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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

 

A.     Literary techniques used to develop theme:

1.     foreshadowing—giving hints to the reader about what is to happen next

2.     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.

3.     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.

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

5.     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.

6.     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.

B.      THEORIES OF LITERATURE:

1.     Imitative theory—the author’s job is to present an imitation of the world so we, the reader, can better understand the forces of the world around us that shape our thought and feeling.  Art imitates life.

2.     Expressive theory—the author examines his internal view of the world.  “Truth” has nothing to do with the work.  The author shapes the world as he internally perceives it.

3.     Affective theory—this theory is similar to the expressive theory except the focus here is on the feelings of the reader.  The author attempts to sway the reader’s perceptions of the world.

QUESTION TO PONDER:  Does art imitate life or does art generate or push us, the reader, into new patterns of thought and behavior?

I.               

 

A.     Stages of development:

1.     EXPOSITION—the beginning stage

a.    the reader is given the setting of the story

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

c.    the reader is given information about the events that existed before the story actually begins.

d.    The reader is also given some information about the conflict in the story.  CONFLICT is the struggle between opposing forces.

Types of conflict:

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

2.     Man vs. himself—internal struggle concerning emotion and decision

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

e.    the exposition sets the groundwork for the story.

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

a.     Each mini-conflict must be more intense than the other until the most dramatic conflict occurs

b.    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.

3.     CLIMAX—the turning point in the story, or the emotional high point

a.    this turning point is for the character, not the reader

4.     FALLING ACTION—the events that lead to the resolution

5.     RESOLUTION (denouement)—the final stage

a.    The outcome of the conflict or the resolution of the problem.

b.    The outcome of the resolution will express the general theme of the story.

A.    All characters should be believable—have recognizable human traits and characteristics

B.    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

C.   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

D.   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?

 

A.     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

B.      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 over effectiveness of the story.

C.     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

 

II.            

 

A.     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.”

B.      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)

 

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 violat-ing 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.

 

Given _______

 

 

 

Short Story Author Project

 

Assignment Given_____________________________________________________________________

Assignment Due_________________

Overview of Assignment:

Research the author.  Include what you can find out about the author’s life, the time he/she lived in, specific personal interests, and the writer’s distinct literary style.  Don’t forget to tell us about any other works that were written by the same writer. 

Read and re-read the assigned short story.  You are the one teaching the story to the class. Cover more than just the plot and a character analysis, teach the literary elements as well.  Include things like tone, point-of-view, genre, motif, setting, mood, and anything else that would give us a greater understanding of the story.

You will be presenting all this to the class in the form of a PowerPoint.  There is no set number of slides, but there needs to be enough slides to cover the material.  Use the slides as a jumping off point.  Do not just read the slides.  The PowerPoint is to be a visual aid, not a script.  Be sure you do not put too much material on any one slide and that it is readable on the scene (can make an appointment before presentation day to test it in the classroom).   Study other PowerPoint presentations and model yours after ones that are clear and readable.

Burn a copy of your PowerPoint to be turned in the day of your presentation.  You will also be turning in your notes and any research material you have gathered.  This is an important project and not a “get it done in one night” type of thing.  You will be graded not only on your PowerPoint and oral presentation, but on the research as well.   You are learning a process.

It is important that you are not absent on your assigned date.   If you are too ill to attend school that day, a parent must call and talk to the teacher (before or after school).  Failure on your part to present on the assigned date (w/o call) will result in a 25% grade reduction per day.  No Paynter Points will be accepted for this delay.  If you know ahead of time that you have a schedule conflict, you may make arrangements to switch with another student.  Both you and the other student must inform the teacher of this arrangement well before the due date.

NOTE – All student must take notes on every presentations.  These stories and authors will show up in some form of testing.   

 

 

Given____________

 

 

English I Short Story/Author Assignment

 

______________Guy de Mauassant, The Necklace (26)                                                           

______________ Richard Connell, The Most Dangerous Game  (38)                                   

___________ Tim O’Brien, Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy? (62)                       

______________ Eugenia Collier, Marigolds (74)                                                           

______________Amy Tan, Two Kinds (104)                                                                                       

_____________ William Stafford, The Osage Orange Tree (104)                                               

_____________ O. Henry, The Gift of the Magi (151)                                                         

_____________ Liam O’Flaherty, The Sniper (162)                                                                      

_____________Shirley Jackson, The Possibility of Evil (172)                                               

____________ Luisa Valenzuela, The Censors (185)                                                                            

____________ Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado (207)                                

___________ Truman Capote, A Christmas Memory (272)                                                

___________ Judith Ortez Cofer, American History (293)                                                

___________ W. D. Wetherell, The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant (306)                         

___________Sue Ellen Bridgers, The Beginning of Something (324)                                   

___________ Beryl Markham, Brothers Are the Same (359)                                               

____________Doris Lessing, Through the Tunnel (373)                                                

___________Jack London, To Build a Fire (517)                                                                         

________Sabine R. Ulibarri, My Wonder Horse (557)                                                

__________ James Hurst, The Scarlet Ibis (592)                                                                         

__________ David McLean, Marine Corps Issue (618)                                                

__________ Julia Alvarez, Daughter of Invention (663)                                                

___________Tobias Wolff, Powder (687)                                                                      

___________Sue Grafton, Full Circle (742)                                                                                       

___________ Agatha Christie, Wasps’ Nest (759)                                                            

___________Ray Bradbury, The Utterly Perfect Murder (799)                                    

__________ Saki, The Open Window (816)                                                                        

___________ Sue Doro, The Cultural Workers (850)                                                                  

____________ Maria Elena Llano, In the Family (856)                                                           

____________ Gabriel Marquez, A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings (863)              

How To Write a Short Story

 

 To do a good job, a story must do these things:

     •        have an interesting main character that the reader cares about

     •        have a clearly-described setting

     •        show the main character solving–or trying to solve–a problem.

 

 

The Characters

 

 Stories need characters. Interesting characters are those that do and say interesting things. They have fears, friends, enemies, hopes for the future and favorite things they like to eat for breakfast, just as you have. In fact, I have a form that I often have students fill out before they start writing, on which they list these character details before they start writing. That way, the details are at their fingertips and they can slip them into the story at strategic points in order to make the writing more realistic. (NOTE: you need to USE these details where they would naturally show up in the story. You DON’T just list them at the beginning.) We also use those same details to generate the main problem of the story, as you will see below. Even if you don’t use the form, however, you should spend some time thinking of these character details before you get going.

 

The Setting

 

 The setting is the where and when of the story. You don’t have to go overboard in describing the setting. If everyone in the story is riding horses and hanging out in a saloon, I pretty much get the idea that the setting is somewhere in the west in the 1800’s. If the story starts with the hero riding the turbolift to the spaceport to catch the next rocket to Mars, I understand that I’m reading a science fiction story set in the future. Don’t get things mixed up, though: When you have a medieval monk take a break from his work copying books in the scriptorium to go play Nintendo 64, I’m going to get confused.

 

 A few well-placed details of setting can really set the mood. If the first scene opens in the dead of night with rain pounding against the windows and the wind howling outside, I’m ready to settle in for a really spooky story.

 

 Don’t ignore setting. It can help your story.

 

The Main Problem

 

 If you don’t have a main problem, you don’t have a story. All stories have problems that must be solved: the Good Terminator has to protect Sarah Connor from the Evil Terminator; Jim Hawkins has to elude the pirates and bring home the gold from Treasure Island; Dr. Grant has to save the kids from the rampaging dinosaurs of Jurassic Park. Let me make this clear: STORIES ARE ABOUT CHARACTERS SOLVING PROBLEMS.

 

 In class, we try to have big problems grow out of the details we have developed for our main characters. If our character wants to play professional football, what would be a good main problem for a story? Any number of things:

     •        His girlfriend–the love of his life–will leave him if he continues to play football

     •        He gets in an accident and has to fight his way back to playing condition

     •        He gets in an accident and must learn to adjust to life without football

     •        Congress passes a law prohibiting football

     •        In order to liven up the game, the NFL replaces the ball with a bomb set to explode at some randomly-determined time.

 

If the main character you’ve developed is deathly afraid of spiders, what could your story be about?

     •        Her house is invaded by millions of spiders

     •        The only job she can find is as the spider keeper at the zoo

     •        She finds herself slowly transforming into a spider

     •        She crash-lands in the jungle and must live among the !Lwana tribesmen of the Amazon basin, for whom enormous spiders are a staple food

 

You get the idea. Big problems for stories are easy to come by. A good story is about an interesting character facing–and trying to solve–a big problem.

 

Other Tips for Story-Writing Success

 

     •        Unless you’re writing a fairy tale, do not begin a story with the words, “Once upon a time” or its evil twins “One day,” “One dark night,” or anything similar.

     •        You should also avoid, “Hi, my name is…”

     •        Do use a lot of dialogue. People talk a lot, so characters in stories should, too. It brings stories to life. Just remember to make a new paragraph every time you switch speakers.

     •        Get a good mixture of dialogue and narration, so the reader can visualize the setting, what the characters are doing, and so on.

     •        Try beginning a story with either dialogue or action.

•    Don’t be afraid to rewrite. If it’s not great, fix it.

Writing Dialogue

The following dialogue is taken from the film “A Few Good Men,” to illustrate how some of you write your dialogue, and how it can be improved:

RULE #1: Use quotation marks to indicate words which are spoken by characters.



“You don’t have to answer that question!” “I’ll answer the question. You want answers?” “I think I’m entitled to them.” “You want answers?” “I want the truth!” “You can’t handle the truth!”



Now we know that these words are spoken, but by whom? Before we can answer that, we have to make this look right by putting each line and speaker in its own paragraph.



RULE #2: Always start a new paragraph when changing speakers. You cannot have two people speaking in the same paragraph.  

         

“You don’t have to answer that question!”


“I’ll answer the question. You want answers?”
         

“I think I’m entitled to them.”
         

“You want answers?”
         

 “I want the truth!”
         

“You can’t handle the truth!”



Now we can identify who is speaking. The most obvious way to do that is with a speech tag, i.e., placing a phrase like John said, “… at the beginning of the quotation or …,” said John at the end. There are other ways to write and place speech tags, as we shall see. You don’t need a speech tag for every line of dialogue, and there are situations where a speech tag should not be used. The important thing is that the reader is always intuitively aware of who is speaking.

RULE #3: Make sure the reader knows who is speaking. 


RULE #4: Use correct punctuation, capitalization and spacing.

“You don’t have to answer that question!” said the Judge.


“I’ll answer the question. You want answers?” said Jessop.
         

“I think I’m entitled to them,” said Kaffee.
         

“You want answers?” said Jessop.
         

 “I want the truth!” said Kaffee.
         

 “You can’t handle the truth!” said Jessop.



OK, this is grammatically correct, but what’s the trouble with it? There’s not much to it, obviously; we hear what the characters are saying, but that’s all. Consider the following:

         

The Judge turned swiftly toward the witness and declared, “You don’t have to answer that question!”
         

“I’ll answer the question,” Jessop said coldly, fixing his eyes on Kaffee. He asked the defense attorney, “You want answers?”
         

“I think I’m entitled to them,” Kaffee replied.
         

Jessop asked again, more forcefully, as if scolding an errant recruit, “You want answers?”
         

“I want the truth!” Kaffee shouted, banging his fist on the counsel table in defiance of Jessop’s intimidating presence. The court members sat in stunned silence.
         

The colonel leaned forward, rising to his feet, and thundered, “You can’t handle the truth!”  



This is overkill, obviously; the opposite extreme from the examples above, an attempt to demonstrate everything a writer could possibly do within six lines of dialogue. The key is to write dialogue that is useful to the story; to maintain the narrative flow and use speech judiciously, so the reader can visualize the dynamic of the conversation, but more importantly to create dialogue that actually helps move the story along. Remember that your story is not a movie, so you don’t necessarily need to provide everything the characters say. You don’t want the text to deteriorate into “stenographic renderings of empty scenes.” 



Most of the time, simply adding an adverb to the word “said” doesn’t accomplish much, in fact it can be ineffective and useless. Better to write the dialogue so the reader can discern the character’s tone of voice and state of mind from the spoken words themselves, and the context of the story. Using verbs other than “said,” “asked” and “replied” is another possibility, but this should be done thoughtfully and sparingly, only where the type of speech really needs to be indicated. Again, if the dialogue itself is written well enough to carry the emotional dynamic, this shouldn’t be necessary. You also don’t want to make the mistake of using transitive verbs like “told,” “stated,” “quoted” and “questioned” in speech tags, creating grammatical problems.



Vary the use and placement of speech tags. Don’t always identify the speaker in the same place; you can do it at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end. Once the characters and the flow of their conversation have been established, you may not need speech tags. The important thing is that the reader instinctively knows who is speaking; speech tags are only one way to accomplish that. And, if the quotation is long (more than one brief sentence or clause), DO NOT place a speech tag at the end; do it at the beginning, or at the first punctuation stop, or eliminate the speech tag and identify the speaker another way. It’s disconcerting to the reader when what he thinks has been a string of sentences turns out to be all one sentence. 

You also don’t want to place the speech tag at the end of the quotation if the character is speaking for the first time, has not yet been introduced, or has not otherwise been identified before he begins to speak; again, the reader should know who is speaking the moment he sees the first quotation mark.



Use narrative sentences to show the character’s concurrent acts, thoughts and/or perceptions. Don’t just show the reader what’s being said; intersperse sentences, clauses and phrases that illustrate what the characters are doing while the conversation is going on. You can also use sentences to identify the speaker and alleviate the need for a speech tag: Jenny put down the pen and closed her diary. “I’ll be right there, mom.” 



Ultimately, writing effective dialogue depends a great deal on the writer’s control of the language, storytelling skill, sensibility for how people really talk, and most importantly, experience with and appreciation for reading fiction.



Thanks to author Don Bredes for ideas and enlightenment on this topic.