AUTHOR STRUCTURE Aim: How do Poe’s structural choices in “The Tell-Tale Heart” affect our understanding of the narrator and his actions? Do Now: How does a school look different from an office building? HW: Finish the study guide

How does a school look different from an office building? Height Windows Stylish vs. Utilitarian (usually) But….how are they the same? Building materials Basic shape (square/rectangle) Keep out the elements Designed for function The issue is that they use essentially the same materials in different ways to create different structures for different needs.

These two buildings are both schools…. they serve the same purpose These two buildings are both schools…..they serve the same purpose. But they look different. Why?

Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet and so are you. These two poems have the same point: “I love you.” But look at how different they are, structurally. Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet and so are you. Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

Both buildings and media (poems, stories, movies, etc) are created in particular ways to create particular effects. Every single choice a creator (author, artist, director, actor, costume designer, etc) makes is to contribute to an effect or idea. Once you know what the creator wants to you feel, you start to understand the tricks they use to help make you feel that way.

Remember: the prompts often ask how structure affects meaning. Meaning isn’t just “what this means” or “wow, man, that’s deep, it really means something!” Meaning also means how this choice makes us feel.

Ask yourself, what choices did the author have here? What other ways might this be said? Any time you can find another way to say the same thing, you’ve identified a specific choice the author made about how to structure their work.

So, what are the things we look at in a piece of writing when we want to focus on how it’s written rather than on what it’s saying??? Too much to list fully! So let’s start with the most common.

Small choices: Word Choice Sentence Structure Dialogue Paragraph Structure Imagery Metaphor Other Literary Elements

Word Choice: Remember the discussion on murder vs. kill? Different words have different connotations (subtle meanings or feelings associated with the word) – authors are VERY careful about which words they use! The types of words the author uses give the piece its characteristic tone, which influences how we experience the work.

Sentence structure: Are the sentences short and choppy or long and flowing? Why does the difference matter? Repetitive or varied? (Etc) Basically, how did the author take the words he chose and arrange them? There is always a reason for these choices!

Inside sentence structure… Punctuation! Dashes, periods, commas, parentheses, etc. Correct or incorrect grammar.

Dialogue – none in TTH, but still worth discussing. Like any other piece of writing, the dialogue (what the characters say directly) will have its characteristic word choice and sentence structure, which will tell you a lot about the character: Is he or she down to earth? Well educated? Evasive? Funny? Remember, what the character says shows us who they are. When we know who they are, we have a better understanding of the literature.

Basically the same questions as sentence structure: Long or short? Paragraph Structure: Basically the same questions as sentence structure: Long or short? Choppy or flowy? How are they arranged? How does this arrangement give or deny us information, how does it make us feel?

Literary Elements You guys have covered these – similes, metaphors, figurative language, etc.

Basically the same questions as sentence structure: Long or short? Paragraph Structure: Basically the same questions as sentence structure: Long or short? Choppy or flowy? How are they arranged? How does this arrangement give or deny us information, how does it make us feel?

Big choices Plot: The order in which the events are narrated is a choice made by the author and, as such, is considered another structural choice. Point of View: A choice which directly affects how we, as readers, interact with the story. Are we seeing through someone’s eyes, or are we along for the ride with a dispassionate observer? Also keep in mind the ways in which first and second person narration can be manipulated.

Character: Why is this character in the story. How is their story told Character: Why is this character in the story? How is their story told? What do they do? Is an outspoken character silenced, or a strong female punished? All of these things are author choices and are designed to affect you a certain way. Setting: “To use the example of the mystery again, suppose it happens mostly in a single room. Part of the effect here might be to make us feel confined, closed in, perhaps the way the victim felt, maybe how the murderer feels, maybe how the person solving the mystery feels, maybe all three at once. Then at some point suppose the author opens the door, so to speak, and lets us out into the wider world. How would we react? Relief, like taking a breath of fresh air? Fear of the unknown? These choices affect how we experience the story and as such are yet more formal properties of the work.”

Now put this into practice! In pairs: Find interesting or unique structural choices that Poe has made. These can be choices that seem unusual in general, or choices that seem very specific to what is going on. You will be choosing three (3) small choices, one (1) medium choice and one (1) large choice. For each choice he makes, I want you to describe a) what the choice is, b) the effect it has in the story and c) the effect it has on meaning (this may be different for each partner).