500 Short Fiction Finals Review
Terms from Story and Structure- you need to be able to define, explain, identify and analyze them








 Diction
 Syntax
 Tone
 Plot Structure
 Conflict Protagonist Antagonist Suspense Mystery Dilemma Surprise Happy ending Unhappy ending Indeterminate ending Artistic unity Plot manipulation Dues ex machinaChanceCoincidenceCharacterizationDirect presentation of characterIndirect presentation of characterDramatizing characterFlat charactersRound characters-




















Stock charactersStatic charactersDeveloping/dynamic characterEpiphanyThemeCommerical ThemeLiterary Theme- (it may help to re-read the
six principles of theme from that chapter, but
it’s not necessary to memorize each one)
Point of view
Omniscient point of view
Third person limited point of view
Stream of Consciousness
First person point of view
Objective/dramatic Point of View
Why does the author’s choice of Point of
View matter?
Symbol- (be familiar with the warnings for
symbol interpretation in this chapter)
AllegoryFantasy
What is the difference between allegory and
symbol?
What does it mean to suspend your disbelief?
How is “normal” fiction different from
fantasy?
Critical Theory- Know at least 3 of the 9 ways to analyze literature
1. Formalist
6. Gender/minority
2. Structuralist
7. Archetypal
3. Deconstructionist
8. Post-modern
4. Marxist
9. Historical/Biographical
5. Psychoanalysis
Vocab Words
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
Hubris
Abjure
Adroit
Ascetic
Assiduous
Baffle
Chicanery
Choice word
Belie
corporeal
Corpulent
Deleterious
Desultory
Dexterous
Diffident
Effulgent
17. Epiphany
18. Epitome
19. Equinox
20. Ersatz
21. Facetious
22. fraught
23. gamin
24. Gauche
25. Gerrymander
26. hackneyed
27. Homogeneous
28. Incognito
29. Incontrovertible
30. Inculcate
31. Indubitable
32. Indubitably
33. Insouciant
34. intrepid
35. Irony
36. jocular
37. Kinetic
38. Kowtow
39. Laissez faire
40. Lemming
41. Loathe42. Loquacious
43. Lugubrious
44. Mortify
45. Nihilism
46. Oblique
47. Omnipotent
48. Paradigm
49. Pecuniary
50. Piquant
51. Potent
52. Quotidian
53. rancorous
54. Reciprocal
55. Sanguine
56. scabrous
57. Supercilious58. Tautology
59. Tempestuous
60. Usurp
61. Vacuous
62. Winnow
63. yearn
64. Yeoman
List of Stories
“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”- Gabriel
Garcia Marquez
“Baker’s Helper”- Cynthia Anderson
“Birthday Party” – Katherine Brush
“Birthday Party”- Katherine Brush
“Bullhead”
“Everyday Use”- Alice Walker
“Harrison Bergeron” Kurt Vonnegut
“Hunters in the Snow”- Tobias Wolff
“Life after High School”- Joyce Carol Oates
“Mandela was Late” – Peter Mehlman
“Once Upon a Time”- Nadine Gordimer
“Plague of Tics” – Dave Sedaris
“Reunion”- John Cheever
“The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”Gabriel Garcia Marquez
“The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”- Katherine
Anne Porter
“The Kugelmass Episode”- Woody Allen
“The Swimmer”- John Cheever