Language
and techniques
Events
Theme
Characters
Setting
All the different short texts that we
can analyse in this way
• Miss Brill
• Requiem in a
townhouse
• Decent of the
flugelhorn
• Mr Van Gogh
• Yellow Brick Rd
• Return to Oz
• The Doll’s House
• Cowpats
• Pause
• Response
• Stopping by the woods
on a snowy evening
• The road not taken
• No Ordinary sun
• The Old place
• The wall
• Mending wall
• Nothing gold can stay
Language and
techniques
Home
Syntax
Poetry features
Motif
More poetic features
Metaphor
Simile
Allusion
Symbolism
Metaphor questions
A.
B.
What is a metaphor?
Identify three metaphors from the text
(For each metaphor answer the below questions)
•
What is the subject of the metaphor?
•
What is the subject being compared to?
•
Why do you think the author thought this was a clever
comparison?
•
What image comes to mind when you read this metaphor?
•
Is it a positive or negative image
•
Why do you think the author chose to include this image within
the story?
•
How does the image add to the message?
Home
A metaphor is…
A comparison between two dissimilar things
without using like or as. Abstract feelings can be
one of the things, eg love is a rose, or you could
use a two concrete objects, eg he is a monster.
The subject is the thing being described.
A positive metaphor is demonstrative of a positive
attitude towards the subject from the author.
Metaphor questions
Events
Throughout every text there are moments that
stand out as they seem to highlight information
about character and/or theme. Our job as
critical analysists we have to figure out what the
epiphany or lesson is.
Remember that we have to ask why writers of
short text have added certain lines, words and
phrases.
So…
Important moments questions
Identify three important moments that you think provide information
about the writers’ purpose and/or the stories’ characters.
(For each moment answer the below questions)
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Identify who is involved in the event?
What is the problem that the characters have to overcome?
How do they over come the problem?
What do we learn about the character from their reaction to
the problem?
Do you think that the right decision was made?
How do you think the author feels about the choice?
Do you believe that the problem faced by the character is
reflective of society?
What have we learnt about how society treats each other?
What lesson can be derived from this event?
Is there a pattern in relation to theme or is there more than
one theme?
Home
Setting
1.
2.
What are the different components of setting?
Where did the story occur? Was there more than one setting?
1.
3.
4.
5.
6.
How did the place dictate the behaviour of the characters?
What were the clues to which country the story was set in?
What was the social and economic situation for the characters?
How did this dictate the way they behaved and how they were
treated?
When did the story occur? Or when was it written?
1.
2.
3.
4.
7.
If there was more than one setting how did the two places differ in
relation to the language used to refer to it?
What do you know about this time period?
How was this evident within the story?
What differences could you identify between then and now?
What issues were prevalent at the time?
How does the story make a comment about the society?
Home
Characters
(Fill in the table below)
Name
Best quality
Motivation
(include proof)
Problems
Best quote
(include why
the quote is
his/her best)
Home
More character work
For each character complete these questions
1.
2.
3.
What do I think of myself?
What do those I am with think of me?
What are the three most important things that I choose to do? Are
these good choices, and what do they tell the reader about me?
What are the three most important things that I say?
What does the reader think of me?
4.
5.
•
6.
7.
8.
How does the author manipulate the reader?
What do I value? Are these good values?
What are my strengths and my weaknesses?
What is the most interesting thing about me?
Write a paragraph about me that sums up why I am important in
delivering the authors message.
Home
Minor Characters
For three minor characters complete these questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
What do I think of myself?
What do those I am with think of me?
What are the three most important things that I choose to do? Are
these good choices, and what do they tell the reader about me?
What are the three most important things that I say?
What does the reader think of me?
•
How does the author manipulate the reader?
What do I value? Are these good values?
What are my strengths and my weaknesses?
What is the most interesting thing about me?
Write a paragraph about me that sums up why I am important in
delivering the authors message.
Home
A simile is…
A comparison between two dissimilar things using
‘like’ or ‘as’. “My love is like a Rose” or “He is as
big as a giant”.
Like metaphor if the subject is compared to a
negative object then the simile creates a
negative tone.
Simile questions
Home
Simile questions
Identify three similes from the text.
• For each simile answer the below questions)
– What is the subject of the simile?
– What is the subject being compared to?
– Why do you think the author thought this was a clever
comparison?
– What image comes to mind when you read this
simile?
– Is it a positive or negative image
– Why do you think the author chose to include this
image within the story?
– How does the image add to the message
Home
Tone
Tone is the atmosphere or mood of the text.
The tone generally reflects or creates a
clue in regards to the authors attitude to
the subject or characters in the text.
When reading short text the best idea is to
find the tone first.
Next
Tone work
Each line of a poem, each paragraph of a story
• What is the subject
• Highlight the emotive words
• Identify the author’s mood
• Identify any language feature that you have highlighted
• Identify any patterns
– Has the writer used a feature more than once
– Is there any change of mood
– Is there any reason why the mood changes
– What is the overall mood of the author
Home
Allusion is …
Referring to other figures or forms of
literature within a piece of literature.
(Very Post-Modern)
It is done to hint at the idea that the writer is
trying to impress upon the reader.
Questions
Allusion questions
1.
2.
What or who is being alluded to within the text?
What do you know about the subject being referred
to?
i.
ii.
3.
What was the subject known for?
What did the subject stand for?
How do you think the allusion raises the thematic
concern of the piece of writing?
Home
Syntax
This is the sentence construction. You need to
understand that writing is a craft and that poets
and short story writers use sentences to form the
pace and tone of their writing. Syntax is just as
important to the writer as semantics.
Sentence types
Home
Semantics
Think hip hop stars from New Zealand. The
‘ill semantics’. Or, in a colloquial manner,
one Mr E is not too good with ‘Sick words
my homey brother’.
Semantics is the choice of word.
See diction
Diction
This is the register of the language.
High register language is very proper, very ‘highly’ educated
Low register language is very poorly or ‘lowly’ educated
When you write an essay or talk to any teacher it is expected that you
use high register language
Slang (swearing, street talk, sports field) and colloquial (conversational
with a mate) is low
Syntax
Sentence types
There are many different types of sentences
Simple
Complex
Compound
Compound – complex
Incomplete
Balanced
Periodic
Minor
Clauses are also important to understand,
Try to investigate parenthesis too!
You have been taught these over the last few years, please take the
time to refresh your memory. Definitions available on the e-coll site
Miss Brill
Stylistic features
Events
Theme
- Mistreatment of elderly
- Of the different
- Appearance v reality
Characters
Setting
Commonly used features of short
text
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•
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•
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•
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Personification
Symbolism
Repetition
Enjambment
Alliteration
Assonance
Sibilance
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•
•
•
•
•
•
Heroic couplet
End pause
Meter or Rhythm
Pun
Oxymoron
Onomatopoeia
Rhyme
Home
Personification is …
A form of metaphor in which something nonhuman is associated with or given human
characteristics, eg ‘Slowly, silently now the
moon/walks the night in her silver shawl’.
Here the object takes on a human characteristic
Home
Symbolism is …
When an object or image represents
a central and universal idea.
The ‘Golden Arches’ no more
just represent American fast
food, now they represent the
American capitalist regime
built on the sins of gluttony
and greed.
Home
Questions
Repetition is …
Repetition is …
Repetition is …
When poets repeat a word or phrase or
even an image to reinforce the central idea
within a text.
The effect of this is that it will stick in the
mind of the reader or the listener and
develop the tone.
Home
Enjambment is …
When a poet does not put any punctuation
at the end of a line so that it runs into the
next line; usually with an inflective pause.
It creates fluidity within the poem.
Home
Alliteration is …
The repetitive consonant sound at the
beginning of a series of words.
Christmas crackers crackled at the
consumption of the crackling.
Note that the consonant sound within the words is not underlined; that
is consonance
Home
Assonance is …
The repetition of the vowel sound within the word.
The racoon was a hoon
The silly loon attacked a broom
Or
Look who took the book
The ‘o’ in who does not fit the vowel sound
Home
Assonance
creates Rhyme
It is also good for long drawn out slow
periods of speech, and can create flow
in the text.
This is unlike alliteration which is
jumpier
Home
Sibilance is …
Consonance of ‘s’ sounds, eg ‘the grass
rustled in the breeze’
The effect of this is either to soften the tone
or to make it a harsh spitting sound
Home
Heroic couplet is …
A pair of rhymed lines, often used by
Shakespeare and other poets at the end of
a speech (and his sonnets), in order to
convey something important.
Home
End pause is …
When the line of poetry ends some
punctuation.
This creates a natural pause which places
emphasis on the following line as the
reader is made to wait
Home
Meter or Rhythm
The natural beat created by the words.
The rhythmic pattern which emerges when
the stressed and unstressed syllables fall
into a more or less regular sequence is
called meter.
The basic unit of metre is a group of two or
three syllables called a foot.
Home
Forms of Meter
Iambic
(unstressed - stressed)
x / x /
x
/ x / x
/
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.
Trochaic
(stressed – unstressed)
/
x / x
/ x / x
Through the shadows and the sunshine
Dactylic
(stressed – unstressed – unstressed)
/ x x / x x
/ x x / xx
Dactylic daintiness, lilting so prettily
Anapestic
(unstressed – unstressed – stressed)
x x
/
x x
/
x x / x x /
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea
Home
Labels for the number of feet in a
line:
monometer
dimeter
trimeter
tetrameter
pentameter
hexameter
one foot
two feet
three feet
four feet
five feet
six feet
This is one of the great mathematical theories that the Da Vinci code
touched on.
Home
Pun is …
A play on words in
a witty manner.
Such as
“Electricity.
A shocking way to go!”
Home
Oxymoron is …
The juxtaposition of two
antonyms to reinforce
the second words
meaning.
Such as…
Pretty Ugly
Home
Onomatopoeia…get it?
Home
Rhyme
Now is the time
for rhyme
The rhyme scheme here is aa. A rhyme scheme maps out the rhyme
within the poem and shows the pattern. A jumbled up rhyme
scheme shows indecision, while a tight one will lead you to a point.
If there is a change in rhyme scheme that is a pretty good hint that
the main point is close by
Home
Symbolism questions
When a writer focuses in on a seemingly
insignificant object that item is usually a
symbol.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Which items or images does the writer focus in on?
What are these items or images usually related to?
Are the items glorified or denigrated?
Are any of the items or images repeated?
What is the idea of the text?
How does incorporating this item or image help reinforce the main idea?
Are there any characters from the text that might be especially connected
with the image?
How would it effect the story if the item or image was not incorporated?
Symbolism def
Complete this table for each term or
feature of short story
Statement
Example
Xplain
Discuss
Technique
Example
Explain
Discuss
Symbol
Simile
Rhyme
Metaphor
Repetition
Rhythm
Own choice