1.

FORMALIST/ NEW CRITICISM

VANKA
By Anton Chekhov

The story opens on Christmas Eve with Vanka, a poor orphan of the age of nine, sitting down to
write a letter to his grandfather; this man works as a night watchman for the Zhivarev family estate and
resides in an unidentified village in Russia. Vanka has been transferred to new masters in Moscow to live
with the family of Alyakhin the shoemaker. This lifestyle oppresses the little orphan, who grows
frustrated with the situation and tries to contact his grandfather to ask for help. As he writes the letter,
Vanka recalls his jesting, lively grandfather and his life at the village before he was apprenticed to this
new home. The young boy recollects the two dogs, Kashtanka and Eel, who follow his grandfather around
the estate and sometimes partake of the grandfather's snuff. As he writes, Vanka also records some of the
harsh treatment that he has received at the hands of Alyakhin, Alyakhin's wife, and the older apprentices.
A lifestyle of beatings, scoldings, mockery, and unsatisfactory food has driven Vanka to crave escape; he
writes that, if he is rescued from Alyakhin, he will protect his grandfather and gladly perform odd jobs.
Vanka also describes some of the goods available in the Moscow shops. Yet his thoughts are dominated
by memories of a Christmas at the Zhivarev household, when Vanka had accompanied his grandfather
into a nearby forest to cut down a Christmas tree. Olga Ignatyevna, a lively young woman from the
Zhivarev family, had decorated the tree; she is also dear to Vanka because she taught him to read, write,
count, and dance. However, after his mother's death, Vanka was sent out of Olga's company and then
transferred to Alyakhin's premises. Overcome with emotion, Vanka returns to his letter, writing out a
plea for his grandfather to take him away. He also, however, sends his regards to a few people
from his former life in the village. After the letter is finished, the little boy puts down the name of his
grandfather, Konstantin Makarich. For the address, he writes down "the village." (He is not aware of the
fact that letters, in order to be sent, need to be stamped.) In good hopes, Vanka rushes into the street,
throws the letter into the nearest post-box, and then goes back to Alyakhin's to sleep, happily dreaming
about his grandfather sitting by the stove and reading the letter to the cooks.

EXPLANATION:
In Vanka by Anton Chekhov we have the theme of desperation, innocence, compassion, suffering
and commitment. Taken from his The Complete Short Stories collection the story is narrated in the third
person by an unnamed narrator and after reading the story the reader realises just how desperate Vanka is
to return home to his grandfather. By writing his letter to his grandfather Vanka is able to outline the
mistreatment that he receives from Alyahin and how it affects him. Life with Alyahin is so much different
for Vanka. There is no sense of compassion in their relationship. Something that Vanka has when it
comes to his relationship with his grandfather. If anything the bond between both Vanka and his
grandfather is so strong that it is difficult for Vanka to forget about his grandfather. He is not only unable
to let go of the life he lived with his grandfather but he is also enduring severe difficulty under the
guidance of Alyahin. Who appears to view Vanka as no more than a work-horse.
The end of the story is also interesting as though the reader knows that Vanka’s grandfather will never
receive the letter Vanka himself is full of hope that he will be rescued from his situation. Something that
is noticeable by how care-free Vanka becomes after sending the letter to his grandfather. No longer is he
overly concerned about how he is being treated as he views his time with Alyahin as coming to an end.
 2. FEMINIST/ GENDER CRITICISM
A WHITE HERON
By Sarah Orne Jewett

Sylvia, a shy nine-year-old, is bringing home the milk cow when she meets a young ornithologist
who is hunting birds for his collection of specimens. He goes with her to her grandmother’s house. Her
grandmother, Mrs. Tilley, has rescued Sylvia from a crowded home in the city, where she was
languishing. The farm has proven a good environment for her. The handsome hunter, however, awakens
Sylvia’s interest in a larger social life. He is friendly and sociable. He offers money and other rewards for
information about where he can find the white heron he has seen. He spends a day with Sylvia looking for
the heron’s nest, during which Sylvia comes to find him increasingly attractive, even though she is
repelled by his killing birds. She knows where the nest probably is, but she hesitates to tell him. On the
second morning of the hunter’s stay, Sylvia climbs a nearby landmark pine at dawn to see the heron rise
from its nest. She seems to have decided to help the ornithologist; however, at this point Jewett uses some
special narrative devices to subvert Sylvia’s apparent intentions. Shifts in verb tense and point of view
create an intimate unity between the narrator, the reader, and Sylvia herself. One effect of this unity is
probably to help the reader share Sylvia’s enriching mystical union with nature that leads her finally to
decide not to tell what she has found. Sylvia is not yet ready to surrender a life “heart to heart with
nature” for the “great wave of human interest” represented by the hunter. Before she can return to the
more various social life she has temporarily left behind to live on the farm with her grandmother, she
must come to possess herself. For her, this can happen best in the comparative isolation of country life.
Though it is easy to read this tale as extolling a life close to nature over a richer social life in the city,
Jewett’s story is more complex. Jewett herself lived alternately in the quiet, rural village of South
Berwick and in the cosmopolitan social and literary life of Boston, and she often traveled to other cities
(and several times to Europe). The story deals with several of Jewett’s major themes, one of which is the
necessity, at some times and for some people, of withdrawing from social life into a simpler set of
relations where the self can be fostered or renewed. The story does not imply that Sylvia will find a
lifetime of happiness only on her grandmother’s farm—though indeed she may—any more than
Thoreau’s discoveries at Walden Pond require that he live all the rest of his life there.
The ornithologist is attractive as well as a little dangerous; the wave of human interest he represents is, for
most of Jewett’s characters, necessary to happiness. Sylvia simply is not yet ready to enter into the great
stream of social life, and to do so too soon would threaten her ability to create and maintain a strong self.
Were she to help the young man now, she would come to love and serve him “as a dog loves.” Such a
love does not suggest the most rewarding kind of relationship between strong equals.

EXPLANATION:

Sylvia’s relationship with nature is characterized by sublime experiences between herself, as a

female, and the natural living world. The relationship is innocent, balanced, empowering and harmonious.
If she had pursued a relationship with the charming hunter, friendship or otherwise, she would most likely
have lost that innocence, harmony, and empowerment. Sylvia, although empowered by her relationship
with the natural non-human world she occupies, only becomes the heroine when she resists the temptation
of man that desires to destroy the white heron (a symbol of the natural, non-human world) in exchange for
personal benefit. The narrative itself is a work of ecofeminism. Ecofeminism is “an effort to link
feminism, the study of women and women’s values, with the exploration of environmental issues, an
activist and academic movement that sees critical connections between the domination of nature and the
exploitation of women. “A White Heron” is ecofeminist because both the natural world and Sylvia are
manipulated, “devalued, and exploited” by the hunter in an attempt to further his personal agenda. The
solution to the issue of masculine dominion over nature and women is depicted, in this narrative, as the
harmonious and collective relationship between woman and nature, as well as the adoption of the
mutually protective guardian role by both parties, equally. The female is becomes preserver of nature, and
nature becomes the preserve of the female. The role of the man in the story is one of aggression, while the
female is one of love. This notion of ecofeminism is only emphasized by Jewett’s use of l’ecriture
feminine writing as a woman, and writing women, as well as using a narrative voice of femininity and
elegance.

“A White Heron” is a fairy tale that differs from most others of the time, because it rejects the traditional
notion of the innocent girl, a damsel in distress, awaiting the savior of her world, by the strong man.
Instead, the innocent girl is the heroine who saves the natural world from destruction by the man. In most
traditional fairy tales, the forest is a dark and unfamiliar place that threatens the safety of the girl. In “A
White Heron,” The girl feels the most safe when in the woods.A White Heron is subtly radical for its time
of conception, in 1886. Sarah Orne Jewett carefully formulated a romantic fairy tale about the strength of
the female and the relationship between femininity and nature by flipping the concept of the traditional
fairy tale on its head.
3.DECONSTRUCTION
A NEW ENGLAND NUN
BY: MARY E. FREEMAN

A New England Nun” tells the story of Louisa Ellis, a woman engaged to be married to Joe Dagget but
who feels ambivalent because she has loved living alone for the last fifteen years. The story opens on a
peaceful afternoon, where Louisa, having just finished working at her needlepoint, goes outside to pick
some currants, and then happily steeps herself tea. She fixes herself dinner, which she eats contentedly,
and she goes outside to feed her dog, Caesar, who lives in the backyard. As evening sets in and she
washes her dishes, she takes pleasure in listening to the frogs and toads croak outside her window. Later
that night, Joe Dagget comes to visit Louisa. Joe has been coming to see Louisa twice a week she and Joe
got engaged fifteen years ago, but Joe was across the world, in Australia, seeking his fortune for
fourteen of those years. Joe’s presence inside Louisa’s house is instantly alarming he has a heavy gait, a
large, “masculine” manner, and he upsets Louisa’s little canary who begins to beat its wings against its
cage. Louisa and Joe sit across from each other and have an awkward conversation, talking about the
weather. When Louisa asks after Joe’s mother, he mentions his mother’s caretaker Lily Dyer, and
blushes. At one point, Joe picks up a stack of books and sets them down in the opposite order than he’d
found them. Louisa gets up and sets the books back as they were, baffling Joe. On his way out of the
door, he trips on a rug, knocks over the basket where Louisa keeps her needlework, and its contents spill
everywhere. Louisa ushers Joe out of the house, assuring him that she’ll clean it up. Once outside, Joe is
extremely relieved to no longer be in Louisa’s home Louisa, inside, is similarly relieved to finally be
alone again. Louisa is dreading marrying Joe, terrified at the idea of giving up her home, her belongings,
and her way of life. She is also very worried that Joe will let Caesar loose the dog has spent the last
fourteen years chained inside a hut in the backyard because, as a puppy, he bit a neighbor, and she
worries about him roaming the town if he isn’t kept in the yard. However, despite her concerns, Louisa
does not want to break the vow of engagement she made to Joe.
One night, as Louisa is enjoying a stroll under a full moon, she notices two other people just on the other
side of the path. Unable to leave without disturbing them, she decides to wait in the shadows until they
are gone. When they begin to speak, she realizes that it is Joe Dagget and Lily Dyer. Thinking they are
alone, Joe and Lily confess their feelings for each other. But Lily says that she’ll be leaving town, because
she would never expect Joe to break his promise to Louisa in fact, if he did, she would no longer care for
him. Lily at first appears curt, but she eventually softens, telling Joe that she’ll never marry because she
could never feel this strongly for another man. Joe is devastated that Lily is leaving but he, too, agrees
that the engagement vow is the most important thing and says that he would never abandon Louisa. The
pair likely kisses (Louisa hears a “soft commotion”) before Lily says that she must go. Louisa is stunned
by what she’s just heard.
The next day, after doing her housework and meditating by her window, Louisa welcomes Joe into her
home. Diplomatically, without ever mentioning Lily Dyer, Louisa manages to break off their engagement,
saying she simply can’t envision changing her life. Joe insists that if Louisa hadn’t broken the
engagement, he would have married her, but he admits that he does think it’s better this way. They share
a tender goodbye—with a warmth that they’d not shown each other in some time. That night, Louisa
weeps a little. However, the next morning, she does her needlework with an air of perfect contentedness.
Louisa feels like she is at once a queen with total control over her domain, and a “nun,” allowed to live
the rest of days out in peaceful solitude.

EXPLANATION:
A new England nun by Mary E. Freeman, in this short story it encounter louisa , whose decision
to call off her engagement is typically read as empowering. However, a deconstructionist might read
symbols in the story as an indication that Louisa is still trapped albiet by her own choices and not by an
undesirable marriage.
4. READER-RESPONSE
A LONG WALK HOME
By: Jason Bocarro
The writer describes an event from his own life. He says that he was 16 years old when he went to Mijas,
a remote village, 18 miles from his house, with his father. He then dropped his father there and wen to a
nearby garage to get the car serviced. He promised his father to pick him up at 4:00 PM.
The writer says that he had a few hours to spare as the car was being serviced. He decided to watch
movies in a nearby theatre. Meanwhile, he was so much absorbed in movies that he completely lost the
track of time. He was two hours late. He quickly picked the car and hurried to where his father would be
waiting. He knew that his father would be angry if he came to know that he had been watching movies.
So, he told his father that the car needed major repairs which took more time. His father had already
called the garage and they had told him that Jason still had not picked up the car. So, his father became
angry with his son for not telling the truth. His father sad and hurt over his son's misstatement.
Meanwhile, his father told him that it was his fault to bring up a son into a liar. His father angrily decided
not to ride the car and walk home. Jason had severe regret for what he had done. He apologized again and
again but his father would not listen. Jason started driving the car behind his father in slow motion
requestion him again and again to get on. It was the most painful but successful lesson in Jason's life. His
father walked home 18 miles. Jason never lied to his father since then.

EXPLANATION:
Boccaro’s A Long walk Home is a short story that tells how Jackson, a teen with a
delinquent tendency, grows wiser after experiencing a bitter experience with his father . It is under reader-
response because in this short story, Bocarro succeeds to present an interesting narrative. He effectively
selects and arranges appropriate occurrences that gradually release the exposition rising actions climax
falling actions resolution to create and maintain the reader’s interest. All of the events are well-chosen
because no single occurrence spoils the flow of the story. Although the exposition is presented in a single
brief paragraph only, it manages to establish the setting and introduce the characters, background
information, and the conflict.
5. PSYCHOANALYTIC
THE LITTLE GREEN MONSTER
By: Haruki Murakami

In The Little Green Monster by Haruki Murakami a woman is confronted by a scale-covered, fig-eyed
monster that crawls out of her garden. Although the monster gives no indication of trying to harm her,
the woman instantly sees the creature as an object she needs to destroy. At first, the woman thinks about
cutting off the monster’s sharp nose with a kitchen knife. When the monster acknowledges her silent
threat, the woman becomes scared of the monster’s power. Soon after, she realizes she can use it to hurt
the monster. By the end of the story, the woman’s evil thoughts kill the monster.

I think that Murakami is trying to point out human capability of evil. As soon as the woman discovers her
power to hurt the monster (who had done nothing to her), she takes full advantage of it. It appears that
her only motivation to kill the monster is because it looks like a monster, not because it harms her or is
mean. She shows no mercy for the creature as it cries and shakes, even though it only wanted to love her.

EXPLANATION:

In Murakami's “The Little Green Monster,” the female protagonist experiences the repressed memory of
her rape, which is conveyed through a visit by a little green monster in a dream. I believed that this story
is under Psychoanalytic approach because The Little Green Monster” can be read as a retelling of one
woman's traumatic rape. The best condition for repressed memories to surface is when a person is in a
dream-like state.
6. BIOGRAPHICAL
DRAGON HOOPS
By Gene Yang

Gene Yang is a teacher at Bishop O'Dowd, a Catholic high school in California. He has recently
finished a book project and finds himself craving the structure that working on a graphic novel provided
as a balance along with family time and teaching. As he looks for his next project, he hears some students
talking about the O'Dowd men's basketball team – the Dragons. Gene is not a sports fan, but the
conversation piques his interest. Gene works up the courage to take the first step onto the street that
divides the academic portion of the O'Dowd campus from the gym. After spending just a few minutes
with Coach Lou Richie, Gene knows that following the Dragons for the upcoming season will be the
basis for his next graphic novel. From the beginning, Gene is faced with a quandary regarding former
Dragons' Coach Mike Phelps. Coach Phelps was placed on administrative leave in 2003 after a student
accused him of sexual misconduct in the 1960s (when Coach Phelps was in his 20s). The accusation came
when the Catholic Church as a whole was being inundated with claims of sexual abuse. Though Coach
Phelps denied the claim and no other victims came forward, he never regained his job or his standing in
the community. Lou does not argue Coach Phelps' innocence, but he makes it a point to hug Phelps
whenever he makes it to a game. Lou says Phelps is “still Coach” and “still a human.” Gene eventually
decides he cannot tell the story of the Dragons' quest for a state championship game without including
Phelps. However, having spent time debating the question, his decision is not easy. Gene begins to get
better acquainted with the members of the team. Some came from poor homes. One is the son of a
successful public defender who believes his own Catholic education set his life on the correct path. One is
an exchange student who choose O'Dowd because of the basketball program. Some talk openly to Gene
while others are more reticent. Soon after Gene begins to work on this graphic novel, he realizes there is
no guarantee he is following a team toward a state championship. Though Lou has faith in his players,
Gene is learning that there are no guarantees in sports. When the Dragons reach the third game of the
final playoffs, Gene recalls that the same two teams previously met and the dragons lost that game. Gene
reminds himself that this is a story worth telling, even if the Dragons do not win state. However, when it
comes down to overtime, Gene is cheering wildly along with the other fans. The Dragons win by a single
free throw with no time left on the overtime clock. By this time, Gene has decided to devote himself fully
to his career as an author.

EXPLANATION:

Dragon hoops is sort of hybrid biography/autobiography, it covers Yang’s own experience learning
about the basketball team at the high school where he taught math, and the complexities of race
intertwined within sports and culture ,Dragon Hoops emphasizes their uniqueness as individuals and the
intricate ways that their respective experiences shape how they see both the world and the opportunities
afforded by basketball. It is under biographical approach because it focus the author itself.
7. STRUCTURALISM
BELOVED
By: Toni Morrison
The novel is based on the true story of a Black slave woman, Margaret Garner, who in 1856 escaped from
a Kentucky plantation with her husband, Robert, and their children. They sought refuge in Ohio, but their
owner and law officers soon caught up with the family. Before their recapture, Margaret killed her young
daughter to prevent her return to slavery. In the novel, Sethe is also a passionately devoted mother, who
flees with her children from an abusive owner known as “schoolteacher.” They are caught, and, in an act
of supreme love and sacrifice, she too tries to kill her children to keep them from slavery. Only her two-
year-old daughter dies, and the schoolteacher, believing that Sethe is crazy, decides not to take her back.
Sethe later has “Beloved” inscribed on her daughter’s tombstone. Although she had intended for it to read
“Dearly Beloved,” she did not have the energy to “pay” for two words (each word cost her 10 minutes of
sex with the engraver).
These events are revealed in flashbacks, as the novel opens in 1873, with Sethe and her teenage daughter,
Denver, living in Ohio, where their house at 124 Bluestone Road is haunted by the angry ghost of the
child Sethe killed. The hauntings are alleviated by the arrival of Paul D, a man so ravaged by his slave
past that he keeps his feelings in the “tobacco bin” of his heart. He worked on the same plantation as
Sethe, and the two begin a relationship. A brief period of relative calm ends with the appearance of a
young woman who says that her name is Beloved. She knows things that suggest she is the reincarnation
of Sethe’s lost daughter. Sethe is obsessed with assuaging her guilt and tries to placate the increasingly
demanding and manipulative Beloved. At one point, Beloved seduces Paul D. After learning that Sethe
killed her daughter, he leaves. The situation at 124 Bluestone worsens, as Sethe loses her job and
becomes completely fixated on Beloved, who is soon revealed to be pregnant. While the lonely and
largely housebound Denver initially befriends Beloved, she begins to grow concerned. She finally dares
to venture outside in order to ask the community for help, and she is given food and a job. As the local
women attempt to stage an exorcism, Denver’s employer arrives to take her to work, and Sethe mistakes
him for “schoolteacher” and tries to attack him with an ice pick. The other women restrain her, and during
the commotion Beloved disappears. Paul D later returns to the grieving Sethe, promising to care for her,
and Denver continues to thrive in the outside world.

EXPLANATION:

Beloved story is under structuralism approach because, the voice is given to voiceless subjects: to Sethe,
while she was a slave and to Beloved, who emerges into life from the world of the dead. So, the signifier -
signified traditional connection is challenged in favour of a fluctuating relationship between signs . The
protagonist is no longer a slave towards the end of the narrative; however, that designating label will
hover around her to haunt her existence in different ways. Therefore, the term slave is re- accommodated
according to the constant sliding of the signified under the signifier. In this passage, Sethe, consumed by
guilt, is willing to trade places with her daughter Beloved. But the place her daughter is eager to fill is the
one of the master. Sethe is free at last to lead her life and make her own decisions, but Beloved is back to
dominate her and oppress her life in order to obtain the satisfaction that had proved delayed. A new kind
of slavery is born together with Beloved.
8. Marxism Criticism
DAISY MILLER
By: Henry James

At a hotel in the resort town of Vevey, Switzerland, a young American named Winterbourne meets
a rich, pretty American girl named Daisy Miller, who is traveling around Europe with her mother and her
younger brother, Randolph. Winterbourne, who has lived in Geneva most of his life, is both charmed and
mystified by Daisy, who is less proper than the European girls he has encountered. She seems
wonderfully spontaneous, if a little crass and “uncultivated.” Despite the fact that Mrs. Costello, his aunt,
strongly disapproves of the Millers and flatly refuses to be introduced to Daisy, Winterbourne spends
time with Daisy at Vevey and even accompanies her, unchaperoned, to Chillon Castle, a famous local
tourist attraction. The following winter, Winterbourne goes to Rome, knowing Daisy will be there, and is
distressed to learn from his aunt that she has taken up with a number of well-known fortune hunters and
become the talk of the town. She has one suitor in particular, a handsome Italian named Mr. Giovanelli,
of uncertain background, whose conduct with Daisy mystifies Winterbourne and scandalizes the
American community in Rome. Among those scandalized is Mrs. Walker, who is at the center of Rome’s
fashionable society. Both Mrs. Walker and Winterbourne attempt to warn Daisy about the effect her
behavior is having on her reputation, but she refuses to listen. As Daisy spends increasingly more time
with Mr. Giovanelli, Winterbourne begins to have doubts about her character and how to interpret her
behavior. He also becomes uncertain about the nature of Daisy’s relationship with Mr. Giovanelli.
Sometimes Daisy tells him they are engaged, and other times she tells him they are not. One night, on his
way home from a dinner party, Winterbourne passes the Coliseum and decides to look at it by moonlight,
braving the bad night air that is known to cause “Roman fever,” which is malaria. He finds Daisy and Mr.
Giovanelli there and immediately comes to the conclusion that she is too lacking in self-respect to bother
about. Winterbourne is still concerned for Daisy’s health, however, and he reproaches Giovanelli and
urges him to get her safely home. A few days later, Daisy becomes gravely ill, and she dies soon after.
Before dying, she gives her mother a message to pass on to Winterbourne that indicates that she cared
what he thought about her after all. At the time, he does not understand it, but a year later, still thinking
about Daisy, he tells his aunt that he made a great mistake and has lived in Europe too long. Nevertheless,
he returns to Geneva and his former life.

EXPLANATION:
The story of the young American naif sojourning in Europe was generally received as a theatrical
comedy or tragicomedy of manners, even more so since James himself reworked his plot into a
three-act comedy in 1883, characteristically failing at the dramatic medium. Daisy Miller is
a rich, pretty, American girl traveling through Europe with her mother and younger brother.
Daisy wants to be exposed to European high society but refuses to conform to old-world notions
of propriety laid down by the expatriate community there.This story is under Marxism approach
because the author realistically describes the socially accepted norms of the European culture in
comparison to that of the young American girl and her cultural norms.
 9. NEOCLASSICAL
GULLIVERS TRAVEL
By: Jonathan Swift
Gulliver goes on four separate voyages in Gulliver's Travels. Each journey is preceded by a storm. All
four voyages bring new perspectives to Gulliver's life and new opportunities for satirizing the ways of
England. The first voyage is to Lilliput, where Gulliver is huge and the Lilliputians are small. At first the
Lilliputians seem amiable, but the reader soon sees them for the ridiculous and petty creatures they are.
Gulliver is convicted of treason for "making water" in the capital (even though he was putting out a fire
and saving countless lives)--among other "crimes."
The second voyage is to Brobdingnag, a land of Giants where Gulliver seems as small as the Lilliputians
were to him. Gulliver is afraid, but his keepers are surprisingly gentle. He is humiliated by the King when
he is made to see the difference between how England is and how it ought to be. Gulliver realizes how
revolting he must have seemed to the Lilliputians. Gulliver's third voyage is to Laputa (and neighboring
Luggnagg and Glubdugdribb). In a visit to the island of Glubdugdribb, Gulliver is able to call up the dead
and discovers the deceptions of history. In Laputa, the people are over-thinkers and are ridiculous in other
ways. Also, he meets the Stuldbrugs, a race endowed with immortality. Gulliver discovers that they are
miserable.

His fourth voyage is to the land of the Houyhnhnms, who are horses endowed with reason. Their rational,
clean, and simple society is contrasted with the filthiness and brutality of the Yahoos, beasts in human
shape. Gulliver reluctantly comes to recognize their human vices. Gulliver stays with the Houyhnhnms
for several years, becoming completely enamored with them to the point that he never wants to leave.
When he is told that the time has come for him to leave the island, Gulliver faints from grief. Upon
returning to England, Gulliver feels disgusted about other humans, including his own family.

EXPLANATION:
Gulliver's Travels is neoclassical in the sense that it is among the early-modern European works that
saw themselves as advocates of what they considered to be the classical values of reason, scientific
curiosity, openness to unfamiliar ideas and the toleration of foreign cultures and practices . This story is
fantasy of the feature and a satire. Swift’s famous novel Gulliver’s Travels, in which the main character
Gulliver states almost outright that he is choosing to leave the realm of society in favor of another species
due to his inability to deal further with the horribleness and corruptness of humanity. The rest of the book
then explains through the tales of different species and peoples the exact flaws of politics and society.
10. ARCHETYPAL APPROACH

WONDER WOMAN
By: William Moulton Marston

When army pilot Steve Trevor crashes on the warriors' secluded island paradise, disrupting
the fictitious all-female sanctuary of Themyscira created by the Gods of Olympus, Princess Diana
of the immortal Amazons aids for his rescue and wins the decisive right to escort him home,
heading to an early 20th Century London to stop the war she believes is influenced by the God
Ares. Leaving behind the only life she's ever known and entering the cynical world of men for the
first time, torn between a mission to promote peace and her own warrior upbringing, as a
"Wonder Woman," Diana must fight evil in a "war to end all wars," while hoping to unlock the
potential of a humanity she doesn't always understand.

EXPLANATION:
The story of Wonder woman is under archetypal approach because Diana the main character of the
story is named after the Roman goddess of the hunt and the moon. The equivalent Greek goddess was
Artemis. As the moon reflects its light at night, Diana’s power is reflected in all of us. For I believe that
the Warrior archetype resides within us all, at least to some degree. What’s particularly wholesome about
Wonder Woman as the Warrior is that she is comfortable within her own skin and not emotionally
compromised. Indeed, she is an integrated female Warrior archetype who loves to love whether it is
babies, children, ice cream, fashionable clothes, romance and she is also fierce on the battleground. For
Diana, it is a matter of duty to defend and a sense of servitude to humanity, peace, and love.
11. HISTORICAL CRITICISM

SHOOTING AN ELEPHANT
By: GEORGE ORWELL
Orwell begins by relating some of his memories from his time as a young police officer working in
Burma. Although the extent to which the essay is autobiographical has been disputed, we will refer to the
narrator as Orwell himself, for ease of reference. He, like other British and European people in imperial
Burma, was held in contempt by the native populace, with Burmese men tripping him up during football
matches between the Europeans and Burmans, and the local Buddhist priests loudly insulting their
European colonisers on the streets. Orwell tells us that these experiences instilled in him two things: it
confirmed his view, which he had already formed, that imperialism was evil, but it also inspired a hatred
of the enmity between the European imperialists and their native subjects. Of course, these two things are
related, and Orwell understands why the Buddhist priests hate living under European rule. He is
sympathetic towards such a view, but it isn’t pleasant when you yourself are personally the object of
ridicule or contempt. He finds himself caught in the middle between ‘hatred of the empire’ he served and
his ‘rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make [his] job impossible’.The main story
which Orwell relates takes place in Moulmein, in Lower Burma. An elephant, one of the tame elephants
which the locals own and use, has given its rider or mahout the slip, and has been wreaking havoc
throughout the bazaar. It has destroyed a hut, killed a cow, and raided some fruit stalls for food. Orwell
picks up his rifle and gets on his pony to go and see what he can do. He knows the rifle won’t be good
enough to kill the elephant, but he hopes that firing the gun might scare the animal. Orwell discovers that
the elephant has just trampled a man, a coolie or native labourer, to the ground, killing him. Orwell sends
his pony away and calls for an elephant rifle which would be more effective against such a big animal.
Going in search of the elephant, Orwell finds it coolly eating some grass, looking as harmless as a cow. It
has calmed down, but by this point a crowd of thousands of local Burmese people has amassed, and is
watching Orwell intently. Even though he sees no need to kill the animal now it no longer poses a threat
to anyone, he realises that the locals expect him to dispatch it, and he will lose ‘face’ – both personally
and as an imperial representative – if he does not do what the crowd expects. So he shoots the elephant
from a safe distance, marvelling at how long the animal takes to die. He acknowledges at the end of the
essay that he only shot the elephant because he did not wish to look like a fool.

EXPLANATION:

Shooting an Elephant’ is a 1936 by George Orwell (1903-50), about his time as a young policeman in
Burma, which was then part of the British empire. The essay explores an apparent paradox about the
behaviour of Europeans, who supposedly have the power over their colonial subjects. It is under the
historical approach because the setting is colonial Burma, part of the British Empire, sometime in the late
1920s or early 1930s.
 MAJOR OUTPUT
IN
LITERARY CRITICISM

PREPARED TO: MRS. MELANIE RICAMARA

PREPARED BY: MARINEL D. QUINTO
(BSE III- ENGLISH)