Review of Character in Short Stories

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English 102

• Review of Character in Short Stories

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Methods of characterization
Direct Expository Explicit
Indirect Dramatic Implicit
Most often used
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Principles of Characterization
Consistency
Motivation
Plausibility
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Types of Characters
Round
Flat
Stock
interchangeable
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Degree of Change
Static The character is the same at the end of
the story as he or she is at the beginning.
Developing or Dynamic The character undergoes a
permanent change in character, personality, or
outlook.
Often provides a clue to the storys meaning, or
theme
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Irony in Fiction
VERBAL IRONY THE DISCREPANCY IS BETWEEN WHAT IS
SAID AND WHAT IS MEANT.
DRAMATIC IRONY THE CONTRAST IS BETWEEN WHAT A
CHARACTER SAYS AND WHAT THE READER KNOWS TO BE
TRUE.
SITUATIONAL IRONY THE DISCREPANCY IS BETWEEN
APPEARANCE AND REALITY, BETWEEN EXPECTATION AND
FULFILLMENT, BETWEEN WHAT IS AND WHAT WOULD SEEM
APPROPRIATE.
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Alice Walker Born 1944
Biography
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Heritage
Antagonist
Protagonist
Mother and Maggie
Dee/ Wangero
Honesty and Integrity
Self posturing / artificiality
Self-Sacrifice
Rapacity
Authentic relationship to a heritage of things
made for everyday use
Ethnic Pretentiousness
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The quilts symbolize the following
Inherited values
Family attachments
Independence
Self-reliance
The beauty of useful objects
The virtue of craftmanship
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Everyday Use Theme
A person whose honesty and tolerance have long
made her susceptible to the strong will of
another may reach a point where she will exert
her own will for the sake of justice.
P. 135
Ingrained habits may be given up if justice makes
a greater demand.
P. 135
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Katherine Mansfield
1888-1923
Biography
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Miss Brill Plot Structure
Climax, pars. 11-16
Fantasy world punctured
Rising action, 10 paragraphs
Falling action, 2 paragraphs
1. Presentation of her character 2. Mood
Fantasy world
Ends Par. 18
Exposition
Denouement / Resolution
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Theme for Miss Brill Story and Structure, p.
136
Isolated elderly people, unsupported by a network
of family and friends, may make a satisfying
adjustment through a pleasant fantasy life, but
when their fantasy is punctured by the cold claw
of reality, the effect can be devastating.
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Tobias Woolf Born 1945
Interview
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Hunters in the Snow portrays shifting alliances
Tub vs Kenny and Frank, from pars 18 through
50 This is when Kenny enters the farmhouse
Hint of shift in allegiance at par 57
par 70, Frank turns away.
Climax at par 80 . . . Tub shoots Kenny
pars 131 to 139 Tub confronts Frank Frank says
Im sorry.
pars 145 to 239, Tub and Frank vs Kenny,
which includes the enabling scene, from pars
224 to 230
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Theme for Hunters in the Snow
Some human beings, especially when isolated in a
natural, bleak setting, may shed their socially
constructed humane traits and become as primitive
and predatory as the most unevolved natural
creatures, forming symbiotic alliances--devoid of
charity or love-- purely to further their own
gains.
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END
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Chapter 3 Character
Tobias Woolf
Katherine Mansfield
Alice Walker
Born 1945
Born 1944
1888-1923
Biography
Biography
Interview