Name: ________________________________________ Date: _______ Section: ________
Seventh Grade Humanities/English
Understanding and Interpreting Short Stories
As Jerome Shostak and Henry Christ say in their book, Introducing the Short Story,
“People have always loved a tale well told. For thousands of years, myths, legends, fables, fairy
tales and anecdotes have helped satisfy the human yearning for a good story.” In days gone by,
these tales were mostly passed down from generation to generation as part of oral tradition; they
were often recited out loud, rather than being written down, and the history of this type of short
prose fiction is almost as old as language itself.
The written short story was not regarded by most literary critics as a separate, distinct
form until the nineteenth century,
when authors in Germany, Russia,
France, Great Britain and the United
States began experimenting with the
form. In this country, Edgar Allan
Poe is often mentioned as the “father of
the modern short story.” Poe
advanced the short story by explaining
that all of the details of a story should
contribute to a “unique or single
effect.” You may be familiar with Poe titles such as “The Masque of the Red Death,” or “The Pit
and the Pendulum.”
What is the difference between a short story and other forms of writing? First and
foremost, a short story is, in fact, short and can be read in a single sitting. Further difference lies
in the story’s unity. All of the elements of fiction contribute to and focus on one, unified effect.
We will review these elements below. The stories we read will possibly be moving, exciting,
thought-provoking, and, perhaps, startling. One aspect of many short stories that we cannot
overlook is that they often have a surprise ending. You experienced this when you read “The
Necklace.”
Understanding the major literary elements of a short story should heighten your
enjoyment of the story because that understanding will allow you to read critically and
comparatively. You will be able to join in our discussions and explain why a particular story
affects you in a certain way and why you like some stories more than others. You will also be
able to fill in meaningful responses on our “Short Story-O-Meter!”
2.
Elements of the Short Story
Conflict:
A reason that a story grows in tension and interest as it moves along is the influence of
conflict in the story. Conflict is the struggle between two or more opposing forces. Conflict may
be:
•
Person against person
•
Human against nature
•
A person against him or herself
•
An individual against society
•
A combination of one or more of these
Often conflict will be caused by external forces. For example, the hero or heroine, who is called
the protagonist, might be competing with another character or with nature, or may be at odds
with society. However, the conflict that the protagonist is facing could also
be internal. For example, the hero or heroine might be struggling against the
strong impulse of greed or a desire for revenge. The opposing force – a
person, place, or idea in the conflict -is called the antagonist. What do you
think the central conflict is in “The Necklace?”
Plot:
Simply put, the plot is the author’s plan of what will happen in the story. The story often
begins with a situation or conflict that will be important to the story. We covered conflict above.
The author then introduces some kind of complication. The complication pits the conflict against
some kind of event, force, or other character. What is the moment in “The Necklace” when
Maupassant introduces a complication? Development of plot then takes place. This is often called
rising action. Rising action/development in “The Necklace” occurs when the Loisels borrow a
necklace, attend the ball, Mathilde loses the necklace, and then she and her husband work so
hard for ten years to pay for a replacement, losing their youth in the process. The plot will
continue to grow, often with increased suspense, leading to a climax of the story.
3.
The climax is the point of highest dramatic intensity of the story. This can be a surprise ending,
such as in “The Necklace,” or there can be some other kind of outcome or conclusion. It may be
that one side or person meets with success or failure, a mystery is solved, or an insight is gained.
This is the “Ah ha!” or “Wow!” part of the story. We should note that in some stories, plot is a
very important element. However, in other stories where setting or character are emphasized,
plot might be a more minor element. This would be the case in a story that is more a memory
piece, or a “slice of life” story where the characters are in a series of scenes without the plot
building in suspense and intensity to a dramatic conclusion.
Character:
In writing short stories authors do not have the luxury of using lengthy, complicated
character development that they enjoy when writing novels. A novel may have dozens of
characters; a short story may have only one, two, or three main characters. Given that, what are
some of the techniques an author can use to make a character come alive in a short story? Those
techniques include:
•
1. A physical description or a description of the kind of person the character is: strongwilled, stingy, ill-tempered, greedy.
•
2. A description by another character
•
3. Dialogue
•
4. An explanation of a character’s inner thoughts
•
5. The actions of the character
•
6. The character’s responses and reactions to each other or to
situations
•
7. A combination of several of these elements
We should remember that character and plot are closely related. A
well-planned plot involves meaningful human action and interaction, and a
plot is believable only if the characters in the story act in a reasonable,
consistent and a natural way. A good short story writer is selective and includes only details that
are essential to the effect of the story. How is Mathilde Losiel’s character revealed by Guy de
Maupassant in “The Necklace?” Can you think of examples from the story for numbers 1-6
4.
above? Also, note that how character is revealed will depend on the point of view from which the
story is written. (See point of view below)
Setting:
The setting of a story- the time and place of a story’s action- is most often stressed in a story that
is more of a memory piece in which the plot is minimized in favor
of communicating the special characteristics of a region and its
people. Also, setting includes the special circumstances occurring
in time and place. Imagine the difference in a story set in Atlanta
during the Civil War as opposed to a short story set in Atlanta
today. How important were time, place, and special circumstances in “The Necklace?”
Sometimes insight can be gained by doing a bit of research, especially about the author!
Theme:
Another important literary element we will study is theme. I like to think of theme as the lesson
learned, or directly put, the moral of the story. You have encountered theme
before. One group of tales that always has a strong theme is Aesop’s Fables.
Do you remember the moral of stories such as “The Tortoise and the Hare,”
“The Fox and the Crow,” or “The Lion and the Mouse?” Do not, however,
expect the author to present the theme as a flashing neon sign. Rather, the
theme is rarely stated; usually it is implied by the author. It is up to you, the reader, to figure it
out. And when you do figure it out, you should be able to state the theme in one or two sentences
such as “slow and steady wins the race,” or “honesty is the best policy,” or “nice guys sometimes
finish last.” In your opinion, what is the theme of “The Necklace?” Please note that not all
stories have a strong theme or lesson learned, and yet in others theme can be more important than
plot.
Point of View:
In the stories that we will read, there are two points of view from which the author chooses to tell
5.
the story. Point of view is the perspective of the author. Here are the two types:
First-Person Narrator. Here, the author has a major or minor role in the story. The author is a
character in the story and tells the story in his or her own words. The author, as the first-person
narrator, can reveal only what he/she might reasonably be expected to know. Here is the
beginning of the short story “The Last Lesson,” by Alphonse Daudet, found in our book:
“I started for school very late that morning and was in great dread of a scolding, especially
because M. Hamel had said that he would question us on participles….”
Please understand that the author, as narrator, can only reveal what a character in the story might
reasonably be expected to know. It is up to you, the reader, to go beyond what the narrator has to
say.
Third-Person Narrator (author omniscient). Here, the story is written from the perspective of
an outsider looking into the story. The author tells the reader what thoughts are in the character’s
head. By “author omniscient,” we mean that the author has knowledge of the thoughts and
actions of each and every character in the story. The word omniscient means “all” (omni) +
“knowing” (knowledge). Here is an example from “The Necklace:”
“She suffered ceaselessly feeling herself born for all the delicacies and all the luxuries. She
suffered from the poverty of her dwelling, from the wretched look of the walls, from the wornout chairs, from the ugliness of the curtains.”
As we read selected stories form Little Worlds and other sources, we will put these elements of
fiction into play as we discuss what we have read. I hope the “Short Story-O-Meter” will help
you consider the significance of these various elements of fiction.