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A GENERAL OUTLINE OF THE DISCUSSION OF A STORY

1. Speak about the author.

2. The subject matter: What is the story about? Give the gist of the story.

3. The title of the story, its role. How well does it suit the story? What element of the story is it connected with?

4. Specify the genre of the story. In writing a story the author may have different purposes in view. Accordingly, we may roughly distinguish various types of stories:

a) a story with an entertaining, briskly developing plot;

b) a story which is a study of human characters, a psychological story;

c) a humorous story whose sole aim is to amuse;

d) a problem story aiming at wide social generalization.

A story may also combine two or more of those types.

5. The point of view: By whom is the story told?

a) by one of the characters taking an active part in all the occurrences of the story;

b) by an outsider who speaks of people he knew but whose role in the plot is merely that of observer;

c) by the author, that is, a person who knows everything about the facts and the characters but takes no part in the action of the story;

In cases a) and b) the story is told in the first person (it is called a first-person narrative), but it is absolutely wrong to associate the “I” of the story with the writer who wrote the story. The “I” of the story is either one of the characters or the narrator. In case c) we speak about a third-person narrative (the story is told in the third person).

A story may also be told by several narrators.

6. Plot (it is a chain, or sequence of events in the story). Into what distinct parts does the story fall? The structural components of the plot are:

1) The exposition (introduction) provides the background information needed to properly understand the story, such as the problem in the beginning of the story, characters, and setting.

2) Complication (sometimes referred to as "rising action") is the series of events that "complicate" the story and build up to the climax.

3) Climax (culmination) is the highest point of intensity in a narrative work, the moment of the greatest tension. This is often the turning point of the story, when a character must make a difficult decision or take some kind of action.

4) Falling action occurs when the missing pieces of the puzzle are filled in (for example, secrets are revealed, mysteries solved, confessions made). The story "settles down."

5) Denouement (outcome) or is the conclusion of the story in which conflicts are resolved (at least to some degree), questions are answered, and characters are set to move on with a new understanding or under new circumstances.

How do these parts follow each other in the time? Are the events given in chronological order? Do different time planes overlap each other in the story? (Are there flashbacks and foreshadowing?)

Flashbacks interrupt what's going on in a story to tell about something that happened in the past. Authors use words like "He remembered when … " or "She thought about that time last year when …" Authors sometimes signal when the flashback is over by using words like Now or Today. A flashback gives readers a deeper understanding of a character's personality.

Foreshadowing gives readers clues about what might happen later in a story. Authors use foreshadowing to build suspense, tempt readers to predict what might happen, and persuade them to read on to find out if they were right. Foreshadowing also "sets up" future events so you're prepared for them and they make sense.

7. Comment on the way the author begins the story. A story may begin in different ways:

a) by stating its point, or the author’s purpose or reason for writing it;

b) by description of a character;

c) by the author’s meditation on problems related to the contents of the story;

d) by the action itself;

e) by a description of a place or circumstances associated with the story;

f) by referring to a fact or facts that occurred some time after the main facts of the story, so that the rest of it is given in retrospect.

8. Style and language. The language may be simple – which is good, - or primitive – which is certainly a drawback. It may also be too complicated, too bookish, pretentious; it may be expressive, emotional or unemotional, picturesque, or even flowery; it may be dull or colourless. Analysing the author’s language it is interesting to make a note of his use of expressive means of the language (synonymy, antonymy and phraseology) and of special stylistic devices. Lack of such will not mean yet that the language is poor; on the contrary, the author might be complimented for possessing a good sense of measure in his use of expressive devices.

Style is the distinctive way in which a writer uses language to inform or promote an idea. In addition to word choice, a writer's style consists of three basic components: sentence structure, degree of detail or description, degree of formality

9. Method of character portrayal. It may be direct (when the author himself tells us what this or that character is like) or indirect, sometimes also called dramatic (when the characters are revealed through their behavior, action, speech). The two methods may be combined. They may also be used in contrast, when the author consciously misleads the reader first describing a character in a certain way and then making him/her act in a striking contrast to that description, so that he is revealed in a new and unexpected light. Characters may be given by the author either statically or in development. A character may develop in different ways either the person himself may change in the course of the story, or our knowledge of him may change, then in the course of narration he is revealed to us in a new aspect.

How does the author use the characters’ speech for the purpose of characterization?

10. What is the main idea/message of the story?

11. Do you like the story? Give your reasons for liking/disliking it?

Stylistic devices (figures of speech, tropes)

Find the following stylistic devices in the extract under analysis.

1. An epithet is a word or a group of words used to express the subjective attitude of a writer towards some person or thing. The epithet is always subjective, evaluative and emotionally coloured.

Grammatically epithets usually appear as attributes in pre-position or post-position. Usually they are expressed by adjectives and adverbs.

2. A metaphor is the form of transference of meaning by which a word or phrase generally denoting one kind of object or idea is applied to another object or idea with the purpose of suggesting a likeness between them.

3. A simile is a figure of speech which draws a comparison between two objects belonging to entirely different classes.

Similes always have formal elements in their structure such as conjunctions “like”, “as”, “such as”, “as if”, “than” or they may be suggested by such verbs as “seem”, “resemble”.

Simile as a stylistic device should not be confused with an ordinary comparison, in which two objects belonging to the same class are compared (e.g. She is not so clever as her sister.)

4. Hyperbole (overstatement) is the expression of an idea in an exceedingly exaggerated way. Hyperbole is often used to produce a humorous effect.

5. Synonyms are words which can name one and the same object or phenomenon but they usually differ in some additional component (shade) of image-bearing or emotive-estimational character. Synonyms are often used to avoid repetition of one and the same word.

6. Irony is a stylistic device by which words used are made to convey a meaning opposite to their direct meaning. The principal function of irony is to produce a humorous, ironic effect. But irony may also convey a feeling of irritation, displeasure, pity or regret.

Note: As a stylistic device irony should not be confused with statements producing an ironic effect. The humorous or ironic effect in a piece of writing may be achieved in different ways (choice of words; a serious, matter-of-fact way of describing absurd things; the use of stylistic devices which are usually aimed at producing a humorous effect (pun, zeugma, modification of set expressions etc.)

7. Anticlimax: In anticlimax (which is the reverse of climax) the ideas fall off in dignity, or become less important at the close. Emotion or logical importance accumulated at the beginning of a sentence is unexpectedly broken or brought down, thus bringing forth a humorous or ironic effect.

8. Polysyndeton is the use of several conjunctions in close succession, especially where some might be omitted (as in "he ran and jumped and laughed for joy"). It is a stylistic scheme used to achieve a variety of effects: it can increase the rhythm of prose, speed or slow its pace, convey solemnity or even ecstasy and childlike exuberance.