What Is Literature and Why Do WeStudy It?

Literature is:

Composition that tells a story, dramatizes a situation, expresses emotions, analyzes and advocates ideas Helps us grow personally and intellectuallyProvides an objective base for knowledge and understanding Shapes our goals and values by clarifying our own

identities, both positively and negatively

Literature makes us human

GenresProse fiction

Myths, parables, romances, novels, short stories

Poetr

y Open form and closed formRelies on imagery, figurative language, sound

Drama

• Made up of dialogue and set direction• Designed to be performed Nonfiction prose

News reports, feature articles, essays, editorials, textbooks, historical and biographical works

The Elements of

Short Stories

Setting

Theme

Conflict

Plot

Characters

Short Story Elements

POV

SettingSetting

Time and place Time and place are where and are where and when the action when the action occursoccurs

the setting provides the historical and cultural context for characters. It often can symbolize the emotional state of characters.

The The Functions of Functions of

a Settinga Setting• to create a mood or

atmosphere• to show a reader a

different way of life• to make action

seem more real• to be the source of

conflict or struggle• to symbolize an idea• to tell readers about

the characters

We left the home place behind, mile by slow mile, heading for the mountains, across the prairie where the wind blew forever.

At first there were four of us with one horse wagon and its skimpy load. Pa and I walked, because I was a big boy of eleven. My two little sisters romped and trotted until they got tired and had to be boosted up to the wagon bed.

That was no covered Conestoga, like Pa’s folks came West in, but just an old farm wagon, drawn by one weary horse, creaking and rumbling westward to the mountains, toward the little woods town where Pa thought he had an old uncle who owned a little two-bit sawmill. Taken from “The Day the Sun Came Out” by D. Johnson

Aspects of a SettingAspects of a Setting

physical

time

placeatmosphere

setting

Geographical location

night

month

history

Day, dateWeather condition

mood

feeling

nature

Social Condition

culture

Daily life

Local color: speech, dress, mannerisms,

custom

The time periodFor example: 1865, during WWII, today, Time of Time of day, Time of yearday, Time of year

Civil War has come to Mississippi. Colonel John Sartoris, a Southern planter, has formed a regiment, his second one. As was common with Southern regiments, members of a regiment may expel their colonel by a vote, and this had occurred with John's first. He returns home, in order to oversee the building of a hidden pen for his stock, so that the few animals he owns will be hidden when the Yankee soldiers come. At home are Bayard, his young son, cared for by Rosa Millard, his mother-in-law. Bayard's mother died in childbirth. Also on the plantation are a number of Negro slaves whose family has been on this plantation for generations. A young Negro boy, Ringo, is the same age as Bayard, and they have grown together as brothers. Continuing to..... “The Unvanquished” by William Faulkner

The geographical location For example: London, Cairo, Vancouver

In the early morning the sun threw my shadow westward as I hurried down the white chasms of lower New York to the probity Trust. I knew the other clerks … by their first names, and lunched with them in the dark, crowded restaurants on little pig sausages and mashed potatoes and coffee … I began to like new York, the racy adventurous feel of it at night, and the satisfaction that the constant flicker of men and women and machines gives the restless eye. “The Great Gatsby”, F. Scott Fitzgerald

The social conditionFor example: wealthy suburbs, Furniture, Furniture,

Scenery, Customs, Transportation, Clothing, Scenery, Customs, Transportation, Clothing, DialectsDialects

Jefferson, a county in northern Mississippi, on the border between the sand hills covered with scrubby pineland the black earth of the river bottoms. Except for the storekeeper, mechanics, and professional men who lived in Jefferson, the county seat, all the inhabitants are farmers or woodsmen. Except for little lumber, their only commercial product is baled cotton for Memphis market. A few of them live in big plantation houses, but still more of them are tenants, no better housed than slaves on good plantations. “The Unvanquished” by William Faulkner.

atmosphere The mood of a short story is established through

detailed descriptions of the settings, people, and atmosphere of a story.

For example, if you are writing a scary story about a haunted house, the mood will be dark and foreboding. The setting should be dark – muted colors and shadowy corners – and the characters should be feeling a mixture of excitement and delicious fear. If, however, you are writing about Jessica’s Great Adventures, the mood should be charged with energy and bright in feel. Sunny skies, green grass, excitement in the air; you get the picture.

“During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, though a singularly dreary tract of country.”

“The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe

Weather conditions

“During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, though a singularly dreary tract of country.” “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe

what must be noted when analyzing literature especially short story:

1. Every idea is correct when it is supported with strong (specific and related) evidences.2. Evidence could be phrase, sentences or paragraph from the story that supports the idea.3. Analysis is the idea which discussing the evidence related to the topic and explanation on the evidence

It was just before Christmas in 1864, after the Yankees had burned Jefferson and gone away, and we didn’t even know for sure if the war was still going on or not. All we knew was that for three years the country had been full of Yankees, and then all of sudden they were gone and there were no men there at all anymore…so that now we lived in a world of burned towns and houses and ruined plantation and fields inhabited only by woman. (page or line) “The Unvanquished” by William Faulkner.

Evidence

From the quotation above gives a clear description about the setting of the story, the Civil War was the background of the story. The writer directly write the setting of time of the story which happened before Christmas in 1864 when the Yankees occupied Jefferson. Jefferson becomes the setting of place of this story. The Yankees destroyed the city, burned the farms and plantation houses and then left all the messes. All men in the city were running away to save themselves from the Yankees and the city only inhabited by women and children. The atmosphere of the story could also be found in the paragraph above. The atmosphere is shaped by the war that gives us the atmosphere of fear.

Page/line

Analysis

rephrase the evidence

Atmosphere analysis

EXAMPLE OF SETTING ANALYSIS

Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of 2000, the population was 9,740. Jefferson County has the highest percentage of African Americans of any county in the United States, as well as the most statistically obese in the nation. It is also one of the poorest counties in the nation. Jefferson County is named after U.S. President Thomas Jefferson.

CHARACTERS

Characters

The people (or animals, things, etc. presented as people) appearing in a literary work.

The character’s personalities or qualities

The characteristics of a person

The person in a work of fiction

The person in a work of fiction

•Protagonist: The main character in a literary work •Antagonist: The character who opposes the protagonist

Types of characters• Round Characters are

convincing, true to life. Have many different and sometimes even contradictory personality traits.

• Dynamic Characters undergo some type of change or development in story, often because of something that happens to them

• Flat Characters are stereotyped, shallow, and often symbolic. Have only one or two personality traits

• Static Characters do not change in the course of the story

CharacterizationCharacterization

A writer reveals what a A writer reveals what a character is like and character is like and how the character how the character changes throughout changes throughout the story.the story.

Methods of Characterization

IndirectIndirectRevealing a

character’s personality through:

• The character’s thoughts, words, and actions

• The comments of other characters

• The character’s physical appearance

DirectDirectThe author develops the personality of a character by direct statements and tells tells what the what the character is character is likelike

Direct Characterization“Jack had been in basic training in Florida and

Dottie was there on vacation with her parents. They’d met on the beach and struck up a conversation. Dottie was the talker, the outgoing one – the extrovert. Jack was too shy around girls to say much at all.”“Furlough – 1944” by Harry Mazer

…And I don’t play the dozens or believe in standing around with somebody in my face doing a lot of talking. I much rather just knock you down and take my chances even if I’m a little girl with skinny arms and a squeaky voice, which is how I got the name Squeaky. From “Raymond’s Run” by T. Bambara

Indirect Characterization through Thoughts

“Moonbeam closed his eyes and pretended to sleep the rest of the way to Bamfield. He couldn’t believe what he had gotten himself into. How had this happened? He’d never held a gun in his life, much less gone hunting for animals.”“Moonbeam Dawson and the Killer Bear”

by Jean Okimoto

Indirect Characterization through Words

It was Kenny Griffen, smiling complacently. “Miss Bird sent me after you ‘cause you been gone six years. You’re in trouble… yer constipated!” Kenny chortled gleefully. “Wait’ll I tell Caaathy!”“Here There Be Tygers” by Stephen King

Indirect Characterization through Actions

“The boy held his breath; he wondered whether his father would hear his heart beating… Through a crack in the counter he could see his father where he stood, one hand held to his high stiff collar…” “I Spy” by Graham Greene

Indirect Characterization through Appearance

“Miss Kinney was young and blonde and bouncy and had a boyfriend who picked her up after school in a blue Camaro.” “Here There Be Tygers” by Stephen King