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ENH 110 Plot in fiction. Plot : It is a series of carefully devised, interrelated events that progress through a struggle of opposing forces to a climax and to a conclusion/not always a resolution. Peripeteia. Climax. crisis. Epitasis.
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ENH 110 Plot in fiction
Plot: It is a series of carefully devised, interrelated events that progress through a struggle of opposing forces to a climax and to a conclusion/not always a resolution. Peripeteia Climax crisis Epitasis Complication: an element that introduces some problem or difficulty Catastasis Rising Action Falling Action Conflict: the tension that results from the struggle of opposing forces in a plot. Person vs Person Person vs Environment Person vs Self Exposition Resolution /Denoument Protasis Catastrophe
The “Players” in a Short story Protagonist: He or she is the leading figure both in terms of importance in the story and in terms of his or her ability to enlist our interest and sympathy, whether the cause is heroic or ignoble. Antagonist: The character (or force) in a story who stands directly opposed to the protagonist, a rival or an opponent of the protagonist. Agon = “struggle” or “contest” (conflict) Greek roots Proto = “first” Agonistes = “one who struggles for a cause” Agony = “mental struggle”
Discussion prompt to intensify your literature-related neuron firing “A&P” “Where Are You Going Where Have You Been” Regarding plot, which story do you think is more well crafted? Focusing on the story’s structure, please explain your choice.
John Updike 1932-2009
“A & P” discussion questions 1. Of what significance is the 10 paragraph expository section? (Par 11 begins: “Now here comes the sad part of the story . . . .”) Sammy then says that his “family thinks it’s sad” but he does not. (He’s obviously told them the same (?) story) However, based on the implied ambiguity of “sad part,” do you think they might be siding with his being chivalrous or do you think they would remain faithful to Lengel’s interpretation of events? 2. Often in first person narratives we learn the name of the narrator early on in the story. Why does Updike wait almost twenty paragraphs before revealing “Sammy”? (Even his age is held back until par. 8)
“A & P” discussion prompt What do you consider to be the primary dramatic conflict, and do you think the narrative’s ending effects a resolution? Conflict in fiction: Person vs Person Person vs Environment (Societal norms / Nature) Person vs Self
“A & P” discussion prompts Do you think that Updike might want readers to see the following back and forth between Lengel and Queenie as ironic? (Verbal irony is when an author uses words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of the literal meaning). Par. 16: “We want you decently dressed when you come in here.” Par. 17: “We are decent, Queenie says suddenly . . . . At what point in the story come a crisis and climax?
“A & P” discussion prompt Do you think women readers characterize Sammy differently than men do? Explain.
“A & P” discussion prompts • Critics of the story offer various interpretations • for Sammy’s quitting: • *A typical teenager’s vaingloriousness • *The dehumanization of people caused by the • economic system’s penchant for commodification • *An Emersonian rebelliousness against the • forces of conformity • *A symbolic presaging of the iconoclastic behavior • of so much of the youth in the 1960s • What is your interpretation?
Why do you think he titled the story “A&P,” rather than something like“Sammy Strikes Out” or “Sammy’s Dilemma,” etc. ?
Joyce Carol Oates Born 1938
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Discussion Prompts What is the purpose of the expository section in this story? Does the story have any foreshadowing incident or incidents? (Foreshadowing is a literary device by which an author hints at what is to come. It is used to avoid disappointment, and sometimes used to arouse readers). What do you think constitute crisis and climax in this plot?
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Discussion Prompts What is your impression of Connie? Is she in any way appealing? Is she imperceptive and immature?
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Discussion Prompt What is your impression of Arnold Friend? As some critics have suggested, is he a “supernatural” character?
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Discussion Prompts Why doesn’t Connie succeed in breaking loose from Arnold’s spell? (Several critics think “music” is very important in answering this question) Do you think the story’s ending is clear or abstruse?
Early Transistor Radio Modern Transistor Radio AKA: I Pod
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Discussion Prompt Critics Gretchen Schultz and R. J. R. Rockwood posit the idea that Friend is not a real person, but is created by Connie’s imagination, as a means of dealing with her adolescence and its confusions. Do you agree or disagree?
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Discussion Prompt • The story is a very good example of literary ambiguity; there are many • layers of possible meaning: It can be read as • A crime story: a fictionalized account of the historical character Charles Schmid,the Pied Piper of Tucson • A moral parable: a cautionary tale for young girls (stay away from deceptive stalker types) • A cultural document of the 1960s, in which the innocence of America was giving way to the more hard-edged, turbulent, troublesome, violent and unpredictable times, an era being prophesied, ushered-in by none other • than Bob Dylan (among others), to whom the story is dedicated • An expression of the powerlessness and vulnerability of women trapped by • their vanity (feminist perspective), which is imposed on them by a cultural expectation that women must always be pretty, women who make • easy prey for predatory males like Ellie Oscar and Arnold Friend • Are you in alignment with one of these more than another, or do you have a different interpretation? Explain.
Charles Schmid “The Pied Piper of Tuscon”
