STEAL Practice with Short Story Passages

Read the character portraits below. List at least one character trait that you would use
to describe the character. HIGHLIGHT which element/s of STEAL (Speech, Thoughts, Effect on
Others, Actions, Looks) you used to pick the trait. Briefly explain your answer.

Example
“Life is for the strong, to be lived by the strong, and, if needs be, taken by the strong.
The weak of the world were put here to give the strong pleasure. I am strong. Why
should I not use my gift? If I wish to hunt, why should I not? I hunt the scum of the
earth…” excerpt from The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell
STEAL

Selfish, egotistical, cruel: the person speaking doesn’t

consider the feelings of others, only what makes
them feel good; he seems judgmental of others and
believes he is better than them

1
Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by
the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard.
Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a
present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result.
excerpt from The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
STEAL

2
Billy was seventeen years old. He was wearing a new navy-blue overcoat, a new brown
trilby hat, and a new brown suit, and he was feeling fine. He walked briskly down the
street. He was trying to do everything briskly these days. Briskness, he had decided, was
the one common characteristic of all successful businessmen. The big shots up at
Head Office were absolutely fantastically brisk all the time. They were amazing.
excerpt from The Landlady by Roald Dahl
STEAL

3
On a rooftop a Republican sniper lay watching. Beside him lay his rifle and over his
shoulders were slung a pair of field-glasses. His face was the face of a student, thin and
ascetic, but his eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic. They were deep and thoughtful,
the eyes of a man who is used to looking at death.
excerpt from The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty STEAL

4
They rose when she entered--a small, fat woman in black, with a thin gold chain
descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with
a tarnished gold head. Her skeleton was small and spare; perhaps that was why
what would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her. She looked
bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue.
Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face, looked like two small pieces of coal
pressed into a lump of dough as they moved from one face to another while the
visitors stated their errand. excerpt from A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner

STEAL

5
At breakfast on our chosen day, when Mama, Daddy, and Aunt Nicey were in the
dining room, I brought Doodle to the door in the gocart just as usual and had them
turn their backs...There wasn't a sound as Doodle walked slowly across the room
and sat down at his place at the table. Then Mama began to cry and ran over to
him, hugging him and kissing him. Daddy hugged him too, so I went to Aunt Nicey,
who was thanks praying in the doorway, and began to waltz her around...Doodle
told them it was I who had taught him to walk, so everyone wanted to hug me, and I
began to cry. excerpt from The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst

STEAL

6
She tried hard to think of things to do, and did this thing and the other, but could
not find anything successful. The failure made deep lines come into her face...There
must be more money, there must be more money. The father, who was very
handsome and expensive in his tastes, seemed as if he never would be able to do
anything worth doing. And the mother, who thought highly of herself and whose
tastes were just as expensive, did not succeed any better. And so the house came to
be filled with the unspoken words. "There must be more money! There must be more
money!" excerpt from The Rocking-Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence

STEAL

7
He was a man of exuberant fancy, and, withal, of an authority so irresistible that, at
his will, he turned his varied fancies into facts. He was greatly given to
self-communing, and, when he and himself agreed upon anything, the thing was
done. excerpt from The Lady, or the Tiger by Frank R. Stockton

STEAL