heorot. For 12 years, a huge man-like ogre named Grendel, a descendant of the biblical murderer Cain, has menaced the aging Hrothgar, raiding Heorot and killing the king’s thanes (warriors). Grendel rules the mead-hall nightly.

 

Beowulf, a young warrior in Geatland (southwestern Sweden), comes to the Scyldings’ aid, bringing with him 14 of his finest men. Hrothgar once sheltered Beowulf’s father during a deadly feud, and the mighty Geat hopes to return the favor while enhancing his own reputation and gaining treasure for his king, Hygelac. At a feast before nightfall of the first day of the visit, an obnoxious, drunken Scylding named Unferth insults Beowulf and claims that the Geat visitor once embarrassingly lost a swimming contest to a boyhood acquaintance named Breca and is no match for Grendel. Beowulf responds with dignity while putting Unferth in his place. In fact, the two swimmers were separated by a storm on the fifth night of the contest, and Beowulf had slain nine sea monsters before finally returning to shore.

 

While the Danes retire to safer sleeping quarters, Beowulf and the Geats bed down in Heorot, fully aware that Grendel will visit them. He does. Angered by the joy of the men in the mead-hall, the ogre furiously bursts in on the Geats, killing one and then reaching for Beowulf. With the strength of 30 men in his hand-grip, Beowulf seizes the ogre’s claw and does not let go. The ensuing battle nearly destroys the great hall, but Beowulf emerges victorious as he rips Grendel’s claw from its shoulder socket, sending the mortally wounded beast fleeing to his mere (pool). The claw trophy hangs high under the roof of Heorot.

 

The Danes celebrate the next day with a huge feast featuring entertainment by Hrothgar’s scop (pronounced “shop”), a professional bard who accompanies himself on a harp and sings or chants traditional lays such as an account of the Danes’ victory at Finnsburh. This bard also improvises a song about Beowulf’s victory. Hrothgar’s wife, Queen Wealhtheow, proves to be a perfect hostess, offering Beowulf a gold collar and her gratitude. Filled with mead, wine, and great food, the entire party retires for what they expect to be the first peaceful night in years.

 

But Grendel’s mother—not quite as powerful as her son but highly motivated—climbs to Heorot that night, retrieves her son’s claw, and murderously abducts one of the Scyldings (Aeschere) while Beowulf sleeps elsewhere. The next morning, Hrothgar, Beowulf, and a retinue of Scyldings and Geats follow the mother’s tracks into a dark, forbidding swamp and to the edge of her mere. The slaughtered Aeschere’s head sits on a cliff by the lake, which hides the ogres’ underground cave. Carrying a sword called Hrunting, a gift from the chastised Unferth, Beowulf dives into the mere to seek the mother.

Near the bottom of the lake, Grendel’s mother attacks and hauls the Geat warrior to her dimly lit cave. Beowulf fights back once inside the dry cavern, but the gift sword, Hrunting, strong as it is, fails to penetrate the ogre’s hide. The mother moves to kill Beowulf with her knife, but his armor, made by the legendary blacksmith Weland, protects him. Suddenly Beowulf spots a magical, giant sword and uses it to cut through the mother’s spine at the neck, killing her. A blessed light unexplainably illuminates the cavern, disclosing Grendel’s corpse and a great deal of treasure. Beowulf decapitates the corpse. The magic sword melts to its hilt. Beowulf returns to the lake’s surface carrying the head and hilt but leaving the treasure.

 

After more celebration and gifts and a sermon by Hrothgar warning of the dangers of pride and the mutability of time, Beowulf and his men return to Geatland. There he serves his king well until Hygelac is killed in battle and his son dies in a feud. Beowulf is then named king and rules successfully for 50 years. Like Hrothgar, however, his peace is shattered in his declining years. Beowulf must battle one more demon.

 

A fiery dragon has become enraged because a lone fugitive has inadvertently discovered the dragon’s treasure-trove and stolen a valuable cup. The dragon terrorizes the countryside at night, burning several homes, including Beowulf’s. Led by the fugitive, Beowulf and eleven of his men seek out the dragon’s barrow. Beowulf insists on taking on the dragon alone, but his own sword, Naegling, is no match for the monster. Seeing his king in trouble, one thane, Wiglaf, goes to his assistance. The others flee to the woods. Together, Wiglaf and Beowulf kill the dragon, but the mighty king is mortally wounded. Dying, Beowulf leaves his kingdom to Wiglaf and requests that his body be cremated in a funeral pyre and buried high on a seaside cliff where passing sailors might see the barrow. The dragon’s treasure-hoard is buried with him. It is said that they lie there still.

Beowulf – from Spark Notes

full title  · Beowulf

author  · Unknown

        type of work  · Poem

genre  · Alliterative verse; elegy; resembles heroic epic, though smaller in scope than most classical epics

language  · Anglo-Saxon (also called Old English)

time and place written  · Estimates of the date of composition range between 700 and 1000 a.d.; written in England

date of first publication  · The only manuscript in which Beowulf is preserved is thought to have been written around 1000 a.d.

publisher  · The original poem exists only in manuscript form.

narrator  · A Christian narrator telling a story of pagan times

point of view  · The narrator recounts the story in the third person, from a generally objective standpoint—detailing the action that occurs. The narrator does, however, have access to every character’s depths. We see into the minds of most of the characters (even Grendel) at one point or another, and the narrative also moves forward and backward in time with considerable freedom.

tone  · The poet is generally enthusiastic about Beowulf’s feats, but he often surrounds the events he narrates with a sense of doom.

tense  · Past, but with digressions into the distant past and predictions of the future

setting (time)  · The main action of the story is set around 500 a.d.; the narrative also recounts historical events that happened much earlier.

setting (place)  · Denmark and Geatland (a region in what is now southern Sweden)

protagonist  · Beowulf

major conflict  · The poem essentially consists of three parts. There are three central conflicts: Grendel’s domination of Heorot Hall; the vengeance of Grendel’s mother after Grendel is slain; and the rage of the dragon after a thief steals a treasure that it has been guarding. The poem’s overarching conflict is between close-knit warrior societies and the various menaces that threaten their boundaries.

rising action  · Grendel’s attack on Heorot, Beowulf’s defeat of Grendel, and Grendel’s mother’s vengeful killing of Aeschere lead to the climactic encounter between Beowulf and Grendel’s mother.

climax  · Beowulf’s encounter with Grendel’s mother constitutes the moment at which good and evil are in greatest tension.

falling action  · Beowulf’s glorious victory over Grendel’s mother leads King Hrothgar to praise him as a worthy hero and to advise him about becoming king. It also helps Beowulf to transform from a brazen warrior into a reliable king.

themes  · The importance of establishing identity; tensions between the heroic code and other value systems; the difference between a good warrior and a good king

motifs  · Monsters; the oral tradition; the mead-hall

symbols  · The golden torque; the banquet

foreshadowing  · The funeral of Shield Sheafson, with which the poem opens, foreshadows Beowulf’s funeral at the poem’s end; the story of Sigemund told by the scop, or bard, foreshadows Beowulf’s fight with the dragon; the story of King Heremod foreshadows Beowulf’s eventual ascendancy to kingship.

SHORT STORY ANALYSIS – Worksheet

 

TITLE OF STORY:______________________________________________________

 

AUTHOR OF STORY:____________________________________________________

 

I.  THEME—The central idea that the author wishes to set forth in his or her writing.

To find the theme, ask yourself these questions:

1.     What is the story about?

 

 

 

 

 

2.     What is the central idea?

 

 

 

 

 

3.    What observation did the author make about human nature?

 

 

 

 

II.  PLOT—A series of related events that the author uses to develop the theme of a story.         To identify the plot, ask yourself these questions:

 

1.     What happens in the beginning of the story?

 

 

 

 

2.     What happens in the middle of the story?

 

 

 

 

3.      What happens at the end of the story?

III. CHARACTER—The action of the story is centered around the characters in the story.  One central character usually dominates the story.

 

1.    Describe the most important character in the story.

 

 

 

 

2.  Describe at least two other characters in the story.

 

 

 

 

IV. SETTING—The stage upon which the action of the story takes place.  The setting is to a story just as the background is to a painting.

 

1.    Describe the setting of the story.  Where does the story take place?

 

 

 

 

2.    In what year and time of year does the story take place?

 

 

 

3.  What is the mood in the story?

 

 

 

V.  POINT OF VIEW—The author’s choice of the teller of the story.  The point of view is important to the total structure and meaning of the short story.

 

1.    Who is telling the story?

 

 

 

2.  Why do you think the author made this choice?

 

ELEMENTS OF SHORT STORIES

 

What is a Short Story?

 

A short story is a relatively brief fictional narrative or story written without using any rhymes of rhythms.  The short story has a beginning, a middle, and an end and is composed of the following elements:

·      Theme

·      Plot

·      Character

·      Setting

·      Point of View

 

I.  THEME—The central idea that the author wishes to set forth in his or her writing.

To find the theme, ask yourself these questions:

1.    What is the story about?

2.    What is the central idea?

3.    What observation did the author make about human nature?

 

II.  PLOT—A series of related events that the author uses to develop the theme of a story.        

         To identify the plot, ask yourself these questions:

1.    What happens in the beginning of the story?

2.    What happens in the middle of the story?

3.    What happens at the end of the story?

 

III. CHARACTER—The action of the story is centered around the characters in the story.  One central character usually dominates the story.

 

IV. SETTING—The stage upon which the action of the story takes place.  The setting is to a story just as the background is to a painting.

 

V.  POINT OF VIEW—The author’s choice of the teller of the story.  The point of view is important to the total structure and meaning of the short story.  To find the point of view, ask yourself who is telling the story.

 

LITERARY TECHNIQUES USED TO DEVELOP THEME:

 

Foreshadowing—giving hints to the reader about what is to happen next

Flashback—the author interrupts the story to go back in time to add scenes or information.  This helps the reader understand what is happening in the present.

Irony—the opposite of what is expected to happen.  Either a statement may have an opposite meaning, or an outcome of events may be the opposite of those hoped for or expected.

Tone—the “feeling” conveyed by the way the writer writes about his subject.

Realism—the author attempts to portray life in his/her novel realistically.  He/she must use details to reflect the reality that we see around us.

Romanticism—the author uses his imagination to present the world to us.  At times his/her view may be extremely idealistic; at other times it may reflect extreme horror.

 

STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT:

 

EXPOSITION is the beginning stage

·      the reader is given the setting of the story

·      the reader is introduced to the principal characters and their relationships to each other

·      the reader is given information about the events that existed before the story’s start

·      the reader is also given some information about the conflict in the story

·      the exposition sets the groundwork for the story

 

CONFLICT is the struggle between opposing forces.

 

Types of conflict:

         Man vs. man—external struggle between two or more individuals

         Man vs. himself—internal struggle concerning emotion and decision

         Man vs. nature—external struggle between man and an element of nature

         Man vs. machine–external struggle between man and a man-made and never-                                             lived element

                 

                  COMPLICATION is mini-conflicts that contribute to the rise in action.       

·      each mini-conflict must be more intense than the other until the most dramatic conflict occurs

·      this dramatic conflict (or climax) will hint to either the success or failure of the principal character’s ability to win his struggle or to simply solve his problem.

 

CLIMAX is the turning point in the story, or the emotional high point

·      this turning point is for the character, not the reader

 

FALLING ACTION is the events that lead to the resolution

 

RESOLUTION (denouement) is the final stage

·      the outcome of the conflict or the resolution of the problem.

·      the outcome of the resolution will express the general theme of the story.

·      all characters should be believable—have recognizable human traits and characteristics

 

 

 

FOUR TYPES OF CHARACTERIZATION—techniques the writer uses to develop character

1.    What the author states

a.     Physical description

2.    What the characters say or do

3.    How the characters dress

a.  The characters’ speech and dress play significant factors in the                  development of their characterizations

4.    What other characters say

5.    Other

 

Types of characters:

1.    protagonist—the central character—he or she can be good or bad

2.    antagonist—the “opposing” character(s)

3.    flat—characters who do NOT change in a story.

4.    round—characters who change

 

Analysis of characters:

1.    motivation—what motivates the character to cause his/her actions?

2.    behavior—what are the actions of the character and why is he/she behaving this way?

3.    consequences—what are the results of his/her actions?

4.    responsibility—what moral, legal, or mental accountability does the character have?

5.    expectations—what expectations do you have for this character?

 

The setting determines the place, time, tone, and atmosphere

1.     tone—the author’s attitude toward his/her material

2.     atmosphere—the general feeling or mood set by the author

 

The author must choose items of description that are important not only because of their visual representation, but also in terms of their importance to the effectiveness of the story.

 

TECHNIQUES FOR ESTABLISHING SETTING:

 

1.     Sensory details—words that appeal to the senses (sight/hearing/taste/touch/smell)

2.     Figurative language:

a.     simile—comparison using like or as

b.    metaphor—comparison using is or form of is

i.               implied metaphor

ii.             extended metaphor

3.     personification

TYPES OF POINT OF VIEW:

 

1.    first person—the narrator is the main character who tells his own story.  The narrator tells the story speaking with an “I” in his/her own language.

2.    First person observer—the narrator tells the story which he has observed.  The character is usually of secondary importance in the story.  He looks on and simply reports what the more important characters say.

3.    Third person—the author is outside the story using “he” or “she”

a.    Author-Observer—allows the author to tell the story using the third person.  He remains outside the minds of the characters.  He records only what any observer in the same situation might also see.

b.    Omniscient author—may tell what happens with the power to go into the minds of characters and also give his own comments.  He/she is “all-knowing.”

 

Identifying point-of-view:

 

When the narrator is a character in the story ask:

1.    Does the main character tell his own story? (first person narrator)

2.    Does a minor character tell the main character’s story?  (first person observer

 

When the narrator is not a character in the story ask:

1.    Does the author tell what people think and explain feelings and motives? (omniscient author)

2.    Does the author simply tell the story without giving the thoughts and feelings of the characters? (author observer)

 

January 2009 (19-23) 1/19

MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY
19   English I   NO SCHOOL             English IV   NO SCHOOL	20  English I Turn in Essay WS, RD, & Final    Work on SS Analysis and Teaching Unit   FCAT Terms HO     English IV Turn in Essay WS, RD, & Final   Thesis WS – review   Old English PP   Beowulf HO   Lit. 28-31   HW-Read 33-44	21   English I   SS Analysis and Teaching Unit – Present   HW – Voc #1 WB         English IV  Review 28-31   HRLP Books & Assignment HO   HW-Read 45-60	22  English I SS Analysis and Teaching Unit – Present   HW – Voc #1 WB         English IV Review 45-60   Write obituary for Beowulf & turn-in   HW-Read HRLP Introduction & Writing	23 English I Quick Write   FCAT practice   HW-Finish WB Voc. I. Review Mon.       English IV Quick Write   Turn in HW   Review Intro HRLP   HW-Voc. SAT (1-20) Review Mon. HRLP Chap. 1