11th American Literature
American Gothic - Short Story Assignment
Your Objective: Utilize literary devices in the creation of a short story that in the style of
American Gothic fiction.
Your Task: Plan and write a suspenseful short story with a distinctive mood, tone, and
clear characters, by making intentional decisions about diction, characterization, and plot.
Worth 30 points.
Requirements:
Length
o Honors: 4+ pages, typed, double-spaced
o Non-Honors: 3+ pages, typed, double-spaced
Your story must have: characters, setting, conflict, rising action, and resolution
Suspense & Structure:
o Non-Honors: Must contain dialogue, narration, and foreshadowing.
o Honors: Must contain dialogue, narration, foreshadowing. Narrator’s voice
needs to be EXTREMELY distinctive and in the 1st person.
Motifs:
o Non-Honors: Must address at least one of the Gothic preoccupations:
 Insanity/Sanity
 Reversal of the natural order of things
 The Supernatural
 The presence of Evil
 Death (Undead)
o Honors: Must Address at least 1 of the Gothic preoccupations and must
address a tension between opposites: internal vs. external, dead vs. alive,
natural vs. unnatural, etc.
Tone: Must establish a specific tone: how will you treat your subject? Cynically?
Whimsically? Nostalgically? Angrily?
Mood: Must establish a specific mood: how do you want your reader to feel as
they read the story?
PLANNING SHEET DUE Wednesday, January 14
ROUGH DRAFT DUE Tuesday, January 20
FINAL DRAFT DUE Friday, January 23
***** NO WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED AFTER 3:45 on Friday, January 23*****
11th American Literature
Short Story Planning
Name: __________________________
Narrator:
1) What kind of narrator will you have?
2) Who is your narrator?
3) What is your narrator like?
4) Why is your narrator telling this story?
Tone:
1) What will be the tone of your story?
2) What kind of diction will you use to create this tone?
3) What are at least 5 words that you will use to create this tone?
4) What events/scenes/characterization /description in your story will help create this
tone?
Mood:
1) What will be the mood of your story?
2) What kind of diction will you use to create this tone?
3) What are at least 5 words that you will use to create this mood?
4) What events/scenes/characterization /description in your story will help create this
mood?
5) What are motifs you will use in your story that will help create this mood?
Gothic Motifs:
1) What will be Gothic about your story?
2) How will you establish this Gothic motif?