• Short Story Power Tools!

8G:1 Interpretation of Literature
Section 50
Jessup 221 12:30pm MWF
Instructor: Steve Grant
steve-grant@uiowa.edu
Short Story Power Tools!
Plot
Character
Setting
Point of View
Style & Language
Theme
Apologies to the “Glossary of Literary Terms,” that starts on page 531 of 40 Short Stories
Plot
What and How
The sequence of major events in the story. Traditional plots are cause and effect.
Modern or Postmodern plots might be more ambiguous, or even absent.
Plot Questions
• Why does the writer choose to show this sequence of events?
• Do the characters put the plot in action, or are they acted upon by it?
• Is the plot simple, or complex? Why?
• Does the plot resolve completely, or openly?
Character
Who
These are the people that inhabit the story. They are usually human, but could be
supernatural beings, robots, animals, or even inanimate objects like rocks and lakes.
Character Questions
• Are the characters deep and realistic, like a living person? Or are they flat and
stylized? Why? What is the effect on the story of the way the characters are
“built out” (action, dialog, description)?
• Characterization – How does the writer create the character for the reader. Is
it through the character’s actions? Direct description? Shorthanded?
Setting
Where and When
The context for the story’s action: time, place, culture, atmosphere (vibe).
Setting Questions
• What is the setting? Is there a single setting or multiple locations?
• Is the time when the story occurs critical to the story, or is the story
“timeless?”
• Is the setting precise (6th floor of the Texas Schoolbook Depository, Dallas,
TX – 12:30pm November 22nd, 1963)? Or is the setting vague? What impact
does this have on the story?
Point of View
Who and How
The person and perspective from which the narrator presents the story. The narrator
could be a character, or speak from “outside” the action of the story.
POV Questions
• What person is the story told in? 1st, 2nd, 3rd?
• Is the narrator inside the action, or outside it?
• Is the narrator omniscient, limited, objective, subjective? What impact does
this have on the story?
Style & Language
How
Style and Language are a combination of linguistic features at work. Diction relates to
the writer’s choice of words. Are they short and simple, or “Fifty cent” words? Syntax is
how the words are arranged on the page. This could mean short sentences inside short
paragraphs, short sentences inside long paragraphs, long sentences in short
paragraphs, etc.
S & L Questions
• Is the language approachable (“easy”), or complex and opaque?
• Is the writer relaying the action of the story literally, or figuratively?
• What is the tone of the language in the story? Poetic and lyical? Tough and
realistic? Conversational or formal?
Theme
Why
The “main idea” of the story. This could be something very simple and straightforward, or it
could be complex, ambiguous, and multifaceted.
Theme
• How do the other elements work towards this theme?
• Do the elements work in unity to arrive at this theme, or against each other?
How and why?