Writing About Short Fiction:
I) Where to Begin
Analyzing a short story begins with careful reading. First read to understand what happens (the plot), who is involved (the characters), and where and when the action takes place (the setting).
Once you have the plot, characters, and setting of the story clear in your mind, you should re‐read and annotate the story (mark the parts the stand out to you). In order to write an effective analytical essay, you must examine specific elements—character, structure, symbols and imagery, point‐of‐view, setting and atmosphere—so that you can demonstrate how the author has made particular use of one or several of these elements to illuminate the story’s theme. While your instructor may want you to examine just one or two elements in your essay (be sure to check your assignment sheet), it is often helpful to begin by looking at many elements. We’ll discuss these elements, and the concept of theme, in more detail in the following section.
II) Pre‐writing
To begin writing an essay that analyzes short fiction, you should have a working idea of the theme and some idea of how that theme is developed. As the U of A’s Composition II textbook, Literature and the Writing Process, points out, the theme of a work of literary short fiction cannot be expressed as a moral, which is usually "a neatly stated, preachy comment on some vice or virtue." Instead, you should think of the story’s theme as some insight into the human condition. You should also be careful not to confuse theme with topic:
(x) Moral: The moral of Chekhov’s "The Lady with the Dog" is even a very bad man can turn good.
(x) Topic: Chekhov’s the "Lady with the Dog" is about change in character.
(√) Theme: The theme of Chekhov’s "The Lady with the Dog" is how even the most unlikely of men is capable of sacrificing a great deal when affected by love.
Topic tells us what a story is about. Theme tells us what a story means. Don’t worry too much if a precise statement of theme does not come to you immediately. Sometimes writing is an act of discovery. /07 mg 2
may come into clearer focus as you draft and revise. However, you should try to write a working statement of the story’s theme. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect at this stage. You’ll be able to improve it as you progress.
After you have written your working statement of theme, you are ready to begin the more focused part of your analysis. When you analyze, you are looking at specific elements of the story to discover how they contribute to the theme. Begin by exploring a particular element of the story: character, structure, etc. You might want to repeat the process for several different elements to discover which one or two will work best for your essay. Make notes on various aspects of these elements by using questions like the following:
A) Character
•Who is the protagonist of the story? Does he/she have a foil or an antagonist?
•How is the character described, and what might this physical description suggest about the character’s traits?
•What traits of the main character does the author first reveal?
•What traits are revealed through the story’s action?
•What do a character’s reactions tell us about him/her?
•Why does the author choose to show us these character traits?
•Are there differences between what the characters say and what they do?
•In what way does our understanding of this character change because of this/these revelation(s)?
•What changes, if any, does the character go through in the story?
B) Structure
•Does the story progress in a straight line until the central conflict is resolved?
•If there are digressions, flashbacks, and/or other elements which alter the forward motion of the story, why does the author stop the forward movement, and what does she want us to know about the character that we could not know otherwise?
•What events complicate the central conflict, and from where do these complications arise?
•Why would the author have chosen this particular conflict or set of conflicts?
•What traits of the main character are revealed to us by this particular set of circumstances that we might not have seen otherwise?
C) Imagery and Symbolism
•What images are repeated? At what moments are these images repeated? What do these images connote?
•If images are repeated frequently, what might they stand for beyond themselves?
•Does the author use particular symbols to reinforce the meaning of the story?
•Consider the physical description of these images and what it might suggest.
D) Point of View
•How differently would the story read if it were presented from another character’s point of view?
•If the story is in the first person, what kind of person is the narrator? Is he or she reliable? To what extent? Might the narrator misrepresent or misinterpret characters or events in the story?
E) Setting and Atmosphere
•Why has the author chosen the particular region in which the story is set? What about the season?
•What might the setting suggest about the atmosphere? In other words, what would a bright, sunny day convey? A windy day with clouds on the horizon? A snowy day? Consider the effect of such things as the weather on the people in the story.
•Is the story set in a particular type of building or locale, such as a Gothic manor, an international train station, a boarding school, etc.? How does the setting contribute to the story’s theme?
How different would the story be in another setting? If the story would not work in any other setting (time, place, and specific set of conditions), then you will probably have enough material to discuss the use of setting.
Analyzing a short story begins with careful reading. First read to understand what happens (the plot), who is involved (the characters), and where and when the action takes place (the setting).
Once you have the plot, characters, and setting of the story clear in your mind, you should re‐read and annotate the story (mark the parts the stand out to you). In order to write an effective analytical essay, you must examine specific elements—character, structure, symbols and imagery, point‐of‐view, setting and atmosphere—so that you can demonstrate how the author has made particular use of one or several of these elements to illuminate the story’s theme. While your instructor may want you to examine just one or two elements in your essay (be sure to check your assignment sheet), it is often helpful to begin by looking at many elements. We’ll discuss these elements, and the concept of theme, in more detail in the following section.
II) Pre‐writing
To begin writing an essay that analyzes short fiction, you should have a working idea of the theme and some idea of how that theme is developed. As the U of A’s Composition II textbook, Literature and the Writing Process, points out, the theme of a work of literary short fiction cannot be expressed as a moral, which is usually "a neatly stated, preachy comment on some vice or virtue." Instead, you should think of the story’s theme as some insight into the human condition. You should also be careful not to confuse theme with topic:
(x) Moral: The moral of Chekhov’s "The Lady with the Dog" is even a very bad man can turn good.
(x) Topic: Chekhov’s the "Lady with the Dog" is about change in character.
(√) Theme: The theme of Chekhov’s "The Lady with the Dog" is how even the most unlikely of men is capable of sacrificing a great deal when affected by love.
Topic tells us what a story is about. Theme tells us what a story means. Don’t worry too much if a precise statement of theme does not come to you immediately. Sometimes writing is an act of discovery. /07 mg 2
may come into clearer focus as you draft and revise. However, you should try to write a working statement of the story’s theme. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect at this stage. You’ll be able to improve it as you progress.
After you have written your working statement of theme, you are ready to begin the more focused part of your analysis. When you analyze, you are looking at specific elements of the story to discover how they contribute to the theme. Begin by exploring a particular element of the story: character, structure, etc. You might want to repeat the process for several different elements to discover which one or two will work best for your essay. Make notes on various aspects of these elements by using questions like the following:
A) Character
•Who is the protagonist of the story? Does he/she have a foil or an antagonist?
•How is the character described, and what might this physical description suggest about the character’s traits?
•What traits of the main character does the author first reveal?
•What traits are revealed through the story’s action?
•What do a character’s reactions tell us about him/her?
•Why does the author choose to show us these character traits?
•Are there differences between what the characters say and what they do?
•In what way does our understanding of this character change because of this/these revelation(s)?
•What changes, if any, does the character go through in the story?
B) Structure
•Does the story progress in a straight line until the central conflict is resolved?
•If there are digressions, flashbacks, and/or other elements which alter the forward motion of the story, why does the author stop the forward movement, and what does she want us to know about the character that we could not know otherwise?
•What events complicate the central conflict, and from where do these complications arise?
•Why would the author have chosen this particular conflict or set of conflicts?
•What traits of the main character are revealed to us by this particular set of circumstances that we might not have seen otherwise?
C) Imagery and Symbolism
•What images are repeated? At what moments are these images repeated? What do these images connote?
•If images are repeated frequently, what might they stand for beyond themselves?
•Does the author use particular symbols to reinforce the meaning of the story?
•Consider the physical description of these images and what it might suggest.
D) Point of View
•How differently would the story read if it were presented from another character’s point of view?
•If the story is in the first person, what kind of person is the narrator? Is he or she reliable? To what extent? Might the narrator misrepresent or misinterpret characters or events in the story?
E) Setting and Atmosphere
•Why has the author chosen the particular region in which the story is set? What about the season?
•What might the setting suggest about the atmosphere? In other words, what would a bright, sunny day convey? A windy day with clouds on the horizon? A snowy day? Consider the effect of such things as the weather on the people in the story.
•Is the story set in a particular type of building or locale, such as a Gothic manor, an international train station, a boarding school, etc.? How does the setting contribute to the story’s theme?
How different would the story be in another setting? If the story would not work in any other setting (time, place, and specific set of conditions), then you will probably have enough material to discuss the use of setting.