Chapter 1: Reading the Story

Why do we read fiction? enjoyment and understanding.

Simple enjoyment has always been a primary aim and justification for
reading fiction.
Fiction whose sole purpose is to entertain (Most fiction), however, requires
no serious or intensive study. A story written with serious artistic intentions,
on the other hand, must yield not only enjoyment but also understanding.
Like all serious art, fiction of this latter kind provides an imagined experience
that yields authentic insights into some significant aspect of life.
Commercial fiction: make up best-seller lists, like legal thrillers and romance
novels, is written to make money, and it makes money because it helps
people escape the tedium and stress of their lives. It takes us away from the
real world. its object is reader’s immediate pleasure.
Literary fiction: is written by someone with serious artistic intentions who
hopes to broaden, deepen, and sharpen the reader’s awareness of life. It
takes us more deeply into the real world. its object is to offer pleasure plus
understanding.
Not every given story can simply be tossed into one of two bins marked
“commercial” or “literary.” Some may be in the middle.
The terms commercial and literary should be applied to novels or stories
themselves, not necessarily to their authors. Because an author is capable of
writing both and some of them do.
the differences between commercial and literary fiction do not necessarily
relate to the absence or presence of a “moral”, “facts” or “fantasy”.
A commercial story with shallow characters may have an unimpeachable
moral, while a literary story or novel may have no “moral” at all.
A commercial story about history can give us good information and facts.
a wildly fanciful tale may impress the reader with a profound and surprising
truth, (literary fiction).
we can clarify the differences between two types of fiction by analogy.
Commercial Literary
Writers are like inventors. Writers are like explorers.
Mostly in novel form Most of short stories
any fiction that illuminates some aspect of human life or behavior with
genuine originality and power may be called “literary.” an insight— whether
large or small—into the nature and condition of our existence. It gives us a
keener awareness of our humanity within a universe that is sometimes
friendly, sometimes hostile. It helps us to understand our world, our
neighbors, and ourselves.
short stories have always been part of the human storytelling impulse and
have shown an impressive diversity throughout history.
The short story’s lack of commercial appeal has, in a way, helped its
development as an art form. as a genre it is capable of having ongoing
diversity, richness, and self-renewal.
literary fiction requires a different way of reading than commercial fiction
does.
we should read any piece of literary fiction at least twice. That’s why short
stories work better in this type of fiction. since its length enables us to reread
a story without making unreasonable demands on our time.
Levels of reading a story: : (1) read the story the first time simply to enjoy
and familiarize yourself with it; (2) read the story a second time, more slowly
and deliberately, in the attempt to understand its full artistic significance and
achievement.
Our expectations while reading a commercial fiction: (1) a sympathetic hero
or heroine (2) a defined plot in which something exciting is always happening
and in which there is a strong element of suspense (thus the term page-
turner, often applied to a successful commercial novel); (3) a happy ending
that sends the reader away undisturbed and optimistic about life; (4) a
general theme, or “message,” that affirms widely held, conventional views
of the world.
Our expectations while reading a literary fiction: 1) expect the unexpected:
instead of adopting a conventional way of storytelling. 2) instead of happy
ending a literary work may end in an unsettling or even unresolved way,
forcing us to examine our own expectations about the story itself.
when reading literary fiction, we must keep an open mind and stay receptive
to the author’s imaginative vision.
To choose our reading wisely, we need to know two things: (1) how to get
the most out of any book we read and (2) how to choose the books that will
best repay the time and attention we devote to them.
Chapter 2: Plot and Structure
o Plot: is the sequence of incidents or events through which an author
constructs a story.
o skilled authors are careful to present the sequence in a significant order.
o A plot summary may include what characters say or think, as well as what
they do, but it leaves out description and analysis and concentrates primarily
on major events.
o Plot should not be confused with the content of the work. The plot is not the
action itself; rather, it is the way the author arranges the action toward a
specific end.
o A commercial author is likely to use a tried-and-true, fairly conventional
structure in arranging the plot elements. The story may follow a standard
chronology, for instance, and may employ familiar structural patterns.
o For a literary writer, a complex structure is often required to convey complex
meanings.
o both the surface excitement required in commercial fiction and the
significant meaning found in literary fiction arise out of some sort of conflict.
o Conflict: a clash of actions, ideas, desires, or wills.
o Types of conflict: mental, physical, emotional and moral.
o Protagonist: The central character in a conflict, whether sympathetic or
unsympathetic as a person.
o Antagonist: Any force arranged against the protagonist—whether persons,
things, conventions of society, or the protagonist’s own character traits.
o In some stories the conflict is single, clear-cut, and easily identifiable. In
others it is multiple, various, and subtle.
o Excellent literary fiction has been written utilizing all four of these major
kinds of conflict. Much commercial fiction, however, emphasizes only the
confrontation between man and man.
o In commercial fiction we have some kind of moral conflict often is clearly
defined in terms of moral absolutes: the “good guy” versus the “bad guy.”
o In literary fiction, the contrasts are usually less distinct. Good may be
opposed to good, or half-truth to half-truth. There may be difficulty in
determining what is good or bad, causing internal conflict rather than
physical confrontation
o Suspense: is the quality in a story that makes readers ask, “What’s going to
happen next?” or “How will this turn out?” Such questions compel them to
keep reading.
o Suspense increases when a reader’s curiosity is combined with anxiety about
the fate of a likable, sympathetic character.
o In more literary forms of fiction the suspense often involves not so much the
question what as the question why—not “What will happen next?” but “Why
is the protagonist behaving this way?
o The forms of suspense range from crude to subtle and may involve not only
actions but psychological considerations and moral issues as well.
o Writers use two common devices to create suspense: they introduce an
element of mystery (an unusual set of circumstances for which the reader
craves an explanation) or they place the protagonist in a dilemma (a position
in which he or she must choose between two courses of action, both
undesirable)
o Suspense is usually the most important criterion for good commercial fiction;
in literary fiction, however, suspense is less important than other elements
the author uses to engage the reader’s interest.
o The commercial story would keep us asking, “What happens next?” The
literary story will make us wonder, “Why do things happen as they do?” or
“What is the significance of this event?”.
o Surprise: Closely connected with the element of suspense. unexpectedness
of what happens; it becomes pronounced when the story departs radically
from our expectation.
o Surprise ending: a sudden, unexpected turn or twist.
o As with physical action and suspense, commercial fiction tends to feature a
surprise ending more frequently than literary fiction.
o two ways by which the legitimacy and value of a surprise ending may be
judged: (1) by the fairness with which the surprise is achieved and (2) by the
purpose that it serves.
o If the surprise is contrived through an improbable coincidence or series of
coincidences, or by the planting of false clues (details whose only purpose is
to mislead the reader), or through the arbitrary withholding of information,
then we may well dismiss it as a cheap trick.
o If the ending that at first is such a surprise comes to seem perfectly logical
and natural the more we think about it and look back over the story, we will
feel the surprise was achieved fairly.
o a surprise ending may be judged as trivial if it exists simply for its own sake—
to shock or to titillate the reader. We may judge it as a fraud. We will consider
a surprise ending justified, however, when it serves to broaden or to
reinforce the meaning of the story.
o In literary fiction, the surprise is one that furnishes meaningful illumination,
not just a reversal of expectation.
o Whether or not a commercial story has a surprise ending, it almost always
has a happy ending.
o Two justifications for the unhappy ending: 1) many situations in real life do
have unpleasant outcomes; therefore, if fiction is to reflect and illuminate
life, it must acknowledge human defeats as well. 2) its value in forcing us to
ponder the complexities of life.
o Readers of literary fiction evaluate an ending not by whether it is happy or
unhappy but by whether it is logical within the story’s own terms and if it
affords a full, believable revelation.
o indeterminate ending: no definitive conclusion is reached.
o artistic unity: essential to a good plot. There must be nothing in the story
that is irrelevant, that does not contribute to the meaning; there should be
nothing there for its own sake or its own excitement.
o plot manipulation: a turn in the plot that is unjustified by the situation or the
characters. Like an unmotivated action.
o deus ex machina: the kind of resolution if the plot relies too heavily on
chance or on coincidence to provide a resolution to a story.
o chance: the occurrence of an event that has no apparent cause in previous
events or in predisposition of character.
o coincidence: the chance occurrence of two events that may have a peculiar
correspondence.
o if an author uses an improbable chance event to resolve a story, the story
loses its sense of conviction and thus its power to move the reader. The use
of coincidence in fiction is even more problematic, since coincidence is
chance compounded.
o Coincidence may justifiably be used to initiate a story, and occasionally to
complicate it, but not to resolve it.
o The improbable initial situation is justified because it offers a chance to
observe human nature in conditions that may be particularly revealing.
o Sometimes even a fiction cannot use the bizarre events that happen in real
life.
climax

o A profitable approach to the analysis of the plot is to consider the function

of plot in trying to understand the relationship of each incident to the larger
meaning of the story.
o In evaluating fiction for its quality, it is useful to examine the way incidents
and scenes are connected as a way of testing the story’s plausibility and
unity.
Chapter 3: Characterization
❖ plot and characterization work together in any good story.
❖ In commercial fiction, plot is usually more important than in-depth
characterization, whereas literary writers are usually more concerned with
complex characters than with the mechanics of plot.
❖ Many literary fiction writers, in fact, consider characterization to be the most
important element of their art.
❖ Analyzing characterization is more difficult than describing plot, for human
character is infinitely complex, variable, and ambiguous.
❖ commercial fiction may feature an elaborate plot but offer characters who
are simple and two-dimensional, even stereotypical.
❖ the commercial author’s aim is to create characters who can carry the plot
forward, not to explore human psychology and motivation.
❖ The main character in a commercial work must also be someone attractive
or sympathetic.
❖ literary protagonists are less easily labeled than their counter parts in
commercial fiction. Sometimes they may be wholly unsympathetic, even
despicable.
❖ literary fiction deals usually with characters who are composed of both good
and evil impulses, three-dimensional human beings who live in our memory
as “real” people long after we have stopped reading.
❖ Literary fiction offers an exciting opportunity to observe human nature in all
its complexity and multiplicity. It enables us to know people, to understand
them, and to develop compassion for them in a way we might not do without
reading serious fiction.
❖ Direct presentation: authors tell us straight out, by exposition or analysis,
what the characters are like, or they have another character in the story
describe them.
❖ Indirect presentation: the author shows us the characters through their
actions; we determine what they are like by what they say or do.
❖ Exposition: the presentation of background information that helps place the
setting, characters, and plot in context, so that the reader understands the
larger dimensions of the story.
 ❖ the method of direct presentation has the advantages of being clear and
economical, but good writers use it sparingly. In order to involve the reader
in a character, the author must show the character in action; the axiom
“show, don’t tell” is therefore one of the basics of fiction writing.
❖ In almost all good fiction, the characters are dramatized. They are shown
speaking and .behaving, as in a stage play.

❖ Principals of characterization followed by good fiction:

1- dramatized: They are shown speaking and behaving, as in a stage play.
2- consistency: the characters are consistent in their behavior; they do not behave
one way on one occasion and a different way on another unless there is good
reason or motivation.
3- motivated: the characters’ words and actions spring from motivations the reader
can understand and believe.
4- life-like or plausible: They cannot be perfectly virtuous or monsters of evil; nor
can they have some impossible combination of contradictory traits.
❖ Flat characters: usually have only one or two predominant traits; they can
be summed up in a sentence or two.
❖ round characters: are complex and many-sided; they have the three-
dimensional quality of real people.
❖ Whether round or flat, all characters in good fiction are dramatized.
❖ stock character: A special kind of flat character. These are stereotyped
figures who have recurred so often in fiction that we recognize them at once:
mad scientist, brilliant detective, step mother
❖ Commercial authors often rely on such stock characters precisely because
they can be grasped quickly and easily by the reader.
❖ When literary writers employ a conventional type, however, they usually add
individualizing touches to help create a fresh and memorable character.
❖ static character: remains essentially the same person from the beginning of
the story to the end.
❖ developing (or dynamic) character: undergoes some distinct change of
character, personality, or outlook.(large or small, positive or negative, but
significant and basic not some minor change of habit or opinion.)
❖ epiphany: a moment of spiritual insight into life or into the character’s own
circumstances. This epiphany, or insight, usually defines the moment of the
developing character’s change.
❖ In commercial fiction, changes in character are likely to be relatively
superficial, intended mainly to affect a happy ending.

❖ Three conditions of character change in literary fiction:

1- it must be consistent with the individual’s characterization as dramatized in
the story.
2- it must be sufficiently motivated by the circumstances in which the character
is placed.
3- the story must offer sufficient time for the change to take place and still be
believable.
Chapter 4: Theme
▪ The theme of a piece of fiction is its controlling idea or its central insight. It
is the unifying generalization about life stated or implied by the story.’
▪ To derive the theme of a story: we must know the purpose
▪ Not all stories have a significant theme.
▪ The purpose of some stories may be simply to provide suspense, make
readers laugh, or surprise them with a sudden twist at the end.
▪ Theme exists only 1) when an author attempts to record life or reveal some
truth about it. 2) introduces some theories about life.
▪ Theme exists in virtually all literary fiction (it’s the primary purpose of the
story) but only in some commercial fiction (less important than elements
such as plot and suspense.)
▪ Whatever central generalization about life arises from the specifics of the
story constitutes the theme.
▪ The theme of a story, like its plot, may be stated very briefly or at greater
length
▪ In stating the theme in a sentence, we must pick the central insight that
explains the greatest number of elements in the story and relates them to
each other.
▪ Theme is what gives a story its unity.
▪ The function of literary writers is not to state a theme but to vivify it.
▪ Sometimes the theme of a story is explicitly stated somewhere in the
▪ story, either by the author or by one of the characters. More often, however,
the theme is implied.
▪ Why should we use the word theme? 1) it’s better to show the fact that a
story is not a sermon. (the first goal of the story was enjoyment) 2)keeps us
away from trying to find a moral about life.
▪ The purpose of literary story writers is to give us a greater awareness and a
greater understanding of life, not to inculcate a code of moral rules for
regulating daily conduct.
▪ Themes of commercial stories: platitudes of experience, They represent life
as we would like it to be, not always as it is.
▪ Themes of literary stories: question those beliefs and often challenge them,
they represent somber truths.
 ▪ discovering theme: the best approach is to explore the nature of the central
conflict and its outcome.

▪ Principals of theme:
1. Theme should be expressible in the form of a statement with a subject and a
predicate.
2. The theme should be stated as a generalization about life.
3. not to make the generalization larger than is justified by the terms of the story
(Terms like every, all, always should be used very cautiously; terms like some,
sometimes, may are often more accurate.)
4. Theme is the central and unifying concept of a story. Therefore a) it accounts for
all the major details of the story. b) The theme is not contradicted by any detail of
the story. c) ) The theme cannot rely on supposed facts—facts not actually stated
or clearly implied by the story. The theme exists inside, not outside, the story.
5. There is no one way of stating the theme of a story.
6. We should avoid any statement that reduces the theme to some familiar saying
that we have heard all our lives.
Chapter 5: Point of View
✓ With the growth of artistic consciousness, the question of point of view—of
who tells the story, and therefore of how it gets told—has assumed special
importance.
✓ To determine the point of view: ask, “Who tells the story?” and “How much
is this person allowed to know?” and especially, “To what extent does the
narrator look inside the characters and report their thoughts and feelings?

✓ Omniscient: third person by a narrator whose knowledge and prerogatives

are unlimited. These narrators can interpret behavior and can comment.
amount of omniscience the narrator is allowed varies in different stories.
most flexible point of view. the most subject to abuse. Used skillfully, it
enables the author to achieve simultaneous breadth and depth. Unskillfully
used, it can destroy the illusion of reality that the story attempts to create

✓ Third-person limited: third person, but from the viewpoint of one character
in the story. this perspective may move both inside and outside these
characters but never leave their sides. They know everything about their
point-of-view characters—often more than the characters know about
themselves. no direct knowledge of what other characters are thinking or
feeling or doing, except for what the point-of-view character knows or can
infer about t:hem. The chosen character may be either a major or a minor
character, a participant or an observer.
✓ First-person: author disappears into one of the characters, who tells the
story in the first person. May be major or a minor character, protagonist or
observer. shares the virtues and limitations of the third-person limited. no
opportunity for direct interpretation by the author. offers opportunities for
dramatic irony and for studies in limited human perceptiveness.

✓ Objective (dramatic): the narrator disappears into a kind of roving sound

camera. This camera can go anywhere but can record only what is seen and
heard. It cannot comment, interpret, or enter a character’s mind. readers see
what the characters do and hear what they say but must infer what they
think or feel and what they are like. relies heavily on external action and
dialogue. No direct interpretation by the author. For readers, the
examination of point of view may be important both for understanding and
for evaluating the story.
Chapter 6: Symbol, Allegory, and Fantasy
➢ The writer’s aim is to say as briefly as possible. This does not mean that most
good stories are brief. It means only that nothing is wasted and that the
author chooses each word and detail carefully for maximum effectiveness.
➢ an author can increase the emotional force , suggesting a richer meaning
than the factual storytelling by using symbol, allegory and fantasy.
➢ Symbol: A literary symbol is something that means more than what it
suggests on the surface. It may be a name, an object, a person, a situation,
an action, or some other element. In some stories these symbols will fit so
naturally into the literal context that the symbol cannot be seen at first. In
other stories—usually stories with a less realistic surface—they will be so
central and so obvious that they will demand symbolical interpretation. In
the first kind of story the symbols reinforce and add to the meaning. In the
second kind of story they carry the meaning.

made apparent by repetition

➢ predominant sets of symbols
gradually developed by realistic

details that build by accretion

➢ The ability to recognize and identify symbols requires perception and tact.
➢ observe the following cautions for finding symbols in the story:
1. The story itself must furnish a clue that a detail is to be taken symbolically.
2. the meaning of a literary symbol must be established and supported by the entire
context of the story.
3. To be called a symbol, an item must suggest a meaning different in kind from its
literal meaning.
4. A symbol may have more than one meaning.
➢ Allegory: An allegory is a story that has a second meaning beneath the
surface. relates each literal item to a corresponding abstract idea or moral
principle. different from symbolism because it puts less emphasis on the
literal meanings and more on the ulterior meanings. Also, those ulterior
meanings are more fixed, and they usually constitute a pre-existing system
of ideas or principles. an author employing allegory usually does not intend
simply to create two levels of reality. serious writers often introduce an
element of ambiguity into their allegorical meanings, undercutting easy and
simplistic interpretation.
➢ Fantasy: a type of story that abandons factual representation altogether.
Such stories require from the reader “a willing suspension of disbelief”.
human beings into a world where the ordinary laws of nature are suspended.
The improbable initial situation in fanatasy may yield as much truth as the
probable one. fantasies may be purely commercial entertainment or they
may be serious literary works. truth in fiction is not to be identified with a
realistic method. Fantasy may employ the techniques of symbolism or
allegory, or it may simply provide a nonrealistic setting as a way of observing
human nature.
➢ magical realism: in which magical events are woven into ordinary situations,
creating memorable effects unavailable to either realism or fantasy alone
➢ The purpose of any literary artist is to communicate truths by means of
imagined facts.
Chapter 7: Humor and Irony
• Irony: a term which has a range of meanings that all involve some sort of
incongruity or discrepancy. Irony evokes laughter in the reader even as they
express a significant insight into human nature.
• sarcasm (to belittle or ridicule another) ≠ irony (more complex, a technique
used to convey a truth about human experience)

Verbal irony: simplest kind. a figure of speech in which the speaker says the
opposite of what he or she intends to say. often employed to create sarcasm.

dramatic irony: the contrast is between what a character says or thinks and
Irony what the reader knows to be true. The value of this kind of irony lies in the
truth it conveys about the character or the character’s expectations. First-
person stories use dramatic irony to suggest that the narrator is not reliable.

irony of situation: the most important kind for the fiction write. the
discrepancy is between appearance and reality, or between expectation and
fulfillment, or between what is and what would seem appropriate.

• Irony, like symbol and allegory, is often a means for the author to achieve
compression. By creating an ironic situation or perspective, the author can
suggest complex meanings without stating them.
• Irony is important because it achieves its effects through indirection. Art
needs to be indirect because if it was a simple direct statement, it had no
emotional effect and we need to feel the truth.
 • stories that try to elicit easy or unearned emotional responses are guilty of
sentimentality. Sentimentality in fiction is not the same as genuine emotion;
rather, it is contrived or excessive emotion.
• A sentimental narrative oversimplifies and exaggerates emotion in attempt
to arouse a similarly excessive emotion in the reader.
• Genuine emotion, like character, is presented indirectly—it is dramatized

What do sentimental writers do?

First, they often try to make words do what the situation faithfully presented
by itself will not do. They editorialize—that is, comment on the story and, in a
manner, instruct us how to feel. Or they overwrite and poeticize—use an
immoderately heightened and distended language to accomplish their effects.

Second, they make an excessively selective use of detail. All artists, of course,
must be selective in their use of detail, but good writers use representative
details while sentimentalists use details that all point one way—toward
producing emotion rather than conveying truth.

Third, sentimentalists rely heavily on the stock response—an emotion that has
its source outside the facts established by the story. They depend on stock
materials to produce a stock response. Thus, they need not go to the trouble
of picturing the situation in
realistic and convincing detail.

Finally, sentimental writers present, nearly always, a fundamentally “sweet”

picture of life. They rely not only on stock characters and situations but also on
stock themes.

• The writers we value most are able to look at human experience in a clear-
eyed, honest way and to employ literary techniques such as humor and irony
as a way to enhance, not reduce, the emotional impact of their stories.
The Most Dangerous Game
Conflict
The various conflicts illuminated in this story are physical (Rainsford against the sea
and Zaroff), mental (Rainsford’s initial conflict of ideas with Whitney and his battle
of wits with Zaroff during the manhunt, which Zaroff refers to as “outdoor chess”),
emotional (Rainsford’s efforts to control his terror), and moral (Rainsford’s refusal
to “condone cold-blooded murder,” in contrast to Zaroff’s contempt for “romantic
ideas about the value of human life”).

Suspense
in “The Most Dangerous Game,” the author initiates suspense in the opening
sentences with Whitney’s account of the mystery of “Ship-Trap Island,” of which
sailors “have a curious dread”—a place that seems to emanate evil. The mystery
grows when, in this out-of-the-way spot, Rainsford discovers an enormous château
with a leering gargoyle knocker on its massive door and confronts a bearded giant
pointing a long-barreled revolver straight at his heart. Connell introduces a second
mystery when General Zaroff tells Rainsford that he hunts “more dangerous game”
on this island than the Cape buffalo. He then frustrates Rainsford’s (and the
reader’s) curiosity for some thirty-six paragraphs before revealing what the game
is. Meanwhile, by placing the protagonist in physical danger, Connell introduces a
second kind of suspense. Initiated by Rainsford’s fall into the sea and his
confrontation with Ivan, this second kind becomes the principal source of suspense
in the second half of the story. Simply put, the issues of whether Rainsford will
escape and how he will escape are what keep the reader absorbed in the story.

The Lottery
Characterization
There are some literary stories, of course, where the exploration of individual
character is not the main focus of interest—Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” (page
264) is an example—and in such stories none of the characters may be developed
fully. Such instances, however, are relatively rare