SHORT STORIES
AP English Literature
SETTING
 Literary definition = the locale, time period, and the mores of the society within a
work of literature; get Perrine’s definition
 More than location!
 Settings can prompt characters to act, bring them to realizations, or even reveal
their innermost nature.
 Setting may also critically involve the time of the story, the day, year, or century.
 Truly, setting includes the entire society (itself a product of place and time) - this
includes the beliefs and assumptions of the characters.
WHAT CAN SETTING DO?
What can setting do?
Think about…
 Affect character action and motivation
 Is it a public or a private setting?
 Reveal the nature of the characters
 Is it an urban, rural or natural setting?
 Mirror the plot
 Act as a character
 Provide key symbolism
 Set atmosphere or mood
 Illustrate irony
 Establish verisimilitude = realistic setting
leads us to suspend disbelief
 Are there two (or more) contrasting
settings?
 What are the cultural and historical
circumstances?
“WHERE ARE YOU GOING, WHERE HAVE
YOU BEEN” BY JOYCE CAROL OATES
Think about…
Analysis
 How does the setting affect Connie?
 Draw a t-chart.
 Does it help or harm her?
 Left side: Jot down examples of
significant plot developments and
setting.
 Right side: Analyze examples for
effect of setting.
YOUR ANALYSIS
 The effect of setting
CHARACTERIZATION
 Literary Definition
 Two methods
 Direct – author states it
 Indirect – actions, appearance, private thoughts, speech, what others say
 Types of characters
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Static/Dynamic
Flat/Round
Stock
Protagonist/Antagonist
Hero/Anti-hero
“MISS BRILL”
Think about…
Then..
 Write your analysis
POINT OF VIEW
 Literary Definition = the speaker, narrator, persona, or voice created by authors to
tell stories, present arguments, and express attitudes and judgments. Point of
view involves not only the speaker’s physical position as an observer and recorder,
but also the ways in which the speaker’s social, political, and mental
circumstances affect the narrative; add Perrine’s definition
POINT OF VIEW
Participant
Non-Participant
 First-person pronouns (I, me, my, we,
us, our) are used to tell the story.
 Omniscient narrator - The author can
enter the minds of all the characters.
 Two subgroups
 Selective (limited) omniscient narrator The author limits his omniscience to
the minds of a few of the characters
or to the mind of a single character.
- The narrator as a major character in the
story (the story is told by and is chiefly
about the narrator).
- The narrator as a minor character (the
narrator tells a story that focuses on
someone else, but the narrator is still a
character in the story).
 Objective narrator - The author does
not enter a single mind, but instead
records what can be seen and heard.
This type of narrator is like a camera
or fly on the wall.
POINT OF VIEW
Participant
Non-Participant
 Innocent-eye narrator - The
character telling the story may be a
child or a developmentally disabled
individual; the narrator is thus naïve.
 Stream of consciousness (interior
monologue) - narrative method in
modern fiction in which the author
tells the story through an unbroken
flow of thought and awareness.
 Reflective - when there is narration
from a different time in a character’s
life
 Second-person point of view
 uses second-person pronouns (you,
your, yourself, etc.)
 uncommon because it directly involves
the reader in the story, and the reader
may be unwilling and unable to identify
with the “you” in the story
KEY QUESTIONS TO ASK
 Who is telling the story? How much is this person allowed to
know?
 How is this character’s mind and personality affecting my
interpretation of the story?
 Has the author chosen this POV for maximum revelation or for
another reason?
 Has the author used the selected POV fairly and consistently?
What is the effect of any shifts in POV?
“A ROSE FOR EMILY” BY -- & “THE TELLTALE HEART” BY EDGAR ALLEN POE
“A Rose for Emily”
“The Tell-Tale Heart”
 Identify the types of POV and any shifts.
 Identify the POV. How does the
syntax support the POV?
 What effect does the POV have on the
characterization of the narrator?
 Evaluate the reliability of the narrator.
How do you know this?
 What effect does the POV have on the
other characters in the story?
 Emily
 Homer Barron
 Townspeople
 What effect does the POV have on
the characterization of the narrator?
 Evaluate the reliability of the narrator.
How do you know this? What effect
does the POV have on the other
characters in the story?
 Old Man
 Police
CHARACTER ANALYSIS
1.
Select ONE character
2.
Decide what is the effect of your selected character’s depiction in the story:
Sympathetic? Catalyst for plot development? Reflection of a theme? Symbolic?
Social commentary? Other?
1.
Thesis: Title and author reference with statement of prompt; in fact, suggestion of
analysis.
3.
Find examples of characterization that reflect your idea about the character.
What types? Pick two types only.
4.
USE STRONG ESSAY STRUCTURE!
Your thesis should mention
both author and title by
name.
In the short story “A
Rose for Emily,”
William Faulkner
Your thesis should directly
address the prompt and
name the element(s) you
have chosen to address.
uses a collective
narrator who speaks
on behalf of the
town
Your thesis should address
the meaning of the work as a
whole
to create suspense
by using a blend of
fact and rumors and
a non-chorological
timeline.
Your thesis should mention
both author and title by
name.
Your thesis should directly
address the prompt and
name the element(s) you
have chosen to address.
Your thesis should address
the meaning of the work as a
whole
In the short story
“The Tell-Tale
Heart” by Edgar
Allen Poe
the use of frenetic
syntax and selection
of detail
highlights the
unreliability of the
narrator and creates
dramatic irony.
SYMBOLISM
 Literary Definition = Literary devices developed from the connections that
real-life people make between their own existence and particular objects,
places, or occurrences through either experience or reading; add Perrine’s
definition
 Symbols = specific details; creates a meaningful connection between an
object, scene, character, or action and ideas, values, persons, or ways of life
 Allegories = stories or parts of stories that have a second meaning beneath
the surface that gives added significance
 Biblical
 Greek
 Heroic cycle
SYMBOLISM
Purpose & Types
Is it a symbol?
 Purpose = compression that
expands meaning
 How much importance does the
author give it? Emphasis,
repetition, position
 Meaning must be established and
supported by the entire context of
the story. Symbol has its meaning
in the story, not outside it.
 Item must suggest a meaning
different from its literal meaning.
Irony?
 It may have multiple meanings.
 Types
 Cultural = universally recognized
(archetypes)
 Contextual = only applies in individual
works
SYMBOLISM SHORT STORY
 “Young Goodman Brown”
 What symbols are in the story?
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Title Character
Faith
Walking
Staff
Pink Ribbon
Cloud
Village
Forest
 Trees
 Path
 Clearing
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Water
Sunset/Night
Religious ceremony
Dreams
Others?
SYMBOL ANALYSIS
 Choose one symbol from your selected story, discuss its
meaning, and how understanding this symbol impacts your
understanding of the work as a whole.
 You might want to focus on how it impacts characterization,
setting, or theme.
IRONY
 Literary Definition = A contradiction or incongruity between appearance or
expectation and reality.
 Purposes
 To convey a truth about human experience
 Allows the author to achieve compression. (Suggest complex meanings
without stating them.)
 Methods
 Verbal
 Situational
 Dramatic
IRONY SHORT STORY
Think about…
Analysis
 “The Storm” by Kate Chopin
 The effect of irony in the story
 This story was not published during
Chopin’s lifetime—why?
 How does the characterization affect
audience perception?
 How does the setting reinforce the
plot?
 Examples of irony?
TONE & STYLE
 Tone (the what)
 Literary Definition = the author’s attitude toward the reader or the
subject of a literary work
 NOT mood
 Mood = feeling created in the reader or audience by a work
 Style (the how)
 Literary Definition = the way in which a literary work is written; the
devices the author uses to express thoughts and to convey subject
matter
ANALYZING TONE & STYLE
 Determine the writer’s attitude
toward the material.
 Sympathetic? Satirical?
 Determine the writer’s attitude
toward the audience.
 Respectful? Condescending?
 Look at the diction.
 Connotation vs. denotation.
 Formal? Informal? (“It is I.” vs. “It’s me.”)
 Analyze the imagery.
 Identify rhetorical devices.
 Types of sentences? Parallelism?
 Look at the syntax.
“HAPPY ENDINGS” BY MARGARET
ATWOOD
Think about…
After Reading
 Metafiction = writing that specifically
and self-consciously examines the
nature and status of fiction itself and
often seeks to test fiction as a form in
one way or another
 In groups of three, select a fairy
tale that everyone in your group is
familiar with and…
 Using Atwood’s style as a model,
write the fairy tale with revised
endings.
 Devise a clever title.
 Poses questions about the
relationship between fiction and
reality
TONE & STYLE ANALYSIS
 Analyze your story by identifying and explaining the significant structural
components such as setting, characterization, POV, theme, irony,
symbolism, etc.
 How do these structural elements impact the tone/style of your story?
 What is the tone of your story?
 What is the style?
 Effect? Proof?
THEME
 Literary Definition = the
controlling idea or its central
insight; the unifying generalization
about life stated or implied by the
story; add Perrine’s definition
 Not all stories have a significant
theme, but theme exists in
virtually all literature.
 Moral does not equal theme!
 Questions for Determining
Theme
 What is the central purpose of
the piece?
 What view of life does the piece
support?
 What insight about life does the
piece reveal?
HOW DO YOU STATE THEME?
1. Theme must be a statement about the subject.

Cannot be one word or a simple phrase—what is the author saying about that idea?
(So what?)
2. Theme should be stated as a generalization about life.

Do not use the names of characters or specific plot elements and developments to
state the theme.
Do not make the generalization of theme larger than is justified by the terms of
the story. Use terms such as all, every, always, with caution!
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Unacceptable - The theme of “HE” is not that “All women will finally stand up to pig-headed men.”
Acceptable – “Humanity’s vices overpowers common sense.”
HOW DO YOU STATE THEME?
3. Theme is the central and unifying concept of the story. Thus, it
accounts for all the major details of the story.

If an important character or incident doesn’t fit the theme, then the theme needs
modification or the analysis is incomplete. The theme must be based on the data of the
story itself, not on assumptions supplied by the reader’s experience!
4. There is no ONE way to state the theme of a story, nor is there often just
one theme in a story.
5. Avoid any statement that reduces the theme to a cliché. (“You can’t
judge a book by its cover” or “A stitch in time saves nine”)
THEME SHORT STORY
 Miss Brill
 Young Goodman Brown
 The Storm
THEME ANALYSIS