Comp II Short Stories Chapters 3, 4, & 5 Professor Vicky Neal

Comp II Chapters 3, 4, & 5  Chapter Three (142)  Characterization  “Everyday Use” (147)  “Good Country People” (457)  Chapter Four (192)  Theme  “Babylon Revisited” (199)  “A Worn Path” (221)  Chapter Five (235)  Point of View  “The Lottery” (259)  “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” (267)  “Hills Like White Elephants” (275)

 Characterization  The various literary means by which characters are presented Chapter Three

The method of characterization in which the author, by exposition or analysis, tells us directly what a character is like, or has someone else in the story to do so. Direct Presentation

 Literary Fiction  Method of characterization in which the author shows us a character in action, compelling us to infer what the character is like from what is said or done by the character Indirect Presentation

 Commercial Fiction  Characters are shown speaking & behaving as in a stage play Dramatized

 First  Characters are consistent in their behavior  Second  Characters words and actions spring from motivations the reader can understand and believe Three Principles of Characterization

 Third  Characters must be plausible or lifelike. Three Principles of Characterization

A character who has not been fully developed A two-­‐dimensional character A simple character; a character who is too obviously all good or all bad Flat Characters- distinguishing moral qualities or personal traits are summed up in one or two traits

Round Character – distinguishing moral qualities or personal traits are complex and many-sided A character who has been fully developed by the author A three-dimensional character; a realistic character A complex character, a character with strengths and weaknesses

Stock Character  Special kind of flat character- like interchangeable parts  Stereotyped figures who have recurred so often in fiction that we recognize them at once.  Strong, silent sheriff, the brilliant detective with eccentric habits, the mad scientist, glamorous international spy, cruel stepmother, etc.

Static Character  Character remains essentially the same person from the beginning of the story to the end

Dynamic or Developing Character  Character undergoes some distinct change of character, personality, or outlook.  The change may be large or small; positive or negative; significant and basic; not minor change of habit or opinion

Epiphany  Moment of spiritual insight into life, or into the character’s own circumstances.  The “ah-ha” moment

1.It must be consistent with the individual’s characterization as dramatized in the story 2.It must be sufficiently motivated by the circumstances in which the character is placed 3.The story must offer sufficient time for the change to take place and skill be believable Change in Character Three Conditions

 Theme  The central idea or unifying generalization implied or stated by a literary work  To derive the theme - determine what its central purpose is: what view of life it supports or what insight into life it reveals Chapter Four

Theme  Not all stories have a significant theme  Theme exists in virtually all literary fiction, but only in some commercial fiction.  In literary fiction, it is the primary purpose of the story; in commercial fiction, it is usually less important than such elements are plot and suspense.  Whatever central generalization about life arises from the specifics of the story constitutes the theme.

 May be stated very briefly or at greater length  Is what gives a story its unity  Is sometimes explicitly stated or can be implied  The function of literary writers  is not to state a theme but to vivify it  They wish to deliver it not simply to our intellects but to our emotions, our senses, and our imaginations. Theme

 1. when an author has seriously attempted to record life accurately or to reveal some truth about it or  2. when an author has deliberately introduced as a unifying element some concept or theory of life that the story illuminates Theme Exists Only:

 First – it is less likely to obscure the fact that a story is not a preachment or a sermon: a story’s first object is enjoyment  Second – it should keep us from trying to wring from every story a didactic pronouncement about life Term “Theme”

 Of literacy story writers is to give us a greater awareness and a greater understanding of life, not to incluate a code of moral rules for regulating daily conduct. Purpose

 Ask NOT:  What does this story teach?  Ask:  What does this story reveal? To Get at Theme of a Story

 Confirm their reader’s prejudices, endorse their opinions, ratify their feelings, and satisfy their wishes.  Represent life as we would like it to be. Commercial Story Themes

 Are likely to question these beliefs and often to challenge them.  Represent rather somber truths. Literary Story Themes

 We do not have to accept the theme of a story.

 The ability to state theme is a test of our understanding of a story.  There is no prescribed method for discovering theme.  What way the main character has changed  Explore the nature of the central conflict and its outcome  Sometimes the title will provide a clue Discovering Theme

 1  Theme should be expressible in the form of a statement with a subject and a predicate. Principles to Discovering Theme

 2.  The theme should be stated as a generalization about life. Principles to Discovering Theme

 3.  Be careful not to make the generalization larger than is justified by the terms of the story. Principles to Discovering Theme

 4.  Theme is the central and unifying concept of a story. Principles to Discovering Theme

 5.  There is no one way of stating the theme of a story. Principles to Discovering Theme

 6.  We should avoid any statement that reduces the theme to some familiar saying that we have heard all our lives. Principles to Discovering Theme

Chapter Five  Point of View  The angle of vision from which a story is told

Four Basic Points of View Omniscient Third-person Limited First Person Objective

 The author tells the story using the third person, knowing all and free to tell us anything. Including what the characters are thinking or feeling and why they act as they do. Omniscient

 The author tells the story using the third person, but is limited to a complete knowledge of one character in the story and tells us only what that one character thinks, feels, sees, or hears. Third-Person Limited

 The story is told by one of its characters, using the first person. First-Person

 Or Dramatic point of view  The author tells the story using the third person, but is limited to reporting what the characters say or do; the author does not interpret the characters’ behavior or tell us their private thoughts or feelings. Objective

 Characterization  Mrs. Johnson  Dee  Maggie  By- Alice Walker “Everyday Use”

 Characterization  Joy/Hulga  Mrs. Hopewell  Mrs. Freeman  By- Flannery O’Connor “Good Country People

 Theme  Inescapability of the past  Purity of paternal love  By- F. Scott Fitzgerald “Babylon Revisited”

 Theme  Love – perseverance  Redemption  Racial prejudice  By – Eudora Welty “A Worn Path”

 Point of View  3 rd Person  Objective  By – Shirley Jackson “The Lottery”

 Point of View  3 rd Person  By – Katherine Anne Porter “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”

 Point of View  3 rd Person  Fly-on-the-wall  By – Ernest Hemingway “Hills Like White Elephants”