Short+Stories

Short Stories // How do authors use literary elements, such as figurative language, and rhetorical devices to construct the mood, tone, and theme of a short story? How does characterization or the lack thereof contribute to the work as a whole? //
 *  Essential Questions: **

 We will be reading out of a prepared anthology that is distributed at the beginning of the year. Please refer to the following specific questions when reading a short story to help your analysis:


 * 1) Is the primary interest of the story in plot, character, theme, or some other element?
 * 2) What contribution to the story is made by setting? Is the particular setting essential, or could the story have happened anywhere?
 * 3) What are the characteristics of the author’s style? Are they appropriate to the nature of the story?
 * 4) What light is thrown on the story by its title?
 * 5) Do all the elements of the story work together to support a central purpose? Is any part irrelevant or inappropriate?
 * 6) What do you conceive to be the story’s central purpose (theme)? How fully has it achieved that?
 * 7) Does the story offer chiefly escape or interpretation? How significant is the story’s purpose?
 * 8) Does the story gain or lose on a second reading?

Prose Note-making Guide

In the home stretch...

In order to prepare for the AP exam and to familiarize ourselves with as many short stories as possible, you will be spending the next week reading as many of the short stories below as you can. You are expected to read at least 10 of them. For each story, you are expected to compose a blog entry (blogs can be created using your gmail account via blogspot.com). Each blog entry should cover the reader-response context and critical analysis context (how the author creates his/her purpose). Writing should be organized and follow standard English. You are permitted to write in the first person for the reader-response question. Feel free to include graphics and/or links in your blog as well.

The Birthmark - Nathaniel Hawthorne Young Goodman Brown - Nathaniel Hawthorne A Country Doctor - Franz Kafka Barn Burning - William Faulkner Hills Like White Elephants - Ernest Hemingway The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman A Good Man Is Hard to Find - Flannery O’Connor The Boarding House - James Joyce Eveline - James Joyce The Fall of the House of Usher - Edgar Allen Poe Happy Endings - Margaret Atwood An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge - Ambrose Bierce The Lady with the Dog - Anton Chekhov The Secret Sharer - Joseph Conrad Girl - Jamaica Kincaid The Appointment in Samarra - W. Somerset Maugham The Sin-Eater - Margaret Atwood To Build a Fire - Jack London The Open Boat - Stephen Crane Harrison Bergeron - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. The Chrysanthemums - John Steinbeck On the Road - Langston Hughes Roman Fever - Edith Wharton A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

// In order to prepare for the AP exam and to familiarize ourselves with as many short stories as possible, you will be spending the next week reading, researching, and organizing a reproducible guide to one of the above short stories //
 * Previous Years**

// Your reproducible guide should be coherent and organized in order to help your classmates appreciate your short story and will serve as a study guide for the AP exam for your classmates. In addition to being visually appealing, the guide should cover the following contexts: biographical, historical, and literary. //

__ **Biographical Context:** __
 * **Writer’s Story**: What significant events in the author’s life impact the theme or writing/style of the story?
 * **Other Works**: What other works have received notoriety, if any? Include multiple genres if applicable. Do those works connect in any way (thematically, setting, tonally, cross-characters, etc.)?

__**Historical Context:**__
 * **Macrocosm**: What is the time and place of the author’s life? What was going on in the world during this time and in this place? How do these events impact the characters, setting, themes, etc. of the short story?
 * **Microcosm**: What is the time and place of the story? What was going on in the world during this time and in this place? Are these events significant to the plot, theme, tone, or mood of the story? Why or why not?

__**Literary Context:**__
 * **Abstract**: Write a succinct and articulate summary of the short story. This should be approximately one-two paragraphs; any longer, and you are re-telling the story.
 * ** Technical Details **__ : __
 * __Plot__: How does the author reveal exposition (via flashback or linearly)? Are conflicts internal or external? Specify. If they are resolved, how so?
 * __Characters__: Who are the major characters? Describe the personalities and classify them (flat/round, static/dynamic). Analyze how the author develops the characters (through action alone, or through elements/devices)? Are there any foils?
 * __Point of View__: Identify the point of view (1st/3rd Person, Limited/Omniscient) and name the narrator if applicable. What bias, if any, does the narrator seem to have? How does the point of view impact the theme, mood, or tone of the short story?
 * __Motif and Theme__: Identify the major motifs of the story and develop possible themes for each motif.

__**Significant Quotations:**__ Give examples of sentences or passages which are significant to the theme and/or reveal the author’s style. Be sure to explain why you cite these examples.

// On the presentation days, you will present your information as a type of book talk. There is no set structure, only that you cover the plot, characterization, conflict, setting, theme, and author style and your own thoughts on all of the aforementioned. There is no time minimum or maximum. While you are presenting, your peers will have a copy of your reproducible guide; no other visuals are required. This will be an informal setting, so there is no need to dress formally either. Be prepared to answer questions from your peers as well as me. //

The guide is worth 100 points; the presentation worth 20.

Exemplar: