COMMENTING ON A SHORT STORY

Commenting on a Short Story

I. Theme: in essence answers the question what the story is about. There are stories about family relations, love, friendship, or on the anti-war theme.

It should not be confused with the message or the main idea: a broad topic like life and death or some aspect of the writer’s philosophy.

2. Short Summary: A brief and comprehensive presentation of facts, essential points, a concise commenting on events described in the story.

3. Plot: is what happening in a story. It is the relationship of the incidents to one

another in a meaningful pattern of action and movement beginning with the exposition or introduction of the main situation, scene and character.

It includes the setting which links the plot to a specific time and place. It plays an active part in presenting the whole story, establishing mood and may even reveal the aspects of the protagonist character. Then follow complications or development of a story, a climax, or turning point at which the action reaches its peak and moves towards a solution and the denouement, or resolution.

There are different ways in which fiction writers develop plots. In some stories the incidents occur in strict chronological order, they follow one another according to a time sequence, moving from the beginning of the action to the end. In others the time sequence may be rearranged. The authors may present the conclusion first and then work toward an explanation of it or introduce information about the past relevant to the present, without interrupting the narration for a long time (flashback).

Another method of establishing unity in a story is foreshadowing: hinting what is to come through an incident, symbolic detail, dialogue or the title.

IV. Narrative Method: The first person narration. The story may be told by the main

character (the protagonist) or by a minor character.

This type of narration has immediacy, authority and naturalness, the speaker persuades you of the truth of the story because he is the eyewitness. However, disadvantages of first-person narrators are that they can be biased observers or participants who reveal only one aspect of situations and may be unreliable or unsympathetic and opposed to the values implicit in the story.

The third-person omniscient author reproduces the characters and comments on their actions, analyzing and summarizing them. The third-person observer-author speaks in a neutral fashion, from outside the action, merely recording the speech and actions of the characters. The weakness of the third-person narration is that the author, or narrator, reports everything at second-hand and does not always reveal actions in a direct way.

V. Characters: in a story, there are different types of characters: a major, main character, or protagonist, and minor characters: a foil, with distinctly opposing features to another character. The characters may be described directly or indirectly -through their actions, speech, psychological portrayal, appearance, environment or their names. They may be involved in conflicts: internal (an individual against

himself) and external (an individual against environment, another individual). To individualize, particularize and specify the characters, the writer may resort to various stylistic devices and means of expressiveness relying on his power to make his words convey more than they actually say.

VI. The tone (mood) of a story is the light in which the characters and events are

depicted. It may be formal, informal, serious, humorous, ironic, unemotional, matter-of-fact, dramatic, lyrical, cheerful, dry, etc.

VII. The language of a literary work:

(a) colloquial (short elliptical sentences, direct word order in questions, contracted forms, colloquialisms, phrasal verbs, etc.);

2. literary (long, complex sentences, formal vocabulary, terms);

3. expressive or neutral.

The character may also reveal himself in inner monologue or in a stream of conscience. In the first, the character's thoughts come in forth in orderly fashion. The purpose is to show what the character is thinking. In the stream of conscience the protagonist's thoughts come forth as a daydream, with no logical order. The purpose is to show how, as well as what the character is thinking.

FICTION

1. The author and the title

2. The summary (the theme, problems, characters, events, setting, conclusion)

SFTTING : To evoke the necessary atmosphere, appropriate to the intention of the story

To reinforce characterization

To parallel or contrast the action

To reflect the inner state of the character

To place... in a recognizable realistic environment

To become the chief antagonist

Realistic, historical, fantastic, exotic, rural...

The events are set in,,.

3. Plot structure (the exposition, complications, climax, resolution) EXPOSITION: To contain the necessary preliminaries to the events

To cast light on the circumstances

To supply information

To be compressed/extended into one sentence/several paragraphs COMPLICATIONS: To involve thoughts and emotions

To become tenser as the plot moves towards the climax CLIMAX: The moment of illumination for the whole story

To clarify

DENOUEMENT: The unwinding of the action

To reflect on all the circumstances 4. Plot structure technique / Pattern of narration

A straight line narrative presentation (chronological order)

A complex narrative structure (flashbacks to the past)"

A circular pattern (the closing event in the story returns the reader to the

introductory part]

A frame structure (a story within a story)

5. Presentational sequencing

Retardation (withholding of information)

Flashback technique (a scene of the past events inserted into the narration)

Foreshadowing (a look towards the future)

6. Narrative method

TYPE OF NARRATOR		NARRATIVE TYPE
Main character (subjectivity)		1st person-narrative "+" reveals the pers-ty of the narrator, verisimilitude, > confiding "-" limited presentation !!! (un)reliable
Minor character (subjectivity + objectivity)
Omniscient author (objectivity + subj-ty) All-seeing and all-knowing !II detached, limited or just omniscient		3rd person narrative
Observer-author (objectivity) Lets the reader judge for himself

Main character and Omniscient author = internal analysis Minor character and Observer-author = external analysis

The story is told from the point of view of an...

The events are presented through the perception of. ./the eyes and mind of...

The narrator shares the viewpoint of .../gives a biased view of...

To increase the immediacy and freshness of the impression

To stimulate imagination

To draw own conclusions

7. Characters (the main/central/major character/the protagonist, hero, heroine, antagonist, villain, foil, author's mouthpiece, a type, a caricature)

Simple/flat or complex/well-rounded character

The artistic detail is suggestive = it implies a great deal more than is directly

expressed by it

Particularities

To arouse warmth, affection, compassion, delight, admiration, dislike, disgust,

resentment, antipathy...

To reinforce characterization

To contribute to characterization, verisimilitude...

Indirect means of characterization:

Character's actions (behaviour, gestures,- thoughts,- decisions)

Speech characteristics (edu, age, occupation, relationships)

Psychological" portrayal", analysis of motive

Description of the outward appearance

Environment (+possessions)

The use of a foil

The naming of characters

8. Conflict (internal or external) 9. Tonality

The tone may be formal, semi-formal, Informal, conversational, casual,

sympathetic, cheerful, serious, humorous, lyrical, dramatic, excited, agitated, passionate, detached, matter-of-fact, dry, Impartial, melancholic, moralizing, unemotional, pathetic, ironical, sneering, bitter, reproachful...

The tone is maintained by a number of stylistic devices

To convey the peaceful/cheerful/cheerless/gloomy atmosphere

Attitudes may be agreeable, optimistic, involved, detached, indifferent, critical,

contemptuous, ironical, cynical...

To evoke a certain attitude

To share the author's attitude

To jeer/sneer/mock/satirize

To ridicule/poke fun at

A deliberate exaggeration

10. Idea and message

The story on the theme of... To render/represent reality

To raise/pose a problem To evoke a rational and emotional

To reveal its relevance response

To arouse/awaken interest The surface content

To lay the accent/stress on... To visualize

To accentuate/enforce/emphasize... To maintain suspense in the story

A traditional/personal symbol To contribute to the single effect