The activities in this section will help you find a story to write about, analyze it thoughtfully, and develop and organize an essay that argues for the position you are taking on the story. Your writing in response to many of these activities can be used in a rough draft that you will be able to improve after receiving feedback from your classmates and instructor. Do the activities in any order that makes sense to you (and your instructor), and return to them as needed as you revise.
Find a story to write about.
Your instructor may have given you a list of stories to choose from or assigned a particular story for the class to write about. If so, go on to the next section, Analyze the Story. If you need to find a story on your own, look for one that meets your instructor’s approval and does one or more of the following:
Deals with a culturally, politically, or historically significant theme
Surprises or puzzles you with apparent contradictions
Leads you to wonder what is left out of the story — the backstory or context
Raises questions about characters’ motivations, relationships, or development
Uses conventional story motifs, setting, or other features in unconventional ways
Resonates emotionally, perhaps giving you insight into human frailty or moral ambiguity
To find a story on your own, browse any literature anthology or short story collection in a library or bookstore, or try one of the following online sites:
American Literature short story library (americanliterature.com)
Classic Short Stories (classicshorts.com)
Classic Reader: Short Stories (classicreader.com/browse/6)
Short Story Archive (shortstoryarchive.com)
Analyze the story.
For more on annotating, see Chapter 12.
Use the following suggestions as a way into the story. Try out more than one to discover how different aspects of the story work together and to generate ideas for a thoughtful analysis. To read the story closely and critically, annotate it as you work through the suggestions, highlighting key passages and noting your ideas and questions.
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WHAT ELEMENTS COULD I ANALYZE, AND WHY? |
WHAT APPROACH MIGHT I TAKE? |
WHAT SHOULD I ASK MYSELF? |
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Character You want to know
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Psychological |
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| Ethical or moral |
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| Social or cultural |
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Setting Page 458
You want to know
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In relation to the mood, characters, or actions |
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| Historical or cultural |
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| Metaphoric or symbolic |
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Plot Structure You want to know
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As realistic (resembling real- As surrealistic (having symbolic rather than literal meaning) |
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Point of View Page 459
You want to know
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In terms of what the narrator actually sees |
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| In terms of how the narrator represents what he or she sees |
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Literary Motif or Theme In terms of a traditional story motif (or an ironic reversal of the tradition) You want to know
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In terms of a common literary theme |
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In addition to generating ideas by taking one of the approaches listed above, you can consider the details and use those to generate an approach. Or you can list ideas you had while reading the story and use those to locate supporting details. The Ways In box that follows can help you generate ideas using these two approaches.
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HOW CAN I GENERATE IDEAS BY MOVING FROM SPECIFIC DETAILS TO GENERAL IDEAS? |
HOW CAN I GENERATE IDEAS BY MOVING FROM GENERAL IDEAS TO SPECIFIC DETAILS? |
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Choosing a Topic
Get together with two or three other students who have read your story, and offer responses to one another’s ideas.
Presenters. Take turns telling one another your two or three most promising ideas, giving an example from the story to support each idea.
Listeners. Briefly respond to each presenter’s ideas, identifying what you find interesting in them, what you agree or disagree with, and how the ideas could be extended or complicated productively.
Formulate a working thesis.
Remember that an arguable thesis is not a simple statement of fact or an obvious conclusion. To get a sense of how you might formulate an arguable thesis, take a look at the thesis statements from the student essays you’ve studied in this chapter.
As an account of a professional doing harm under the pretense of healing, the story uncovers how a doctor can take advantage of the intimate nature of his work and his professional status to overstep common forms of conduct, to the extent that his actions actually hurt rather than help a patient. In this way, the doctor-
Through [the doctor’s] actions and words (uttered or thought), readers are able to see the freeing, transformative power of breaking with social conventions. Thus, they are also encouraged to rethink what is acceptable and unacceptable in polite society. (Wright, par. 1)
You may have already decided on the main claim you want to make in your short story analysis; if so, try drafting a working thesis statement now. The Ways In activities that follow may help. (Alternatively, if you prefer to develop your analysis before trying to formulate a thesis, skip this activity and return to it when you’re ready.)
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HOW CAN I FORMULATE AN ARGUABLE THESIS?
Write for ten minutes about your most promising ideas. After writing, read what you have written and see if you can find one main idea or claim that can serve as the thesis for your essay. Focus your exploratory writing on questions like these:
How can readers understand a character’s internal conflict or apparent change?
How is the story’s theme reflected in the way the story is told, the way the setting is described, how characters relate to one another, or some other aspect of the story?
How does the language used to describe the setting or the characters’ actions illuminate such things as the main character’s internal conflict, the relationship between characters, or the theme? (For example, the doctor-
What does the trajectory of the story (the plot structure) say about the characters or the culture? (For example, Isabella Wright’s analysis of the increasing tension between repression and expression, social conventions and human willfulness, underlies her argument about the value of breaking with these conventions.)
Reread the story with one of the following questions (or a question of your own) in mind, underlining passages or taking notes as you read:
How do my ideas about the story form links in a chain leading to some general conclusion? For example, Wright links two ideas: (1) pressure to adhere to social conventions and (2) reasons for breaking with these conventions. She is not simply retelling the story; she is stating her ideas about what happens in the story.
How can I present my ideas as a response to a question — either a question my instructor asked or one I composed myself? For example, in their essays, Lee and Wright responded to the first question we pose in the Analyze & Write section for “The Use of Force.”
What, if anything, does the story say about what may be universally true about people and society versus what may result from specific historical, economic, or cultural conditions? About what is usually considered normal versus what is considered abnormal? About how some groups exert power while others may be oppressed or subversive?
Now reread your notes. Do they suggest one MAIN IDEA or CLAIM that can serve as the thesis for your essay?
Use the sentence strategies that follow as a jumping-
Many readers of X point to ______[state feature(s) of the story], but an important aspect of the story that is often overlooked is ______.
A common/superficial reading of X [name story or character] is that ______ [common conclusion], but in fact [your own conclusion]: ______
Through the actions of X [name character], we are led to this surprising conclusion: ______.
Through the events unfolded in X [name story], readers are led to this disturbing conclusion: ______ .
Provide support for your argument.
Look back on the ideas that you have generated so far, and ask yourself these questions:
How can I present my ideas as reasons supporting my central claim, the essay’s thesis? For example, Isabella Wright shaped the ideas she generated moving from general ideas to specific details into reasons supporting her thesis about the value of breaking with social conventions.
Have I remembered to include my own analysis in the support instead of just retelling the story through quotation, paraphrase, or summary? (If you are unsure, work through the Ways In activities that follow.)
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HOW CAN I INTEGRATE EVIDENCE FROM THE STORY?
As noted earlier, to provide support for a short story analysis, writers may QUOTE, PARAPHRASE, or SUMMARIZE parts of the story. However, this evidence should be offered in the service of a thoughtful examination of the story and go beyond a simple repetition of description, dialogue, and so on. To effectively integrate material from a story, try these strategies:
Use short quotations frequently to support your ANALYSIS. Brief quotations are not in themselves superior to sentence-
To the contrary, from the beginning, he — and, through him, readers — sees the little girl as “unusually attractive” and “strong,” with “magnificent blonde hair” (482). This description of her seems almost angelic. (Wright, par. 5)
Later, the mother reassures the child that the doctor is a “nice man” and “won’t hurt you,” though she can base those assertions only on what little she knows of him: his occupation (483). (Lee, par. 2)
Comment directly on what you have QUOTED, PARAPHRASED, or SUMMARIZED so that readers will understand the relevance of this material to your ANALYSIS. These comments should connect the quotation, paraphrase, or summary to the idea you are trying to support. One good strategy is to refer to quotations or paraphrases with this, these, or they statements, which are highlighted in the following examples:
After quoting the doctor’s violent thoughts about the girl, Lee comments, “Although these statements are arguably exaggerated or hyperbolic, they, like the metaphors of war, imply a tendency to do harm that goes directly against the narrator’s duty as a doctor” (Lee, par. 4).
After summarizing the doctor’s struggle with the girl, Wright notes, “This conflict might be interpreted as a process of reverse socialization or reverse civilization, a transformation that, surprisingly, the story presents as a potentially positive change” (Wright, par. 5).
Another good strategy is to repeat key nouns from quotations, paraphrases, or summaries in your analysis. These nouns are highlighted in the following examples:
After quoting part of the story that refers to the doctor smiling in his “best professional manner,” Lee explains that, in using the “phrase ‘professional manner,’” the narrator admits his actions are not sincere but a calculated “professional performance” (Lee, par. 3).
After quoting and paraphrasing information about the parents’ politeness to the doctor, Wright observes, “In a story where politeness is made to seem absurd, the doctor’s tactless words and his inappropriate use of force actually have the potential to be improvements on his character” (Wright, par. 6).
To build on your support, consider doing outside research.
Many analyses of short stories rely on a close reading of the text alone; the writer’s analysis is the only tool brought to bear on the work. Some approaches to analysis, however, also consider biographical information on the author, his or her other works, or various critical responses to the short story in question. If your instructor has asked you to include such information, or if you are curious about some aspect of the text that you do not understand — or that you suspect your readers will not understand — you might want to conduct some research and include your findings in your essay. Here are a few suggestions for getting started:
Do a Google search, using keywords relevant to your analysis. For example, if you want more information about the context of “The Use of Force,” you could try key words such as diphtheria epidemic.
To see what others have said about an author’s work, conduct a search using a specialized periodical database, such as the MLA International Bibliography, which specializes in academic writing about languages and literature. You should have access to periodical databases through your school’s library. If you are not sure how to use them, see Chapter 21. Ask a reference librarian for help if you encounter problems.
As you work, bookmark or keep a record of promising sites. If you download or copy information you could use in your essay, remember to record source information.
Create an outline that will organize your argument effectively.
Whether you have rough notes or a complete draft, making an outline of what you have written can help you organize the essay effectively for your audience. One way to outline a literary analysis is to lay out your argument as a series of because sentences. For example, here’s how Iris Lee might have outlined her argument:
The story performs a valuable service because, through the doctor’s actions, readers see that it’s unwise to trust members of his profession blindly.
Although he displays his “best professional manner,” the doctor does so only because he knows it will encourage the family’s deference to him despite his rude and rough behavior.
The doctor shows his untrustworthiness because he seems more interested in harming the girl than healing her.
Readers who see the doctor purely as a bad person are wrong because the author presents two sides of him.
The doctor-
The doctor-
Once you have a working outline, you should not hesitate to change it as necessary while drafting and revising. For instance, you might find you left out an important idea that is needed to make the chain of reasoning complete. Remember that the purpose of an outline is to help you organize your ideas logically, not to lock you into a particular structure.
Write the opening sentences.
The section “Formulate a working thesis” and the Ways In activities there suggest several ways to present an arguable thesis. In writing your introduction, avoid creating a “funnel paragraph,” which begins with a broad generalization and then becomes more and more focused and narrow, culminating in what is usually the essay’s thesis. The problem with this kind of paragraph structure is that broad generalizations are not very interesting and add nothing to the essay. Look, for example, at the italicized sentences in this modified version of Isabella Wright’s opening paragraph:
As all of us know, being the subject of a medical examination, especially if you are a child, is rarely fun. Patients can be nervous and uncooperative, and in the worst cases, doctors can act like real jerks. William Carlos Williams’s story “The Use of Force” is surprising in that it does not completely condemn the doctor for doing just that.
It is best to get rid of sentences like these and simply begin by presenting your ideas about the story.
Draft your analysis.
By this point, you have done a lot of writing to
come up with ideas for your short story analysis;
draft an arguable thesis;
provide support for your argument;
organize your ideas to present them logically to readers.
Now stitch that material together to create a draft. As you write, ask yourself questions like the following:
Early in my essay, should I name the story and also identify the author?
How much do I need to tell my readers about what happens in the story? Should I assume, as both Iris Lee and Isabella Wright do, that my readers have read the story?
Should I consider placing the story in the context of the author’s other writing or in its historical context?
How can I revise my topic sentences to use the key terms introduced in my thesis? What synonyms could I use to avoid repeating my key terms too often?
How can I use logical transitions to help readers see how one point connects to the next? For example, could I use transitions that announce contrasts, such as but, although, and yet?
Should I consider ending with a new idea that grows out of my argument? Could I, for example, expand on the cultural or historical implications of my reading of the story?