Short Story
Unit A:
“How to Tell a True War Story”
“Battle Royale”
Choose Your Own
Concepts to be Learned:
Main focus-- 1. Genre and Text Structure- What
elements make up an effective short story? What is
the structure used within the short story? How does
diction and syntax play an integral part in creating
atmosphere, mood, and/or tone?
2. Time Period – How does the time period influence the
author?
3. Cultural Analysis – How does culture influence the author?
Author #1:
Tim O'Brien
( 1946 - )
 Personal Information: He was born
October 1, 1946 in Austin, MN.
He was married in 1973 to his wife Ann.
 Education: Graduated from Macalaster College
with a BA in Political Science. He graduated
Summa Cum Laude in 1968. O'Brien then went to
Harvard from 1970-1976.
 Military Service: Served in the Vietnam war and
was discharged in 1970 (wounded), gaining a
Purple Heart.
O’Brien Today
Career awards: He won the O'Henry Memorial award in
1976 and 1978, National Book award in 1979, Vietnam
Veterans of America Award in 1987, Heartland Prize in 1990
for The Things They Carried. In 1995 he was awarded the
National Endowment for the Arts, Massachusetts Arts and
Humanities Foundation, New York Times Notable Book
Designation, James Fenimore Cooper Prize for historical
fiction, all for In The Lake Of Woods.
Facts to Know Before Reading
 About 58,200 Americans were killed during the war and roughly
304,000 were wounded out of the 2.59 million who served the war.
 The average age of the wounded and dead was 23.11 years.
 After the war, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and The
Philippines stayed free of communism.
 During the war, the national debt was increased by $146 billion.
 90% of the Vietnam War veterans say they are glad they served in
the war.
 74% say they would serve again.
 11,465 were less than the age of 20.
 The number of Vietnamese killed was 500,000 and casualties were
in the millions.
 From the year 1957 to the year 1973, the National Liberation Front
assassinated nearly 37,000 South Vietnamese and nearly 58,500
were abducted. Death squads mainly focused on leaders like minor
officials and schoolteachers.
 Nearly two-thirds of the men serving the war were volunteers.
“How to Tell A True War Story”
Chapter in novel The Things They Carried
Written in 1990 (was a finalist for the Pulitzer
Prize)
Summary: The narrator attempts to show you
how a true war story needs to be told as he is
telling you various war stories. He tells you
what aspects of story telling are needed in order
for you to understand what point the story is
supposed to make. And sometimes, there is no
point.
Themes in “How to Tell A True
War Story”:
Isolation
Language
Truth
Courage
Redemption
Annotations: Be on the look
out for these themes and
other literary devices
(simile, metaphor, imagery,
characterization, etc. )
while reading.
verisimilitude
Work that is blurred between fiction
and reality.
Question: Do you need to make up
details in order for the truth to
revealed?
Can create mood and understanding, so
truth can be felt
Do Now: You may work with your
seat partner
Flip to the back of your packet and
work on finding and filling in
examples of literary elements into
the chart for “How to Tell a True War
Story”. Due for tomorrow!!
I will be around to check your homework: the
guided reading questions and vocabulary.
Definitions-- Genre & Structure
Genre: a literary species or form, e.g., tragedy, epic,
comedy, novel, essay, biography, lyric poem.
Determined by literary technique, tone, or content.
Structure: framework of a work of literature; the
organization or over-all design of a work.
Structure:
In the most basic form…structure means 'composed of parts' or 'the organization of
something’. The structure of literature can be described as the organizational
method of the written material.
Some common methods of organization include the following:
•Narrative (order of occurrence or order of telling)
•Chronological (time sequence)
•Comparison and contrast
•Cause and Effect
•Inductive (specific to general)
•Deductive (general to specific)
Genre, structure, style…it’s all related
 Recap…what’s style?
 Style: manner of expression; how a speaker or writer says what he says.
 Diction: as style of speaking or writing determined by the
choice of words by a speaker or a writer. Diction is not just a
writer's choice of words it can include the mood, attitude,
dialect and style of writing
Diction:
Individuals vary their diction depending on different contexts and
settings.
 Therefore, we come across various types of diction:
 It may be “formal” where formal words are used in formal situations e.g. press
conferences, presentations etc.
 Similarly, we use “informal” diction in informal situations like writing or talking
to our friends.
 Moreover, a “colloquial” diction uses words common in everyday speech.
 “Slang” is the use of words that are impolite or newly coined.
Diction:
Language can be classified in a number of ways.
 Denotation: the literal meaning of a word; there are no emotions, values,
or images associated with denotative meaning. Scientific and
mathematical language carries few, if any emotional or connotative
meanings.
 Connotation: the emotions, values, or images associated with a word.
The intensity of emotions or the power of the values and images
associated with a word varies. Words connected with religion, politics,
and sex tend to have the strongest feelings and images associated with
them.
For most people, the word mother calls up very strong positive feelings and
associations--loving, self-sacrificing, always there for you, understanding;
the denotative meaning, on the other hand, is simply "a female animal who
has borne one or more children." Of course connotative meanings do not
necessarily reflect reality; for instance, if someone said, "His mother is not
very motherly," you would immediately understand the difference between
motherly (connotation) and mother (denotation).
Diction Activity:
 Group 1: student, apprentice, disciple, junior, learner, novice, scholar,
undergraduate
 Group 2: skinny, bony, angular, emaciated, gaunt, malnourished, scrawny,
slender, thin, anorexic
 Group 3: run, amble, bound, dart, dash, gallop, lope, scamper, sprint
 Group 4: vacation, break, fiesta, furlough, holiday, intermission, layoff,
recess, respite, sabbatical
 Group 5: busy, active, diligent, employed, occupied, perserving, unavailable
 Group 6: fear, dread, apprehension, anxiety, panic, terror
 Group 7: fat, obese, chubby, stout, plump, stocky, corpulent
“How to Tell a True War Story” Review:
 Genre: short story
 sub genre: historical fiction
 Structure: narrative; flashbacks; inductive and
deductive.
 Style: verisimilitude
 Diction: informal; colloquial; slang
Do Now:
Turn AOW #3 into basket THEN…
Answer the following question with your seat
partner: ( 2-3 sentences )
What role does diction play in short story,“How
to Tell a True War Story”?

Basics:
 Born: March 1, 1914
 Birthplace: Oklahoma City
 Best known for novel
Invisible Man

Racism was prevalent throughout the United
States during the 1930’s. However,
treatment and level of racism differed
depending where you lived.
South:
 Racism prevalent
 Not allowed to use same
bathrooms, drinking
fountains, restaurants
 Affected socially,
economically, politically
 Many experienced
harassment from the
KKK (lynching, burning
of churches/homes)
North:
 Racism still evident, but
had more economic
freedom and political
clout
 Able to get better paying
jobs
 Able to walk on
sidewalks without fear of
being harassed

Many African Americans moved to the North
during the 1930’s. It was during the Great
Depression, so everyone had it hard.
However, there was more employment
opportunity and stories of getting treated
better started to spread south, making those
getting abused want to move North.


Harlem
Chicago

Published in 1952

Explores the theme of an unnamed black
man’s search for his identity and place in
society in New York City during the 1930’s.
Explores contrast between racism in north
and south and their alienating effects.




Won several writing awards
Taught at Bard College, Rutgers University,
University of Chicago and New York
University
Died in April of 1994

Originally published as a short story in 1947.

Themes:
 Violence
 Naiveté
 Economic power
Annotate:
themes and literary
elements… (guided
reading due Monday)
chart will be due
Tuesday.

The story of a nameless narrator who attends
a meeting to accept a scholarship awarded to
him by the white community members.
However, the reader soon learns that he is
there as part of the entertainment for the
evening, even if the narrator doesn’t see this
fact for himself.