AP LIT
NAME______________________
Literary Term Sharing Assignment
Unit: Short Stories
One cannot possibly talk about short stories without talking about literary terms and literary devices.
However, what we do in class is not enough. We simply do not have the time to develop every image,
symbol, theme, etc. in every story. We are truly only glossing the surface. Therefore, we need to bring
what is buried to the attention of our classmates (and to me, who doesn’t see even close to everything
in a story).
The assignment is ultimately very simple.
All you have to do is find a passage that represents or exemplifies a certain literary term, device,
concept, etc. Don’t read too much into this…please.
Step 1: Copy the passage down in its entirety (whatever this means; could be a paragraph or a word)
Step 2: Write 1-2 paragraphs discussing how/why this is the literary thing you picked.
Step 3: Post it to the wiki.
Step 4: Talk about it in class for a couple of minutes.
Other things: The passage you choose can come from any of the short stories we have read so far
(“South of the Slot,” “Desiree’s Baby,” “Karintha,” “Barn Burning,” “Hills Like White Elephants,” “The
Gilded Six-Bits,” the small piece of The Things They Carried, or “Oliver’s Evolution” [or anything else we
read before this is due]), as long as it represents a literary term.
You can really choose pretty much any term(s) you see fit.
Allegory, symbolism, pathos, colloquial language, theme, motif, allusion, satire, simile, tone, tragic flaw,
metonymy…they are all up for grabs.
You can write on the same term as a colleague, but try to avoid the same passage…unless you are using
the same passage to denote a different term or concept.
Due Date: