GUIDE TO LITERARY ANALYSIS / EVALUATING A STORY

 

GUIDE TO LITERARY ANALYSIS / EVALUATING A STORY 

A close scrutiny of a fine literary text may be in itself a richly satisfying and rewarding experience as it enhances our intercultural sensitivity and awareness that there are universal truths and sentiments that bind us. To be able to do it a student should be aware of the literary devices writers use to enrich their language and create complexity within a story. The short story is usually concerned with a single effect conveyed in only the one or a few significant episodes or scenes. The form encourages economy of setting and concise narrative; character is disclosed in action and dramatic encounter but is seldom fully developed. The way a story is presented is a key element in fictional structure.

     Any work of fiction consists of relatively independent ele­ments — narration, description, dialogue, interior monologue, digressions, etc. Narration is dynamic, it gives a continuous ac­count of events, while description is static, it is a verbal portrai­ture of an object, person or scene. It may be detailed and direct or impressionistic, giving few but striking details. Through the dialogue the characters are better portrayed, it also brings the action nearer to the reader, makes it seem more swift and more intense. Interior monologue renders the thoughts and feelings of a character. Digression consists of an insertion of material that has no immediate relation to the theme or action. It may be lyrical, philosophical or critical. The interrelation between different components of a literary text is called composition.

     Most novels and stories have plots. Every plot is an arrangement of meaningful events. No matter how insignificant or deceptively casual, the events of the story are meant to sug­gest the character's morals and motives. Sometimes a plot fol­lows the chronological order of events. At other times there are jumps back and forth in time (flashbacks and foreshadowing). The four structural components of the plot are exposition, com­plication, climax and denouement. Exposition contains a short presentation of time, place and characters of the story. It is usually to be found at the beginning of the story, but may also be" interwoven in the narrative by means of flashbacks, so that the reader gradually comes to know the characters and events leading up to the present situation. Complication is a separate incident helping to unfold the action, and might involve thoughts and feelings as well. Climax is the decisive moment on which the fate of the characters and the final action depend. It is the point at which the forces in the conflict reach the high­est intensity. Denouement means "the untying of a knot" which is precisely what happens in this phase. Not all stories have a denouement. Some stories end right after the climax, leaving it up to the reader to judge what will be the outcome of the conflict.

     The way a story is presented is a key element in fictional structure. This involves both the angle of vision, the point from which the people, events, and other details are viewed, and also the words of the story. The view aspect is called the focus or point of view, and the verbal aspect the voice. It is important to distinguish between the author, the person who wrote the story, and the narrator, the person or voice telling the story. The author may select a first-person narrative, when one of the characters tells of things that only he or she saw and felt. In a third-person narrative the omniscient author moves in and out of peoples thoughts and comments freely on what the char­acters think, say and do.

     Most writers of the short story attempt to create characters who strike us, not as stereotypes, but as unique individuals. Characters are called round if they are complex and develop or change in the course of the story. Flat characters are usually one-sided, constructed round a single trait; if two characters have distinctly opposing features, one serves as a foil to the other, and the contrast between them becomes more apparent. Round and flat characters have different functions in the conflict of the story.

     The conflict may be external, i.e. between human beings or between man and the environment (individual against nature, individual against the established order/values in the society). The internal conflict takes place in the mind, here the character is torn between opposing features of his per­sonality. The two parties in the conflict are called the protago­nist and his or her antagonist. The description of the different aspects (physical, moral, social) of a character is known as characterization when the author describes the character him­self, or makes another do it, it is direct characterization. When the author shows the character in action, and lets the reader judge for himself the author uses the indirect method of char­acterization.

     A short story is more than just a sequence of happenings. Its setting may be no less important than the events themselves. The term setting is generally taken to include not only the geographical place in which the events in a story happen, but also a historical era, the daily lives and customs of the characters. The particular time and physical location of the story form the setting. Such details as the time of the year, certain parts of - the landscape, the weather, colours, sounds, or other seemingly uninteresting details may be of great importance. The setting can have various functions in a given story:

1) it can provide a realistic background,

2) it can evoke the necessary atmosphere,

3) it can help describe the characters indirectly.

     The author's choice of characters, events, situations, details and his choice of words is by no means accidental. Whatever leads us to enter the author's attitude to his subject matter is called tone. Like the tone of voice, the tone of a story may communicate amusement, anger, affection, sorrow, contempt. Of the clearest indications of the tone of a story is the style in which it is written. In this sense, the notion of style means the language a writer and includes such traits as the length and complexity of sentences, the choice of words (abstract or concrete, bookish or colloquial) and the use of such stylistic devices as simile, metaphor, synecdoche, etc. One of the chief devices is the symbol. It may be a person, an object or an action that represents sometimes else because of its association with it. It is frequently a visible sign of something invisible.

The theme of a story is like unifying general idea about Life that the entire story reveals. In some stories the theme is unmistakable, in others, it is not obvious. That is, it  need not be a moral or a massage; it may be what the happenings add up to, what the story is about. Frequently writers are interested in suggesting rather than explaining the theme of a story, leaving it to the reader to infer, or deduce, the hidden meaning. They have a variety of means at their disposal, such as parallelism, contrast, repetition, artistic details, symbols, etc. Indeed, plot, focus and voice, and character are not so much interrelated, as they are fused and inseparable. The author rarely gives a direct statement of the theme in a story. It is up to the reader to col­lect and combine all his observations and finally to try to for­mulate the idea illustrated by the story. The most important generalization the author expresses is sometimes referred to as the message. The message depends on the writer's outlook, and the reader may either share it or not.

     There are few absolute rights or wrongs when it comes to analyzing a short story. Nevertheless, the underlying premise of our approach is that students must read each story twice at home.

    There are no hard and fast rules about text interpretation but one is usually expected to sum up the contents and ex­press his overall view of the story. The following questions will be useful in the analysis if a story.

COMPOSITION AND PLOT; FOCUS; VOICE

     What are the bare facts of the story? What is the exposi­tion, complication, climax and denouement? Are the elements of the plot ordered chronologically? How does the story begin? Is the action fast/slow moving? Which episodes have been given the greatest emphasis? Is the end clear-cut and conclusive or does it leave room for suggestion? On what note does the story end? Is the plot of major or minor importance? Does the author speak in his own voice or does he present the events from the point of view of one of the characters ? Has the narrator access to the thoughts and feelings"of all the characters? — Only a few? Just one? Is the narrator reliable? Can we trust his judge­ment? Is there any change in the point of view? What effect does this change have? Is the narrative factual/dry/emotional? Are the events credible or melodramatic?

CHARACTERS AND SETTING

     What are the characters names and what do they look like? Does this have any significance? Are the characters round or flat? Does the narrator employ interior monologue to render the thoughts and feelings of the characters? Are the characters credible? Do they act consistently? If not, why not? With what main problem is the protagonist faced? Is it a conflict with another individual? With society? Within himself? In the course of the story do the characters change as a result of their experience? Does the narrator sympathise with the characters? Remains aloof and detached? Is the particular setting essential or could the story have happened anywhere at any time? Has the narrator emphasised certain details? Which? Why? What functions does the setting have?

THEME AND ARTISTIC EFFECT

What is the general effect achieved? Has the writer caused characters, and settings to come alive? What was the conflict and how was is solved, if at all? Were there any striking repeti­tions of actions, words, thoughts or symbols? Has the protagonist learned anything? Has he or she acquired a greater knowledge or insight or reached a new awareness? Does the title of the story indicate anything about the theme? Are the theme and story fused and inseparable? How does the word choice and syntax contribute to the atmosphere? Does the story abound in tropes or does the narrator use them sparingly? What images lend the story a lyrical, melancholy, humorous effect? Are they genuine, poetic, fresh, trite, hackneyed, stale? Is the general tone matter-of-fact, sentimental, moralizing, bitter, ironical, sarcas­tic? What attitude to life does the story express? What seems to be the relationship between the author, the narrator and the reader?