Analysis of a story

Scheme of

Analysis of a story

I. Introduction:

1. The title of the story

2. A few words about the author

3. Kind of the story

4. The form of the story is written in…

II. The subject matter of the story:

1. Outline the theme of the story.

2. Speak on the author’s message (idea) of the story.

3. Present the plot of the story in a nutshell.

3. Division of the story into structurally completed parts:

Analyze each part of the story.

Analysis must contain:

1. the problem raised by the author.

2. thoughts suggested by this or that part, which must be furnished with facts from the text.

3. expressive means and stylistic devices must be named, their functions must be pointed out.

4. give character sketches and name the method of character portrayal.

5. dwell upon the author’s peculiarities of writing and style.

Expressions to help you in presentation of each part:

1. For introduction:

1. The story (under consideration) is written by… (I’m going to speak on)

2. I must confess my reading experience of this writer is but poor. I know that he is a modern…

3. Frankly speaking it’s my first reading experience of this author, but it is my happy discovery of ... (name)

4. The extract - is selected

passage – is taken

fragment - is chosen from

the story “____________” by Ch. Dickens

5. The story suggests this writer as a keen observer of life.

6. To my mind ____________ the story is meant

It’s relevant to mention___ for an observant reader not for a casual one

7. The readers know that this author ranks high in literature

8. In my opinion, is remarkable for

• the thought provoking subject – matter

• the problem the author put forward

• the simplicity of the language

9. The simple language of the story harmonize well with feelings оf

10. The author seems to know the subject through and through /at first hand/

11. One may not like story, but he can’t be indifferent to it, because…

12. I know that the author is a prominent man of letters and he is never blind or deaf to people’s suffering…

13. It is a socially colored story

a science - fiction story

anti - war

an adventure

a humorous

a psychological

an entertaining story

14. The author

• concentrates on such important problems as

• centers his attention round

15. I gather it’s a socially colored story with some psychological touches.

16. For one thing, the story is centered round the situation in Vietnam, for another thing, it makes Fowler’s thoughts manifest, that’s why I consider the story as anti-colonial and anti-war.

17. I believe there are enough grounds to refer the story to the genre of

comedy

tragedy

novel

drama

18. As it is always the way with this author, the story is written in the form of narration, description, author’s speculations...

19. As often as not, his stories are written in the form of narration (description) and is not an exception. But there are some pieces of dialogue ...

20. It is the way with this author to excite the reader to make the reader think and judge for himself that’s why he used the form of a short story.

21. The story in itself is the first |third| person narration intermingled with dialogues.

22. The dialogue serves as a means of character portrayal.

23. The dialogue is made ample use of, and this prevents the story from being monotonous and dull adds an optimist color to it.

2. For the subject matter (тема, содержание) of the story

1. Presently I’d like to describe briefly the subject matter of the story.

2. The plot of the story is not eventful, yet, it keeps the reader in suspense.

3. The story is full of events the most important of which are the following:

4. Presently, I think it’s relevant to present the story in terms of a summary.

5. The swift development of events makes it difficult to outline the subject - matter and presented in a nutshell - it may sound like this: ...

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