EL121: The Short Story & Essay Writing

The objectives of this unit are to:  Introduce you to literary genres, literary terminology, and the short story as a literary form  Apply two elements of the short story by examining the English fairy tale, “Jack and the Beanstalk”  Increase your vocabulary as this is one of the important skills you will work on throughout this book

What is a Short Story?  The short story is a piece of narrative that tries to give us a specific impression of the world we live in. How long is the Short Story?  Because the short story usually focuses on only one incident, it tends to be little complex, and it is conveyed in only one or a few significant episodes or scenes. What are the elements of a Short Story?  It focuses on a single plot, a single setting, one central theme, one main character (with a few additional minor characters), and it covers a short period of time.

Do all stories follow the same pattern?  Because of their length, short stories may or may not follow this pattern.  For example, modern short stories occasionally have an exposition, and they usually have an abrupt beginning, with the story starting in the middle of the action.  As with longer stories, plots of short stories also have a climax, crisis, or turning point.  However, the endings of many short stories are abrupt and open and may or may not have a moral or practical lesson.  As with any art form, the exact characteristics of a short story will vary by author.

 Setting  Plot  Character  Characterization  Point of view  Theme

What is Storytelling?  Story telling is one of the oldest arts known to man, which was used to teach a moral.  Each civilization or nation has its own morals and ethics.  However, because people had always interacted with each other, the morals became international.  Stories became easier to tell and understand, and most morals became shared ethics. How can we understand a story?  When we read a short story, we have to ask certain questions that reveal the important information that help us understand properly.

 Who is telling the story? (narrator)  Why is he/she telling the story? (point of view)  To whom is the story being told? (audience)  What is the point of the story? (theme)  What are the circumstances that enabled the story to exist? (conflict)  What is the significance of the setting? (setting)  Why these characters and not others? (characterization)

What is a Literary Genre?  A Literary Genre is the category (type or kind) of an artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content.  There are numerous (many) literary genres and sub-genres as well as numerous names for each genre, and numerous ways to categorize the sub-genres.  Prose can be defined as ordinary speech or writing without any metrical (musical) structure. What are the Most Common Literature Genres?  Fiction (written in prose نثر )  Drama (written in prose)  Poetry (written in verse)

SETTING  Setting is the manner (way), position (arrange events), or direction (goal) in which the action of a literary occurs (happens).  The setting shows the reader the following:  Time : When did the story happen?  Place : Where did the story happen?  Mood : What is the surrounding of the story?  Circumstances : What are the conditions in which the events happen?

 The sequence or order of events in a story. The plot includes:  Exposition Statement - The part that tells how the story begins  Rising Action - The action in the story leading up to the climax  Conflict - Struggles or problems between opposing forces  Climax - The point of crisis (point of highest interest)in the plot  Falling Action - The action in the story after the climax is revealed  Resolution - The part that reveals the final outcome

Rising Action Falling Action Resolution Climax Exposition Conflict

 Characters are the people (or actors) in the story.  The description of the personalities of the characters in the story and the way in which an author reveals their personalities.  Every story most have one main character and an opposing character that reveals his/her strength(s) and weakness (es).  These characters are:  Protagonist : the main character, who is center of the story  The Protagonist could be non- human.  Antagonist : whatever opposing force the protagonist struggles with, such as another character, environment, or something within the protagonist

A character can be revealed by:  The character’s physical appearance  The character’s words  The character’s actions  Other characters’ words or feelings about him/her  The narrator’s opinion about him/her...

 The Point of View is the perspective (opinion) of the storyteller who tells the story; also known as the narrator.  The three types of the point of view are:  The First Person Point of View (1 st Person Narrator): The story is told by one of the characters who tells his/her own story (I or We); an autobiography.  The Omniscient Third Person Point of View (3 rd Person Omniscient Narrator): The story is told by a character who knows all the details of the story and everything about all the characters’ words, actions, feelings, and thoughts (He, She, or They).  The Limited Third Person Point of View (3 rd Person Limited Narrator): The story is told by one of the characters who knows only what he sees and hears. She/he has no knowledge of the characters’ actions and feelings.

●The Theme is the moral or the main idea of a work of literature. ●The Theme could be a message about life, society, or human nature. ● Themes often explore timeless and universal ideas. ●The Theme will be discusses in more details in Unit 6.

Jack and the Beanstalk is an English Fairytale, closely associated with the tale of Jack the Giant Killer. It is known under a number of versions. Benjamin Tabart’s moralized version of 1807 is the first appearance in print, but Joseph Jacobs popularized it in English Fairytales, in Jacobs’s version is most commonly reprinted today, and it is believed to more closely adhere to the oral versions than Tabart’s, because it lacks the moralizing of that version.

Jack and his mother were very poor. They had to sell their cow. Jack sold the cow for some beans. When he took the beans home his mother was so mad that she threw them out the window. The next morning there was a giant beanstalk that had grown up to the sky. Jack climbed up the beanstalk. He found a castle. The giant’s wife let Jack in and fed him some supper. When the giant came home, she hid Jack. The giant ate his supper and then asked for his magic hen that laid golden eggs. When the giant fell asleep, Jack ran home with the hen. Jack and his mother became rich with the golden eggs from the magic hen. Jack went back two more times. The first time he brought back a bag of gold coins. The second time when he went to take the magic harp, the harp started to sing and woke up the giant. The giant ran after Jack. Jack climbed down the beanstalk and chopped it down before the giant could catch him. Jack and his mother lived happily ever after.

 ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ is an example of change in man. As the tale progresses, Jack evolves from an immature person into a mature, self- assertive person.  While minor differences exist in various versions of the tale, the tale can always be read as Jack’s quest for maturity.  Some critics, however, analyze the tale as one in which Jack remains spoiled and immature.  While they make points which support their claims, careful analysis of the tale will reveal that Jack’s struggle to grow up and to achieve maturity is representative of the difficult process of adolescent (especially male) maturation and the process of adolescent socialization.