| Analyzing
Literature |
Literature is like every other material you'll examine in that
someone wrote it. As in all good writing, the author had a purpose in mind,
something s/he wanted to communicate to the reader.
In order to communicate that idea, the author made a series of
choices about what to include in the material, what to exclude, and how to say
it. When you read a short story, you want to examine the choices the
author made to try to understand what s/he is trying to communicate and how s/he wants you
to feel. You particularly want to notice the things about the story that you would
not have expected and ask yourself why the author might have written the story this way
instead of in a more predictable way.
| For example, why did
Caldwell choose to shift the focus of his story from Hugh to Cora? Why doesn't he
just focus on Cora and begin the story with her marriage to Hugh? What does he want
us to know or understand that we might not have understood if he had started the story in
another place? |
When people talk about literature, they use a particular terminology. As in all
fields with their own terminology, the purpose of the terms is to make it easier and
quicker to discuss certain aspects of the field. For example, when someone says that
a story is told by a third person omniscient narrator, another person who knows that term
understands that the author chose to tell the story through the eyes of someone not in the
story, but someone who could report the thoughts and feelings of everyone in the story
even when placed in very different locations.
Thus, the next step in understanding literature is to learn its terminology and to apply
it to the story you've read. You probably know many of them and may be less
familiar with others. The brief explanations that follow may be used to learn and
apply some of the less familiar terms commonly used in discussing literature. Go to Task #9 when you are ready to do it.
|
Characters |
The characters in a story are the representations of people in it. The main
characters are the ones who are central to the action of the plot. They are
generally the protagonists (or heroes) of the story, the ones you are
most involved with emotionally.
They are also involved in the struggle or conflict that is the central
action of the story. They sometimes are in conflict with the antagonist,
another character in the story, or an antagonistic force. In the
story of Cinderella, Cinderella is the protagonist and her wicked stepmother, the
antagonist. There may be more than one protagonist, antagonist or antagonistic force
in a story.
|
Conflict |
A conflict is a struggle between opposing characters or forces. There is often more
than one struggle or conflict in a story. The protagonists and
antagonists may vary in the different conflicts. One conflict in the Cinderella
story is between Cinderella and her wicked stepmother about whether Cinderella will attend
the royal ball. Another conflict in that story is whether or not the cat will eat
the mice. A third conflict might be within Cinderella: whether to leave the
ball at midnight or stay and risk losing all of her finery. It should be
described as one thing or person vs. another.
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Climax |
The climax of a story is the point of greatest interest, a point of
decisive action. Cinderella goes to the ball, meets the prince, and falls in
love. She leaves on the stroke of midnight, and he searches everywhere for
her. The climax of the story comes when the clock strikes twelve
and she gets away.
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Resolution |
The resolution refers to the way the conflict ends: Cinderella is found and
marries the prince and escapes from her evil stepmother.
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| Symbol |
A symbol
is an object in a story that has greater significance than its usual literal meaning.
Cindarella's glass slipper is not merely something to put on her foot. It is
the true test of the qualities of a future princess, a symbol of her uniqueness because
the shoe will only fit her. |
| Point of View |
Point of
view refers to the perspective used to tell the story. It may be told through the
eyes of one of the participants in the story - a first person narrator
(I, we); or it may be told through the eyes of someone outside of the story - a
third person narrator (he, she, they). In either case the
narrator may have a limited perspective (s/he knows only what one know
ifs/he were in his or her position or an omniscient perspective (s/he
knows the emotions, thoughts, and actions of others in the same room or in different
places.) Furthermore, the narrator may be considered reliable or unreliable
(a madman or a liar may not be trusted to tell the truth about what s/he does or sees or
why s/he does it.) |
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