comp ii short stories chapters 3, 4, & 5 professor vicky neal
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Characterization The various literary means by which characters are presented Chapter ThreeTRANSCRIPT
Comp II Short Stories Chapters 3, 4, & 5
Professor Vicky Neal
Comp II Chapters 3, 4, & 5Chapter 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 FictionMethod 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 FictionCharacters are shown speaking & behaving as in a stage play
Dramatized
First Characters are consistent in their behavior
SecondCharacters words and actions spring from motivations the reader can understand and believe
Three Principles of Characterization
ThirdCharacters 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 CharacterSpecial 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
ThemeThe 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
ThemeNot all stories have a significant themeTheme 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
impliedThe 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 changedExplore the nature of the central conflict
and its outcomeSometimes the title will provide a clue
Discovering Theme
1Theme 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 FivePoint of View The angle of
vision from which a story is told
Four Basic Points of View
OmniscientThird-person Limited
First PersonObjective
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 viewThe 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
CharacterizationMrs. JohnsonDeeMaggie
By- Alice Walker
“Everyday Use”
Characterization Joy/HulgaMrs. HopewellMrs. Freeman
By- Flannery O’Connor
“Good Country People
Theme Inescapability of the pastPurity of paternal love
By- F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Babylon Revisited”
ThemeLove – perseveranceRedemptionRacial prejudiceBy – Eudora Welty
“A Worn Path”
Point of View3rd Person Objective
By – Shirley Jackson
“The Lottery”
Point of View3rd Person
By – Katherine Anne Porter
“The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”
Point of View3rd Person
Fly-on-the-wallBy – Ernest Hemingway
“Hills Like White Elephants”