Review of Character in Short Stories

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• Review of Character in Short Stories

ENH 110
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Methods of characterization
Direct Expository Explicit
Indirect Dramatic Implicit
Most often used
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Principles of Characterization
Consistency
Motivation
Plausibility
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Types of Characters
Round multi-faceted, complex
Flat
one or two memorable traits can be summed up in a
sentence
Stock
interchangeability
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Degree of Change
Static The character is the same at the end of
the story as he or she is at the beginning.
Developing or Dynamic The character undergoes a
permanent change in character, personality, or
outlook.
Often provides a clue to the storys meaning, or
theme
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Epiphany
Epiphany is Twelfth Night - 6 January - when
Christ was visited by the Three Wise Men, and
his divinity was revealed to the world. It
derives from a Greek word, epiphainein, meaning
'to manifest', and in pre-Christian times it was
used to record appearances of gods and goddesses.
Traditionally the word has kept this specific
religious association, but over the years it has
been secularized to refer to other, non-divine
forms of revelation. Joyce's secular
epiphany The principal writer to extend the
meaning of the word as a secular term was James
Joyce, who was interested in sudden, dramatic
and startling moments which seemed to have
heightened significance and to be surrounded with
a kind of magical aura.
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Irony in Fiction
VERBAL IRONY THE DISCREPANCY IS BETWEEN WHAT IS
SAID AND WHAT IS MEANT.
DRAMATIC IRONY THE CONTRAST IS BETWEEN WHAT A
CHARACTER SAYS AND WHAT THE READER KNOWS TO BE
TRUE.
SITUATIONAL IRONY THE DISCREPANCY IS BETWEEN
APPEARANCE AND REALITY, BETWEEN EXPECTATION AND
FULFILLMENT, BETWEEN WHAT IS AND WHAT WOULD SEEM
APPROPRIATE.
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Alice Walker Born 1944
Biography
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Heritage
Antagonist
Protagonist
Mother and Maggie
Dee/ Wangero
Honesty and Integrity
Self posturing / artificiality
Self-Sacrifice
Rapacity
Authentic relationship to a heritage of things
made for everyday use
Ethnic Pretentiousness
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The quilts symbolize the following
Inherited values
Family attachments
Independence
Self-reliance
The beauty of useful objects
The virtue of craftsmanship
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Everyday Use Theme
A person whose honesty and tolerance have long
made her susceptible to the strong will of
another may reach a point where she will exert
her own will for the sake of justice.
Ingrained habits may be given up if justice makes
a greater demand.
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Raymond Carver
1938-1988 Biography
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Minimalism
In the 1970's and 1980's, a mode of writing known
as Minimalism became very popular. Minimalism
presents what is often a bare, simplified
snapshot of some event, insisting that the reader
imagine the rest of the circumstances and guess
about their impact. Minimalism can be
characterized by ordinary subject matter,
straightforward narratives, and slightness of
story. Minimalism reflects a number of
contemporary thoughts. First of all this style
reflects the growing complexities of the world
by refusing any attempts at explaining the
presented reality to the reader. Minimalism also
suggests that contemporary life has become too
bland and standardized to support a strongly
dramatic art we shop in malls, eat fish sticks
and sleep under electric blankets. Minimalism
also reflects the post-modern idea that the
story does not exist without the reader. Since
the story takes place in the readers mind, the
reader needs to create the story as much as the
writer does. Raymond Carver, Anne Beattie, Amy
Hemple and Mark Strand are writers that use
techniques of minimalism.
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Possible Themes for Cathedral
Barriers tend to break down when
people effectively communicate with one another.
Even those not physically blind sometimes need
to be taught to see.
Stereotyping often renders sighted people blind
to the common humanity we all share.
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Barcelona Cathedral by Antonio Gaudi
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Katherine Mansfield
1888-1923
Biography
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Miss Brill Plot Structure
Climax, pars. 11-16
Fantasy world punctured
Rising action, 10 paragraphs
Falling action, 2 paragraphs
1. Presentation of her character 2. Mood
Fantasy world
Exposition
Ends Par. 18
Denouement / Resolution
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Theme for Miss Brill Story and Structure, p.
136
Isolated elderly people, unsupported by a network
of family and friends, may make a satisfying
adjustment through a pleasant fantasy life, but
when their fantasy is punctured by the cold claw
of reality, the effect can be devastating.
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William Faulkner
1897-1962 Biography
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He could not hear either the galloping mare was
almost upon him before he heard her, and even
then he held his course, as if the very urgency
of his wild grief and need must in a moment more
find him wings, waiting until the ultimate
instant to hurl himself aside and into the
weed-choked roadside ditch as the horse thundered
past and on, for an instant in furious
silhouette against the stars, the tranquil early
summer night sky which, even before the shape of
the horse and rider vanished, stained abruptly
and violently upward a long, swirling roar
incredible and soundless, blotting the stars, and
he springing up and into the road again, running
again, knowing it was too late yet still running
even after he heard the shot and, an instant
later, two shots, pausing now without knowing he
had ceased to run, crying "Pap! Pap!," running
again before he knew he had begun to run,
stumbling, tripping over something and scrabbling
up again without ceasing to run, looking
backward over his shoulder at the glare as he
got up, running on among the invisible trees,
panting, sobbing, "Father! Father! (from
paragraph 107)
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Willa Cather 1893-1947
Biographical Information
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Antagonist
Protagonist
Himself
Paul
Fantasy world Carnegie hall, picture galleries,
Stock Theatre, and New York
Real world his school and Cordelia Street, his
father, and the future working in the steel
industry
These represent drabness, darkness,
silence, colorlessness, commonness, physical
depression.
These represent glamour, lights, music, color
and luxury the spark.
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Theme for Pauls Case Because the
inner beings of some people are too fragile to
carry the ever-increasing weight of what they
perceive as frightfully oppressive real world
problems, they may escape to even ultimate
fantasy world solutions for throwing it off.