ANALYTICAL GUIDE FOR STUDYING FICTION

	Definitions	Setting	Plot and Structure
Character	Point of View	Theme	Symbol and Allegory
Style and Tone	Irony	Integration	Evaluation

[Adapted from C. Holder and H. Levitt: "Analytical Map for the Study of Fiction: Questions to Guide Thinking and Writing." The "Guide" includes some questions from Perrine, Story and Structure (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1988).]

 

When reading literature, it's good to begin by skimming the work quickly. Note the general impact it makes on you, as well as the specific images, dialogue, scenes that stick in your mind. What bothers you? What did you find confusing, or provocative?

Now read a second time, more closely, to discover aspects of the work you hadn't seen before. The following questions can help direct your explorations.

Consider each of the steps, but don't feel that you need to answer each sub-question. Think of them as tools to help you find your own most creative perspectives on the work. Use the ones that serve you best.

(Note that many of these questions are designed specifically for short stories and novels. Which ones could also be asked of plays? of poetry (dramatic, narrative, lyric)? of epics? How would you have to adapt the remaining questions to fit these other literary genres?)

1. Mark unfamiliar words as you read. Afterwards, record these words in your "Reader's Journal," along with a definition for each. (Many words have multiple definitions; be sure the definition you choose fits the context in which you found it. Also, use a good college dictionary. The small pocket dictionaries miss a lot.) As you become familiar with these words, you'll find your own writing vocabulary will grow richer and more colorful.

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1. When and where does the story take place?

2. How does the author establish setting? What details of time and place are described directly? What can you surmise indirectly, for instance through speech or dress?

3. Is the setting vague or precise? Is it mimetic (a realistic "mirroring" of the objective world) or symbolic (suggestive of broader meanings, as a lone pine on rocky crag might serve as a symbol of rugged individualism)?

4. How does the setting contribute to character, plot, or theme?

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1. Does the plot proceed chronologically? To what extent, if any, does the author employ such devices as flashback, foreshadowing, or dream sequences? What is the significance of any divisions or separations in the story?

2. What are the conflicts? Are they physical, intellectual, moral, or emotional?

3. To what extent does chance or coincidence contribute to plot development?

4. Do any of the episodes seem irrelevant to the overall meaning or effect of the story?

5. Is the ending (resolution) appropriate to and consistent with the rest of the story? Does it depend on surprise or reversal of some kind?

6. Describe the plot in terms of its introduction, its complication or conflict, its climax, and its resolution (denouement).

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1. Who is the story's protagonist or focal character? Who is the antagonist (a character who is in opposition to the protagonist)? (Note that the narrator is often also a character -- sometimes the main focus of the story, sometimes an antagonist of the main character, sometimes only a peripheral character.)

2. How does the protagonist/antagonist contrast help shape the story? Do you find minor characters who also establish a contrast with the protagonist? How do these "foils" help clarify the character of the protagonist?

3. What methods does the author use to establish and reveal character (e.g., through action, physical description, narrative exposition, dialogue, the character's own thoughts, comments and thoughts of other characters, dreams, or symbolic objects associated with the character)? To what extent do point of view, plot, setting, and tone also contribute to establishing and developing character?

4. Are the characters complex or simple ("round" or "flat," to use E.M. Forster's terms)? Do they have multifaceted personalities or are they one-dimensional stock types? Do the characters change, and if so, how?

5. What is the function of the story's minor characters?

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Step Five: Point of View

1. Who narrates or tells the story? Is the point of view consistent throughout the story or does it shift? (Note that the narrator and the author are not the same. The narrator [or narrative voice] are fictional constructs created by the author to achieve a specific effect.)

2. The narrator's point of view (angle of vision, or perspective) can both reveal and conceal information or knowledge. In this story, what does the narrator let you know or keep you from knowing?

3. If the story is told from the point of view of one of the characters, is the narrator reliable? Does personality, character, or intellect affect the narrator's ability to interpret the events or other characters accurately?

4. What advantages does the author have in telling the story from this particular point of view? How would the story be different if told from a different point of view?

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1. What view of life emerges in this story? Try stating it in one sentence. (There may be several themes.)

2. What general comments does the story make (or imply) about human experience?

3. How does the title throw light on the story as a whole?

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• Simile: an image in which the comparison is explicit (e.g., "My love is like a rose").
  
• Metaphor: an image in which the comparison is presented as an equivalence: (e.g., "My love is a rose").
  
• Symbol: an object in a literary work which indirectly suggests a broader meaning: (e.g., the "lone pine" described in "Step Two"; or, more obviously, a love song in which the speaker tries to pick a rose and is wounded by its thorn).
  
• Allegory: a didactic story in which people, things, and happenings work together to point to broader meanings (e.g., Jean de Meung's Romance of the Rose, in which the Rose represents Love, and other characters represent forces such as Jealousy which either hinder or help the Lover in his quest).

1. What symbols or patterns of symbolism are present in the story? What allegorical elements or patterns are present?

2. How does the symbolism reinforce or clarify aspects of the story such as theme, setting, plot, or characterization?

1. What strikes you about the author's style in this work? How does it differ from that of other works you have read, by this or other authors? (Is the diction predominantly abstract or concrete, formal or informal or slangy, literal or figurative? Are the sentences simple or complex? Do the sentences have many modifying phrases? How does the author make use of patterns of sound or rhythm?) Give specific examples.

2. What kinds of images or image patterns does the author use? What elements of the story do they reinforce, extend, or contradict? Quote passages that you think contain effective images. What do they accomplish here, and how do they do it?

3. What is the tone of the story? (Is it, for example, formal, informal, sympathetic, detached, condescending, serious, humorous, or ironic?) What is the relationship between tone and meaning?

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1. What kinds of irony does the author use: verbal irony? dramatic irony? irony of situation? Give examples.

(Note: Verbal irony occurs when there's a contradiction between what's said and what is meant: e.g., "Boy, that was a smart thing to do!" Dramatic irony occurs when there's a disparity between what a character intends to be saying and what the audience or reader (or another character) understands: e.g., when Oedipus insists vehemently that the murderer of Laius be found and punished, we know (as he does not) that he himself is the murderer. Irony of situation occurs when there's a contradiction between the setting or situation described in a work and the events that follow: e.g., in Conrad's novel Lord Jim, when the calm, peaceful sea belies the fatal accident that's about to befall the ship.

2. How does the irony support the story's theme?

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1. Compare this story with another you have read, either in this course or elsewhere. Or compare it with a film or play you have seen. Explain the basis of the comparison (theme, character, style, plot, or other element) and discuss important differences and similarities. What does this comparison add to your understanding of the story?

2. Compare this story with people or events you know from your own life.

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1. What do you find most striking or interesting about this story? What are its greatest strengths? Where is it most effective?

2. In what ways do you find the story weak? Do any parts seem to you irrelevant or inappropriate? Are the characters consistent, adequately motivated, plausible? Does the theme emerge organically or dramatically, or does the author force the theme upon the story? Do symbols seem contrived, or do they emerge naturally out of the interplay of other elements in the story? Does the ending seem "right," or does it seem tacked on?

3. Is the story worth reading? Does it offer more than escape? Does it gain or lose on a second or third reading?

4. What is the significance of the story? Does it provide any insights that speak to your own experiences or observations? Does the theme give you a new awareness, or refresh or deepen an old one?

5. In what ways do your own experiences affect your reading of this story? (Something in our own lives may cause us to focus on or be particularly interested in certain characters, events, situations, outcomes, symbols, even settings.)

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