Short Story Unit Exposition Rising Action Climax Falling

Short Story Unit Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Resolution

Short Story vs. Novel • A short story incorporates the traditional plot structure of rising action, a climactic event and falling action, but compresses the events so it can be read in one sitting. • Short story writers must also develop the essential details of the characters in a limited number of pages. What are ways short story writers reveal character?

Elements of the Short Story • Plot: What happens in the story? • Character: Who is the protagonist? Is there an antagonist? • Setting: Where does the story take place? What is the mood of the story. • Conflict: What is the character’s problem? Is it internal or external? • Point of View: Who is telling the story? How does the narrator know the information? Is the narrator reliable? • Theme: What is the central meaning or message of the story?

Close Reading of “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell • As we read the text, actively ask question of the text in which you examine the elements of the story. • How important is suspense in the story? In what ways is it aroused and sustained? What part do chance and coincidence play in the story? • Examine the characterization of Rainsford and General Zaroff. Which one is more fully characterized? Are both characters plausible? • What purpose is served by the “philosophical” discussion between Whitney and Rainsford at the beginning of the story (paragraphs 7 -24)? What limitation does it show Rainsford to have? To what extent is his character illuminated during the course of the story? Does he change his idea? • In what ways is the discussion between Whitney and Rainsford paralleled by the after-dinner discussion between Rainsford and Zaroff (paragraphs 68 -145)? In these discussions, is Rainsford more like Whitney or Zaroff? How does he differ from Zaroff? Does the end of the story resolve that difference?

2 nd person pov • The next semester the writing professor is obsessed with writing from personal experience. You must write from what you know, from what has happened to you. He wants deaths, he wants camping trips. Think about what has happened to you. In three years there have been three things: you lost your virginity; your parents got divorced; and your brother came home from a forest ten miles from the Cambodian border with only half a thigh, a permanent smirk nestled into one corner of his mouth.

Close Reading of Passages • Return to page 11, and reread the passage leading up to Rainsford’s discovery of the palace and his encounter with the man at the door. • What impact does Connell’s word choice have on the overall effect of the passage?

Suspense • The state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what might happen. • Four factors are necessary for suspense—reader empathy, reader concern, impending danger and escalating tension. • Reader Empathy: We create reader empathy by giving the character a desire, wound or internal struggle that readers can identify with. The more they empathize, the closer their connection with the story will be. Once they care about and identify with a character, readers will be invested when they see the character struggling to get what he most desires.

Suspense • Reader Concern: We want readers to worry about whether or not the character will get what he wants. Only when readers know what the character wants will they know what’s at stake. And only when they know what’s at stake will they be engaged in the story. To get readers more invested in your novel, make clear: 1) What your character desires (love, freedom, adventure, forgiveness, etc. ); 2) what is keeping him from getting it; and 3) what terrible consequences will result if he doesn’t get it.

Suspense • Impending Danger: Suspense builds as danger approaches. Readers experience apprehension when a character they care about is in peril. This doesn’t have to be a life-and-death situation. Depending on your genre, the threat may involve the character’s physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual or relational well-being. Whatever your genre, show that something terrible is about to happen—then postpone the resolution to sustain the suspense.

Suspense • Escalating Tension: We need to escalate the tension in our stories until it reaches a satisfying climax. Raise the stakes by making the danger more imminent, intimate, personal and devastating. So, if the moon explodes in Act 1, the entire galaxy better be at risk by Act 3. If tension doesn’t escalate, the suspense you’ve been developing will evaporate.

Suspense “Suspense is like inflating a balloon—you can’t let the air out of your story; instead, you keep blowing more in, tightening the tension until it looks like the balloon is going to pop at any second. Then blow in more. And more. Until the reader can hardly stand it. ”

Discussion Questions • Do you believe that humans and animals should be treated the same way? • What makes a human different from an animal? • What does it mean to be civilized? • Are human beings truly civilized? • What are the various definitions of the word GAME? • What is the most dangerous animal to hunt? • What is the most dangerous game to play?

The Lamb to the Slaughter-Roald Dahl (1953) • Situational Irony: a situation in which there is an incongruity between appearances and reality, or between expectation and fulfillment, or between the actual situation and what would seem appropriate. • In this reading, to determine if situational irony occurs you should examine characterization and conflict.

The Lamb to the Slaughter • Dramatic Irony: an incongruity or discrepancy between what a character says or thinks and what the reader knows to be true (or between what a character perceives and what the author intends the reader to perceive) • Look for evidence of dramatic irony as we read the text.

Marxist Literary Criticism • Marxist criticism focuses on the economic and political elements of art and how the conditions determine social conditions. In theory, the idea is that a given individual’s social being is determined by larger political and economic forces. “Simply stated, the social class into which a person is born determines the person’s outlook and viewpoints.

Historical Literary Criticism • Historical critics consider the work in light of what really happened during the time period reflected and insist that to understand a piece, we need to understand the author’s ideas circulating at the time, and the cultural values attributed to the time. Research of the time period in which the text is written and set is necessary for this interpretation.

Feminist Literary Criticism • Feminist critics examine the relationship between men and women and their relative roles in society. Many feminist critics will look at how the characters, especially the female characters, are portrayed to determine if the portrayal “reinforces or undermines” sexual stereotypes. • The gender of the reader might impact the interpretation of the story as well.

Literary Criticism • Recorder: Self-explanatory role • Group Leader: This individual will read question and direct discussion • Mediator: This individual will be responsible for making sure everyone’s opinion/voice is heard • Task Master: Will keep group members focused and on task.

Pre-Reading Text Consider the following questions: • How do traditions impact human behavior? • How do traditions impact judgement of other’s behavior? • What does it take to make an individual question or break tradition? After reading the assigned article and taking part in class discussion, might your initial response to the questions change?

“The Lottery” (Setting, Mood, Symbolism, Theme) • Setting is the physical location and time in which a story takes place. To identify setting we must note the specific details the author provides concerning: • The story’s location. • The time in which the action takes place. • The social environment of the characters, including the manners, customs, and moral values that govern their society.

Setting and Mood Setting also has an emotional affect and can create a mood or atmosphere. Mood is the feeling that a text conveys to readers. Authors deliberately choose a setting and include specific details to conjure a certain reaction/feeling in their readers. Once you have identified the story’s setting, you can identify the mood by asking : • What things, thoughts, or feelings do I typically associate these details with? • If the setting is a decrepit, abandoned, and old building, you might feel tense or anxious. • If the setting is a warm, sunny beach, you feel relaxed. • Given this, what mood is the author trying to create? • If you’re feeling tense or anxious, the author is trying to create a mood of suspense or even fear. • If you’re feeling relaxed, the author is trying to create a mood of happiness and calm.

Symbolism • Something that means more than it is; an object, person, situation, or action that in addition to its literal meaning suggests other meanings as well. • In the assigned text, consider the following: • Names • Objects • Events

Theme • The central idea of a literary work. • Often times themes are derived from the challenge to beliefs or questions the author presents to the reader through the plot. • How would you respond to the following: • How do traditions impact human behavior? • How do traditions impact judgement of other’s behavior? • What does it take to make an individual question or break tradition? • After reading “The Lottery”, what might Jackson want the reader to take away as a message or theme from the story?

Closing: Ticket out the Door • Choose one of the following questions and respond: • 1. What theme does Jackson present to the reader through her development of “The Lottery”? • 2. How does Jackson use setting in the text, and what effect does it create? • 3. Using the knowledge of plot and short story elements, write a page long response as to how Jackson creates a sense of horror from the elements of what should be an innocent story about small town America. Comment on the use of withheld knowledge, the irony that can be seen in the names of the characters, and any of the other elements discussed in class.

“A Rose For Emily”-diction, allegory, metaphor, simile Diction is the choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing. Authors will often use a certain diction to emphasize characterization, setting, or theme. Allegory is any writing in verse or prose that has a double meaning. This narrative acts as an extended metaphor in which persons, abstract ideas, or events represent not only themselves on the literal level, but they also stand for something else on the symbolic level. An allegorical reading usually involves moral or spiritual concepts that may be more significant than the actual, literal events described in a narrative. The fable The Tortoise and the Hare is an allegory that teaches the strong and steady will win the race Metaphor is the comparison between two unlike things without using like or as. Abigail’s smile is a ray of sunshine. Simile is the comparison between two unlike things using like or as. Mary Mahoney’s cunning skills were as sharp as a knife.

“A Rose for Emily”-Annotating Text • Read annotate the text “A Rose for Emily”. • As part of your annotation, ask questions of the text. • If there are parts of the text you do not understand, make note of it and specifically state what is confusing about that part of the text. • Be prepared to answer quiz questions

Independent analysis of text for author’s use of techniques (devices) • Read the text, “A Rose for Emily”, and in your notes, develop a list of examples based on the handout given. At this stage, you do not have to explain the example. • Group Discussion: In your groups, share your overall thoughts and questions on the text. Point to the devices you were able to identify. • Group Discussion: Each group will be responsible for answering and sharing with the class assigned literary analysis questions

Poe’s “The Black Cat” • In your notes, write a brief response in which you discuss the realities of the highlighted quote below. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why or why not? • “The Black Cat, " which first appeared in the United States Saturday Post (The Saturday Evening Post) on August 19, 1843, serves as a reminder for all of us. The capacity for violence and horror lies within each of us, no matter how docile and humane our dispositions might appear. - By Martha Womack

“The Black Cat” • Flashback: The interruption of present action to recall a memory. • Suspense: anxiety or apprehension resulting from an uncertain, undecided, or mysterious situation. • Pacing: advancing or developing something at a particular rate or tempo. • Dangerous action: Events are presented that cause the characters to face danger in some way. • Foreshadowing: a literary device in which the author gives clues as to what will happen later.

The Black Cat Flashback: An interruption of present action to recall a memory. Example: The narrator is presently in jail awaiting his execution when he interrupts the moment to recall how he killed his wife. Suspense: anxiety or apprehension resulting from an uncertain, undecided, or mysterious situation. Edgar Allan Poe is the master of suspense. Pacing: advancing or developing something at a particular rate or tempo. Example: It takes a while to discover exactly what happened to that cat the narrator killed. Dangerous action: self explanatory. Example: The narrator’s violent moods creates trouble for everyone, including himself. Foreshadowing: a literary device in which the author gives clues as to what will happen later. Example: We know the narrator has done something terrible. The story begins with him awaiting execution in a jail cell.

Applying Theme • Consider the texts we have read in this unit, “The Most Dangerous Game”, “Lamb to the Slaughter”, “The Lottery”, “A Rose for Emily”, and “The Black Cat”. • How might each of these stories support Womack’s premise of man’s capacity for violence and horror?

Homework: Character Analysis • Based on your understanding of the text, you are to complete a Body Biography. • A pdf file of the text can be found online, and will be on the blog as well. You must use quotes to support your analysis.

Short Story Unit Final Assessment What To Know: • Review each of the literary devices noted on your handout (literary device packet). • Be prepared to know the definition as well as how to identify its use in a short story. • Be prepared to answer critical analysis questions based on your understanding of the text via the literary devices.

Assessment Review • Using the text “The Cask of Amontillado”, respond to the Text Dependent Questions. In your response, you must point to textual evidence to support your discussion. • Example: • What does one learn of Montresor’s character from the paragraph beginning, “A succession of loud and shrill screams…”(436)? • For the first time, it seems as though Montresor goes through a range of emotions. • Caught off guard: “seemed to thrust me violently back” • Scared/nervous: “I trembled. ” • Seeks reassurance: “I placed my hand upon the solid fabric of the catacombs, and felt satisfied. ” • Regains confidence: “I re-echoed-I aided-I surpassed them in volume and in strength. ”

Short Story Unit Final Assessment • The first part of the assessment is strictly a test of your knowledge of literary device definitions. The text is not required. • Part II is where you will have to show your understanding of the text and how the author is using certain devices to create meaning. You must cite textual evidence, and discuss your choices. This is not meant to be an extensive written response; two to three sentences should be sufficient to answer each response.

“Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut • This text was published in 1961; is a dystopian science fiction novel. • Dystopian: A futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control. Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism about a current trend, societal norm, or political system.