LITERARY ANALYSISFor Homework Assignments Setting involves the place (house or location or city or country or a mixture of those) and time (day or season or year) where the action takes place. Identify the setting in the short story. What does it contribute to the work and theme of the story? How important is that setting to the story and its meaning?
West Campus Book: pages 123 -126 Kendall Campus Book: 155 – 157 Plot involves the relationships and patterns of events. What type of conflict(s) is (are) prevalent in the story (man against man, man against nature, man against himself, or man against the supernatural)? Which one dominates if there is more than one? Summarize the gist of the happenings in the short story and relate those to the type of conflict(s).
West Campus Book: pages 15 – 18 Kendall Campus Book: 66 – 67 Character is an important element in the story. Which character(s) are the most important to the story? Which character(s) is (are) the protagonist and/or the antagonist? What motivates those characters? Does the main character stay the same, or does he/she change? In what way(s)? And why?
West Campus Book: pages 69 – 71 Kendall Campus Book: 107 – 108 Symbolism occurs in a short story when concrete things (characters, settings, or actions) stand for larger and more abstract ideas. What symbolism did you find in the story? What do the symbols signify? How important are they to the theme?
West Campus Book: pages 233 – 236 Kendall Campus Book: 216 – 219 Theme is the central idea, a conception of human experience suggested by the work as a whole. Theme is neither plot (what happens) nor subject (such as mourning or marriage). Rather it is what the author says with that plot about that subject. Discuss the theme of the short story. How do the other elements (such as plot, character, symbolism, character, etc.) support or reinforce that theme?
West Campus Book: pages 203 – 205 Kendall Campus Book: 239 – 242 Discuss the relevance of the theme to modern times and to your life.
Read the following short stories and write a literary analysis for each one separately. See Lesson Plan #3 on “How to Write a Literary Analysis” for your guide. Answer each question on the analysis sheet in a short paragraph (5 to 6 sentences). “Killings” by Andre Dubois on page. 51. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson on page. 192 “Lust” by Susan Minot on page 221.