English
1302 Essay 3
Due
Date: Assignments page
for all due dates.
Heading: Your
paper must have a heading that includes your name, the course name, and
the essay number. The heading must
appear in the top, left corner, as in the following example:
Your Name
English
1302
Essay
3
Topic of Essay 3: Central idea, character, conflict, point of view,
setting, and language in the story of your choice.
Story
for Analysis (choose one of the following):
v
"The
Most Dangerous Game" (Analyzing Short Stories, 176-197--not in Short
Fiction).
v
Bambara. "The Lesson"
v
Crane. "The Open Boat"
v
Important
note: Never write about a story
you do not understand. One of the
reasons you are given a choice of stories to write about is that I want to make
certain you can pick a story that you can understand well to analyze in your
essay. I am always happy to discuss the
stories with you, and so are the English tutors in the learning labs at all ACC
campuses. Remember, their help is
absolutely free to all ACC students.
Take advantage of this valuable resource.
Length: Approximately
600-700 words, including analyzed quotations from the story. Your essay may be longer, but please do not
make it longer by relating details about the story's plot.
Essay
Format
v
Title:
Your essay must have a
title. The title of your paper will
immediately follow your heading. Do not
put quotation marks around your own title. Do put quotation marks around the title of the
story you are discussing. This is an
example of how your heading and title should look:
Your Name
English
1302
Essay
3
Central Idea, Character, Point of View,
Conflict, Setting,
and Language in ___________________________
v
Paragraph
1: This paragraph begins by giving a brief summary of the story, no
more than three or four sentences.
The last sentence of the first paragraph states the central idea of the
story. Underline the statement of the
central idea of the story.
v
Paragraph
2: This paragraph gives a defense of your central idea--reasons
why you formulated this particular main idea statement. The central idea statement that you have
formulated is the thesis statement (main idea) of your essay. What events from the story led you to this
central idea? This paragraph and the
rest of your essay will defend your central idea. Make certain that you fully understand the
chapter on central idea in Analyzing Short Stories and the short story
about which you are writing. If
necessary, read them more than once. If
you are not certain you understand them, feel free to email or telephone me, or to come by my office to discuss the readings. I'm here to help you understand the readings
and assignments just as though you were taking this course in the
classroom. In fact, it's even more
important to ask me for explanations than it would be if you were taking the
class on campus.
v
Paragraph
3: This paragraph analyzes the characters in the
story. Here you will need to state who
the main character (protagonist) is, and use the terminology (such as flat,
round, static, and dynamic) from the chapter on character in Analyzing
Short Stories to thoroughly analyze him or her. Your analysis should show how the author uses
this character to develop the central idea of the story. How is this character described in the
story? What does he or she think, say,
and do? What does he or she learn, and
how dies he or she changes by the end of the story? What effect does he or she have on the lives
of the other characters? (Not all these
questions are relevant to the protagonist in every story.) This paragraph should also include a discussion
of at least one or two other characters in the story. How do these characters further the plot,
provide situational conflict, add tension to the story, and act as a force with
which the protagonist must deal? A
detailed analysis should be made of any character who
appears to be almost as important as the protagonist.
v
Paragraph
4: This paragraph discusses the point of view used in the
story. Point of view refers to the type
of narration the story uses: who is
telling the story and the vantage point from which he or she is observing the
events of the story. When writing about
point of view, never say, "the author of
this story says. . .
." A story is written by
an author, but it is told by a narrator. The narrator does not have to be a real
person, a character in the story, but in first person narration, the
narrator can be an actual character in the story. If the story is being told using the words
"I" or "we," it uses first person narration. For example, the story "A&P"
uses first person narration because the person telling the story is also
the main character or protagonist in "A&P." On the other hand, "Desiree's Baby"
uses omniscient narration or point of view because the story is not
told by an "I" or a "we," but by a narrator who gets into
the heads of all the major characters, Armand and Desiree, and reveals their
thoughts and feelings. The word omniscient
has two roots or parts: omni
(which means "all,") and scient (which means
"knowing," as in
scientist).
Therefore, the word omniscient means
"all-knowing." The word
"omniscient" is often used to refer to God because, according to the
Bible, He knows everything. In limited omniscient point of
view, the narrator gets into only one character's head, so the narrator
is limited to revealing only that one character's thoughts and
feelings. Dramatic narration is
said to be objective because it presents the characters to the reader without
directly revealing what is going on in their minds. Dramatic point of view uses lots of
dialogue; it tells us what the characters have to say, and we have to figure
out what they must be thinking and feeling for ourselves. Some stories cannot be said to have only one
type of narration. At one point the
narration can seem to be omniscient, and then at another point it seems to be
strictly dramatic. Stories are not always consistent in point of
view. They can combine multiple points
of view and even use more than one narrator.
The following statement
contradicts what you have read on page 29 of Analyzing Short Stories. (No problem, great minds do not always
have to think along the same track.)
Stories that are told from multiple points of view tend to be
interesting but extremely complex and difficult to understand. You're probably thinking, "If this is
true why would the author want to do this?" Good question. Just as there is more than one way to look at
things that happen in real life, there are different ways to look at the events
in a story too. Having different
perspectives might make for a more challenging story, but it can also make for
a more interesting one. If you read the
four stories assigned above very carefully, you will see that different parts
of one story are being told from different points of view.
v
Paragraph
5: This paragraph discusses the conflict in the
story. While conflicts in some stories
can be extremely complex, the meaning of the element of conflict is not
difficult to understand. There are two
basic types. When there is internal
conflict, a character (usually the protagonist) is wrestling with himself . The
problem can be anything from a drug or drinking problem to a moral dilemma to a
decision he has to make. In external
conflict, the protagonist or other characters are in conflict with someone
or something else. That someone
or something can be another person, a family, a town or community and its value
system, or an outside force such as nature or even God.
v
Paragraph
6: This paragraph discusses the setting of the
story. Setting deals with both the time
and the place the story takes place. The
setting of the story supports all the other elements. The way the characters thing, talk, dress,
and even their mental state are shaped by the setting of the story. So is the story's conflict. (How could the movie Saving
Private Ryan have been set
anywhere except World War II on D-Day?
Setting also affects point of view.
(To take another example from the movies, parts of Sling Blade are set in a mental institution, where one of the inmates narrates his
own gruesome story.)
v
Paragraph
7: This paragraph analyzes the language used in
the story. Look for similes and metaphors
used in the story. Point out figurative
language the author used to help us see, feel, taste, smell, and hear what is
happening in the story. If the author
has done a good job of creating the story, you should be able to make a mental
video of the story in your mind as you read it.
Which passages from text contribute most to this video? When you recall the story, what image stands
out most clearly in your mind? The
answers to these questions should help you create your discussion of the
story's language. Do not forget to quote
passages from the story to support your analysis; the use of quotations is more
essential in discussing language than in any other element in your essay.
If
you do not know how to use quotations in a paper, please click the following
link to a web site that gives a clear explanation of how to do this: using
quotations. Once you reach
this site, click the links to
"Introducing Quotations" and "Punctuating and
Formatting Quotations." They
contain all the information you should need in order to use quotations
correctly in your essays for this class.