10
Analyzing Stories
Stories have a special place in most cultures. Sharing stories strengthens the bonds of
family and community: Elders relate family and cultural history through stories; children
learn lessons through fables and parables; people of all ages use stories to express feelings, work out conflicts, and entertain themselves and others. Reading stories stimulates
our feelings and imagination, allowing us to escape our everyday routine and become
aware of the wider world around us. Stories can lead us to look at others with sensitivity
and, for a brief time, to see the world through another person’s eyes. They can also lead
us to see ourselves differently, to gain insight into our innermost feelings and thoughts.
The short stories presented in this chapter may in some respects remind you of
the essays about remembered events you read and wrote in Chapter 2. As you may
recall, essays about remembered events convey significance primarily through vivid
descriptive detail showing people in particular places engaged in some kind of dramatic
action. Fictional stories work the same way, except that the people in them are called
characters, places are called setting, the dramatic action is called plot, and the significance is called theme or meaning.
Good stories tend to be enigmatic in that they usually do not reveal themselves
fully on first reading. That is why it can be so enjoyable and enlightening to analyze
stories and discuss them with other readers. Even very short stories can elicit fascinating
analyses. For example, Ernest Hemingway wrote this six-word story, which he reportedly claimed was his best work:
For sale: baby shoes, never worn.
Upon first reading, you might think you have gotten everything there is to get from
the story. But consider the following questions:
It looks like an ad, but who would try to sell baby shoes, and why? What is the
relationship between the person trying to sell the shoes and the baby for whom
the shoes were originally bought?
If the person is a parent, what does selling the shoes suggest?
If the person is someone unrelated to the baby, how did that person get the shoes,
and why is he or she selling them?
Could the person selling the shoes be someone who wanted a baby but lost or
never had one? Or is he or she more likely to be someone who simply bought the
wrong size shoes and didn’t return them?
Who would be a potential buyer for the shoes?
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CHAPTER 10 Analyzing Stories
If the story is about the death of a child, how old was the child, and what were the
circumstances of his or her death? If there is no death involved, what are the circumstances: Is the baby unable to walk or wear shoes? Was he or she taken away
from the person who placed the ad? Or were the shoes simply a bad purchase?
Where and when was the ad written? (In a country where there are land mines?
In a time of severe economic depression?)
Why is the story so short? Could the brevity say something about emotion?
Could the fact that the story is written in the form of an advertisement suggest
something about commercialism?
As these questions imply, even the shortest story can be analyzed and discussed in
ways that enhance its possible meanings and enrich your reading experience.
In this chapter, we ask you to write an analysis of a story. Analyzing the selections in
the Guide to Reading that follows will help you learn the basic features and strategies
writers typically use when writing about stories. The readings, as well as the questions and
discussion surrounding them, will help you consider strategies you might want to try out
when writing your own analysis.
PRACTICING THE GENRE
Analyzing a Story Collaboratively
Although writing about stories is an important academic kind of discourse, many people
who are not in school enjoy discussing stories and writing about how a story resonates in
their lives. That is why book clubs, reading groups, and online discussion forums are so
popular. Talking and writing about stories we have read and seen can help us understand
why a particular story may be moving or thought-provoking. Sharing the experience with
others exposes us to different ways of interpreting and responding to stories — expanding our
openness to new perspectives, deepening our insight, and enhancing our pleasure.
To benefit from this kind of discussion with others, work together on an analysis of one
story with two or three other students. Here are some guidelines to follow:
Part 1.
Get together with students who have read the same story from An Anthology of Short
Stories that begins on p. 495.
Begin by discussing one question from the Analyze & Write section following the
story your group read. (During the discussion, you may go on to answer other
questions as well.)
Part 2. After you have discussed the story for half of the time allotted for this activity,
reflect on the process of analyzing the story in your group:
Before you began, what were your expectations of how the group would work
together? For example, did you think your group should or would agree on one
“right answer” to the questions, or did you expect significant disagreement? What
actually happened once you began to discuss the story?
How did the discussion affect your attitude about the story or about the process of
analyzing stories? What, if anything, did you learn?
Your instructor may ask you to write about what you learned and to present your conclusions to the rest of the class.
GUIDE TO READING
Analyzing Essays That Analyze Stories
In the Readings section of this chapter, you will see how different authors analyze
the same short story: “The Use of Force” by William Carlos Williams (pp. 501–3).
Examining how these writers present an arguable thesis about the story, support this
thesis, and guide readers through their argument will help you write an insightful
literary analysis of your own.
Determine the writer’s purpose and audience.
When reading the short story analysis essays that appear in this chapter, ask yourself
the following questions:
What seems to be the writer’s main purpose — for example, to illuminate the story;
to change or expand the way readers understand the story; or to impress readers
with the writer’s insight and close reading?
What does the writer assume about the audience? The short story analyses from
this chapter were written by students in a college course in which the entire class
had read the same story. These writers assumed that their primary reader, the
instructor, not only had read the story but also knew a fair amount about its con
text and the conversation surrounding it — enough, at least, to be able to judge
whether the essayist had read the story with sufficient care and thought. In cases
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story and its author are not necessary.
Assess the genre’s basic features.
As you read the essays that analyze stories in this chapter, you will see how different
writers incorporate the basic features of the genre. The following discussions of these
features include examples from the essays as well as sentence strategies you can
experiment with later, as you write your own analysis of a story.
Basic Features
A Clear, Arguable Thesis
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A CLEAR, ARGUABLE THESIS
Read fi rst to fi nd thethesis statement, which is often one or two sentences long but that may
run to several paragraphs. A good thesis statement in an essay analyzing a story
asserts the main idea or claim;
is arguable, not a simple statement of fact (for example, “ ‘The Use of Force’ tells
the story of a doctor’s visit to a sick little girl”) or an obvious conclusion (for
example, “The doctor grows frustrated by the little girl’s behavior”);
is appropriately qualified, not overgeneralized or exaggerated (for example, “The
behavior of the doctor at the center of ‘The Use of Force’ shows that no medical
professional can be trusted”);
is clearly stated, not vague or ambiguous.
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CHAPTER 10 Analyzing Stories
Often, the thesis is part of an introduction that is at least a paragraph in length. In
most cases, this introduction identifies the story being analyzed by giving the title and
author, and it may also provide some historical, biographical, or cultural context. In
effective writing, the thesis and other sentences in the opening paragraph (or paragraphs) introduce key terms for ideas that are echoed and further developed later in
the essay. In this way, the introductory sentences and thesis forecast how the argument
will be developed.
Inexperienced writers are sometimes afraid to ruin the surprise by forecasting
their argument at the beginning of their essays. But explicit forecasting is a convention of literary analysis, similar in purpose to the abstract that precedes many articles
in academic journals.
Take a look at Iris Lee’s lead-up to the thesis in her essay on “The Use of Force.”
In it, she introduces key terms that are repeated (exactly, closely, or through synonyms)
and underscored in her thesis:
Key terms
Thesis
The Hippocratic Oath binds doctors to practice ethically and, above all, to “do no
harm. ” The doctor narrating William Carlos Williams’s short story “The Use of
Force” comes dangerously close to breaking that oath, yet ironically is able to justify
his actions by invoking his professional image and the pretense of preserving his
patient’s well-being. As an account of a professional doing harm under the pretense of healing, the story uncovers how a doctor can take advantage of the intimate
nature of his work and his professional status to overstep common forms of
conduct, to the extent that his actions actually hurt rather than help a patient. In
this way, the doctor-narrator actually performs a valuable service by warning readers,
indirectly through his story, that blindly trusting members of his profession can have
negative consequences. (par. 1)
Sometimes, the thesis of a literary analysis contradicts or complicates a surface
reading of a work. Look for sentence strategies like this one:
A [common/superficial] reading of
[title by author] is that
[insert your own interpretation].
reading], but in fact
[surface
In Isabella Wright’s essay on “The Use of Force,” the surface reading actually appears in the sentences leading up to the thesis. A transitional sentence and a transitional word introduce the contradiction/complication that constitutes the thesis:
Surface reading
Transitional sentence
Transitional word
Contradiction/
complication
460
By any reasonable standards, the story of a doctor prying a little girl’s mouth open
as she screams in pain and fear should leave readers feeling nothing but horror and
disgust at the doctor’s actions. William Carlos Williams’s story “The Use of Force”
is surprising in that it does not completely condemn the doctor for doing just that.
Instead, through his actions and words (uttered or thought), readers are able to see
the freeing, transformative power of breaking with social conventions. (par. 1)
Analyzing Essays That Analyze Stories
GUIDE TO READING
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A WRITER AT WORK
THINKING CRITICALLY
A WELL-SUPPORTED ARGUMENT
Consider how the writer provides support for the argument. Because essays analyzing stories
usually present new ideas that are not obvious and that readers may disagree with,
writers need to make an argument that includes
reasons — the supporting ideas or points that develop the essay’s thesis or main
claim;
evidence or examples from the story;
explanations or analyses showing how the examples support the argument.
In addition, writers may provide other kinds of support — for example, quotations from
experts or historical, biographical, or cultural evidence. But textual evidence from the
work of literature is the primary support readers expect in literary analysis essays.
Evidence from the text often takes the form of quotation of words, phrases, sentences, and, occasionally, even paragraphs. Quoting is the most important method of
providing support for essays that analyze short stories, but effective writers do not
expect a quotation to do the work by itself. Instead, they analyze the language of the
story to show how particular words’ connotations, their figurative use in images and
metaphors, or their symbolism enrich the story’s meanings.
When reading a literary analysis, look for sentence strategies like this one:
[type of evidence from the text], such as “
[quotations] [illustrates/demonstrates/shows]
” and “
[analysis].
”
Now look at the extended example from paragraph 4 of Iris Lee’s essay. In this
excerpt, Lee supports an assertion about the author’s use of “militaristic diction” by
quoting from several parts of the story:
Examples of militaristic diction include calling his struggle with the girl a
“battle” (502), the tongue depressor a “wooden blade” (503), his bodily
effort an “assault” (503). She too is a party in this war, moving from fighting
“on the defensive” to surging forward in an attack (503). Such metaphors of
fighting and warfare, especially those associated with the doctor and his actions,
figuratively convey that his character crosses a crucial boundary. They present the
argument that, despite his honorable pretentions, his actions — at least during the
height of his conflict with the girl — align more with violence than with healing. The
doctor’s thoughts even turn more obviously (and more consciously) violent at times,
such as when, in a bout of frustration, he wants “to kill” the girl’s father, (502)
or when he says, “I could have torn the child apart in my own fury and enjoyed it”
(503). Although these statements are arguably exaggerated, they, like the metaphors
of war, imply a tendency to do harm that goes directly against the narrator’s duty as a
doctor. While the story’s opening introduces him as a person whose occupation is
reason to overcome the parents’ distrust, by the end of the story he leaves his readers
thoroughly horrified by his forceful handling of the little girl. By investigating the
calculated artifice and military metaphors, we might conclude that the narrator is conscious
both of his deceptive rhetoric and of the harm it allows him to inflict upon his patient.
Supporting
quotations
Description of evidence
Analysis
Writer’s
conclusions
461
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CHAPTER 10 Analyzing Stories
In addition to quoting, evidence can also take the form of summary or paraphrase.
Writers can use this type of evidence to set up an extended close textual analysis like
that shown on the preceding page. Or they might use summary or paraphrase in brief
snippets of analysis, as in sentence strategies like the following:
When [summarize what happens or paraphrase what is said in the story], readers can
.
readily see
For more on quotation,
summary, and paraphrase,
see Chapter 26, pp. 701–8.
Key terms
Summary
For example, to support her thesis, Isabella Wright summarizes the doctor’s
conflict with the girl instead of describing it in detail. The summary is introduced
by repeating key terms from the thesis statement:
The doctor also breaks with social conventions by willingly engaging in a physical
struggle with the little girl. (par. 5)
A CLEAR, LOGICAL ORGANIZATION
To make the argument in a literary analysis easy to follow, writers usually include
some or all of the following:
Topic sentences introducing paragraphs or groups of paragraphs (often using key
terms from the thesis statement)
Key terms — words or phrases — introduced in the thesis or other introductory
text as a way of forecasting the development of the argument (see the previous
section); these key terms are repeated strategically throughout the essay
Clear transitional words and phrases (such as “although,” “in addition,” and “at
the story’s beginning”)
Writers tend to place topic sentences at or near the beginning of a paragraph because
these sentences help readers make sense of the details, examples, and explanations
that follow. Often, topic sentences repeat key terms from the thesis or other introductory text. Look, for example, at the first topic sentence of Iris Lee’s essay, which
repeats key terms from the introduction in paragraph 1.
Key terms
In the way the story and its characters introduce us to the narrator, we see how
people automatically grant a doctor status and privilege based on his profession
alone, creating an odd sort of intimacy that is uncommon in ordinary social
relations. (par. 2)
The paragraph then gives examples of the extreme politeness the young patient’s
parents show to the doctor, and in describing and analyzing the scene, Lee repeats the
words “privilege” and “intimacy.”
Topic sentences can also serve as transitions from one paragraph to the next. In
reading literary analyses, look for sentence strategies like the following:
[In comparison with/in contrast to/in addition to/because of]
[subject
[subject B (discussed in this
A (discussed in the previous paragraph)],
paragraph)].
Lee
Performing a Doctor’s Duty
GUIDE TO READING
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A WRITER AT WORK
THINKING CRITICALLY
463
In her analysis of “The Use of Force,” Isabella Wright uses this strategy:
EXAMPLE
In contrast to the little girl’s parents, the doctor breaks social conventions in
his interactions with the family and in doing so highlights the absurdity of
these rules. (par. 3)
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Notice that Wright repeats the phrase “social conventions,” which she introduces
in her thesis.
Readings
The following essays by students Iris Lee and Isabella Wright analyze the short story
“The Use of Force,” by William Carlos Williams (pp. 501–3). As you will see, both Lee
and Wright attempt to answer questions that many readers have asked of this story:
What is the purpose — aside from vividly describing his anger and frustration — of
portraying a doctor’s use of force on an uncooperative patient? What larger points are
being made? Lee and Wright arrive at different answers to these questions. By reading
their essays, you will learn a great deal about how writers argue for their own analysis
of a story.
Iris Lee
Performing a Doctor’s Duty
WRITTEN FOR A FIRST:EAR COMPOSITION COURSE, this essay by Iris Lee em
phasizes the “doctor’s duty.” As you read, consider the following:
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Also consider the questions in the margin. :our instructor may ask you to post your answers
to a class blog or discussion board or to bring them to class.
Basic Features
1
The Hippocratic Oath binds doctors to practice ethically and, above all, to “do no
A Clear, Arguable Thesis
harm. ” The doctor narrating William Carlos Williams’s short story “The Use of Force”
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actions by invoking his professional image and the pretense of preserving his patient’s
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and his professional status to overstep common forms of conduct, to the extent that
464
CHAPTER 10 Analyzing Stories
his actions actually hurt rather than help a patient. *OUIJTXBZ UIFEPDUPSOBSSBUPS
actually performs a valuable service by warning readers, indirectly through his story,
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that blindly trusting members of his profession can have negative consequences.
2
In the way the story and its characters introduce us to the narrator, we see how
people automatically grant a doctor status and privilege based on his profession alone,
creating an odd sort of intimacy that is uncommon in ordinary social relations. At the
story’s beginning, the narrator identifies the family he visits as “new patients” (501), and
he establishes that they are virtual strangers to him—“all [he] had was the name, Olson”
(501). After the mother confirms that he is the doctor, however, she immediately invites
him into the most intimate part of her home, the kitchen, where her husband and sick
daughter are waiting (501). Later, the mother reassures the child that the doctor is a “nice
man” and “won’t hurt you,” though she can base those assertions only on what little she
knows of him: his occupation (502). At the same time, the narrator senses that the family
is “very nervous, eyeing me up and down distrustfully” (501). The parents’ eagerness in
offering their home and hospitality, coupled with the betrayal of their nervousness, hints at
the dubious nature of the intimacy between a doctor and his patient. Although the doc
tor’s profession gives him privilege to overstep certain boundaries, the basis of real trust is
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The narrator communicates to readers that he perceives both sides of the interaction
and also admits to intentionally using the weight of his professional status against the fam
ily’s natural distrust of outsiders. The young girl, who is not yet “adult” enough to follow
social conventions (503), might be read as representing the family’s instinct for
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professional manner” (502), trying to invoke the special form of trust that doctors typically
assume. The phrase “professional manner” shows that the narrator acknowledges he is
using the power of his occupation, while also admitting that his reassuring smile is only
part of his professional performance. As the doctor’s struggle to examine the little girl’s
throat becomes more heated, he repeatedly brings up his expert concern to justify his rough
actions. He tells readers, “I had to do it . . . for her own protection” (502). Later, he reminds
readers (and himself) that “I have seen at least two children lying dead in bed of neglect in
such cases, and [feel] that I must get a diagnosis now or never” (503). He also notes that
“others must be protected” against the sick child before him (503). The narrator repeatedly
Lee
Performing a Doctor’s Duty
GUIDE TO READING
GUIDE TO WRITING
A WRITER AT WORK
THINKING CRITICALLY
465
brings up his duty as a doctor and the privilege that comes with it to defend his use of
force. Yet at other points, he admits to having “grown furious” (503), to being unable to
“hold [himself] down” (503), and to have “got beyond reason” (503). In acknowledging the
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manner” and attempts to be gentle in getting the girl to follow his commands are empty
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artifice (502). When these attempts fail, emotion alone drives his actions. In effect, he
uses the medical art as a pretense to justify otherwise unacceptable interventions.
4
Beyond admitting his personal motivations in his treatment of the girl, the narrator
sketches a more disturbing and potentially incriminating image of himself in his use of
militaristic diction, for it aligns his character more with harming than healing —
the perfect contradiction of a doctor. Examples of militaristic diction include calling
his struggle with the girl a “battle” (502), the tongue depressor a “wooden blade”
(503), his bodily effort an “assault” (503). She too is a party in this war, moving from
fighting “on the defensive” to surging forward in an attack (503). Such metaphors
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of fighting and warfare, especially those associated with the doctor and his actions,
figuratively convey that his character crosses a crucial boundary. They present the
argument that, despite his honorable pretentions, his actions — at least during the
height of his conflict with the girl — align more with violence than with healing. The
doctor’s thoughts even turn more obviously (and more consciously) violent at times,
such as when, in a bout of frustration, he wants “to kill” the girl’s father (502), or
when he says, “I could have torn the child apart in my own fury and enjoyed it” (503).
Although these statements are arguably exaggerated or hyperbolic, they, like the meta
phors of war, imply a tendency to do harm that goes directly against the narrator’s
duty as a doctor. While the story’s opening introduces him as a person whose occupation
is enough to overcome the parents’ distrust, by the end of the story he leaves his readers
thoroughly horrified by his forceful handling of the little girl. By investigating the calcul
ated artifice and military metaphors, we might conclude that the narrater is conscious
both of his deceptive rhetoric and of the harm it allows him to inflict upon his patient.
5
Curiously, the narrator readily pleads guilty on both counts, which leads one to
wonder why any person would willingly paint such a damning picture of himself — one
that would surely destroy his livelihood. I would argue that the doctor of this story
does not take ownership of his despicable actions but uses them to blame the parents
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466
CHAPTER 10 Analyzing Stories
and more generally to warn against blindly trusting those in positions of authority.
Looking back to the story’s opening, we note that the narrator presents himself
generically. He does not name or describe himself or provide any information beyond
the fact that he is a doctor. The lack of specification renders him the “every doctor” and
expands the possible reference points for the pronoun “I” as it is used in this story. That
is to say, although the story is told in the first person, attaching the actions and events
to the singular narrator, that narrator turns himself into a placeholder for every doctor by
leaving out all identifying features. I would argue, furthermore, that speaking in the first
person, as he must to make his story credible, the narrator offers a cautionary tale about a
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doctor who exploits the privileges of his profession. The warning implied in the story of a
doctor’s exploitation of professional privilege is for patients to protect themselves. Thus,
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actor in the story: he performs a doctor’s duty to his readers of preventing harm.
6
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narrator, the story is ultimately both a damning and a flattering depiction of the doc
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sionalism corrupted, someone capable of brutality and rhetorical manipulation. Above
him stands another — UIFEPDUPSBTOBSSBUPS — who counteracts these crimes through
his art. The way he tells the story conveys a powerful story and serious message.
Work Cited
Williams, William Carlos. “The Use of Force.” The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing. Ed. Rise
B. Axelrod and Charles R. Cooper. 10th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013.
501–03. Print.
Isabella Wright
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“For Heaven’s Sake!”
USING THE WA:S IN ACTIVITIES in the Guide to Writing section Analyze the Story
(pp. 475–78), Isabella Wright explored and wrote about how the doctor’s thoughts and
actions in “The Use of Force” might be justified. We have not annotated or highlighted
this essay, but you may want to do so as you read and as you respond to the Analyze &
Write questions in the sections that follow. As you read, notice how Wright’s analysis dif
fers from Lee’s. Consider which essay you find more convincing and why.
Wright
1
“For Heaven’s Sake!”
By any reasonable standards, the story of a doctor prying a little girl’s mouth open
as she screams in pain and fear should leave readers feeling nothing but horror and dis
gust at the doctor’s actions. William Carlos Williams’s story “The Use of Force” is surprising
in that it does not completely condemn the doctor for doing just that. Instead, through his
actions and words (utterred or thought), readers are able to see the freeing, transformative
power of breaking with social conventions. Thus, they are also encouraged to rethink what is
acceptable and unacceptable in polite society.
2
Social conventions and proper conduct are prominent themes in Williams’s story,
in which the mother and father of the sick little girl are fixated on acting and speaking
within the boundaries of politeness. The parents demonstrate this tendency most obvi
ously in how they go out of their way to be respectful to the doctor. Upon his arrival at
their home, the mother preemptively says that “[he] must excuse [them]” for bringing
him into the kitchen, where they are keeping the child warm (501). There, the father
makes an effort to “get up” to greet the doctor (501). The parents’ efforts continue and
take on even greater urgency when the child is uncooperative with the doctor as he
tries to examine her throat. When she succeeds in knocking his glasses to the floor, her
parents “almost [turn] themselves inside out in embarrassment and apology” (502). At
certain moments, keeping up appearances seems to become disproportionately important,
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ment, meant to be stronger even than her threat to take the girl to the hospital, is to
shame her daughter over her discourteous behavior. “Aren’t you ashamed to act like that
in front of the doctor?” she asks (503). The ending of her statement is key because it
raises the question, would the daughter’s misbehavior be shameful if no one outside of
the family witnessed it? In other words, to what extent should concerns over appearances
determine rightful and wrongful conduct?
3
In contrast to the little girl’s parents, the doctor breaks social conventions in his
interactions with the family and in doing so highlights the absurdity of these rules. From
the beginning we see him as someone who pushes aside polite but pointless practices; for
example, he “motion[s] for [the father] not to bother” standing for a greeting when it would
have disturbed the child on his lap (501). The doctor’s disregard for social conventions
applies most to his tendency to give voice to thoughts rather than to keep them to himself
for fear of sounding rude or causing discomfort. When the mother scolds her daughter for
GUIDE TO READING
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467
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CHAPTER 10 Analyzing Stories
knocking the glasses off the “nice man” (502), the doctor’s reaction borders on outright
rudeness: “For heaven’s sake, I broke in. Don’t call me a nice man to her. I’m here to look at
her throat on the chance that she might have diphtheria and possibly die of it” (502).
4
But is the doctor really giving voice to such reactions? The absence of quotation
marks in the story leaves it uncertain which lines are and are not spoken aloud, creating
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yeah?” to the mother’s threat to take the girl to the hospital, or does he care enough to
keep such an irreverent reaction to himself (502)? In any case, readers are presented with
the possibility of imagining that all the doctor’s thoughts — no matter how offensive,
belittling, or inappropriate — are expressed aloud. In fact, the very existence of the text
and our reading of it give these thoughts expression, turning a stylistic choice into the
ultimate statement on how social considerations limit our actions and expressions.
5
The doctor also breaks with social conventions by willingly engaging in a physical
struggle with the little girl. This conflict might be interpreted as a process of reverse
socialization or reverse civilization, a transformation that, surprisingly, the story presents as
a potentially positive change. While the doctor stoops to the primitive tactics of the little
girl, he does not view her in a negative light. To the contrary, from the beginning, he—
and, through him, readers—sees the little girl as “unusually attractive” and “strong,” with
“magnificent blonde hair.” This description of her seems almost angelic (501). Through the
doctor’s conflict with her, his admiration grows. He comes to respect, even “love,” the girl
for her raw spirit that allows her to “[rise] to magnificent heights” in her struggle against
him (502). Such worshipful language—note the repetition of the word “magnificent,” for
example—leads readers to understand the girl and her strength as something closer to glory
and divinity than to savagery. The doctor’s entering a similar state might thus be read as his
reeducation into a finer, truer self. Indeed, it is at these points in the story when he uses
the most sophisticated language and the most involved metaphors. Thus, the story demon
strates, through the doctor’s transformation, that the casting off of social conventions might
lead not to a reduced state of humanity but to a purer, more admirable state of being.
6
In a story where politeness is made to seem absurd, the doctor’s tactless words and
his inappropriate use of force actually have the potential to be improvements on his
character. By tossing aside social conventions, he brings himself closer to the glorious
heights of the little girl, who, from the story’s beginning, is magnificent and strong in her
stubbornness. In the characters of the mother and father, readers come to understand also
that politeness can stand in the way of accomplishing a task or communicating a clear
Wright
“For Heaven’s Sake!”
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GUIDE TO WRITING
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THINKING CRITICALLY
469
meaning, and thus the doctor’s actions are in the service of honesty and efficiency. Thus
framed, the story leads readers to a point where they cannot fully condemn the doctor’s
outwardly abhorrent actions and instead must reconsider their own metric of what is and
is not socially appropriate.
Work Cited
Williams, William Carlos. “The Use of Force.” The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing. Ed. Rise
B. Axelrod and Charles R. Cooper. 10th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013.
501–03. Print.
Use the basic features.
A CLEAR, ARGUABLE THESIS: GETTING BENEATH THE SURFACE
Earlier, we discussed how the thesis of a literary analysis can contradict or complicate a
surface reading of a work. After asserting her thesis about how “The Use of Force”
helps readers see the “freeing, transformative power of breaking with social conven
tions,” Wright supports her thesis with examples from the text and with her own analy
sis. Often, she returns to a key term from her thesis: “social conventions.”
ANALYZE & WRITE
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As we have noted, an essay about a short story relies primarily on textual evidence —
gleaned from a close reading of the story — to support the argument. We have also dis
cussed how simply quoting, summarizing, or paraphrasing passages from the text is not
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ANALYZE
470
CHAPTER 10 Analyzing Stories
enough; instead, effective writing about a literary work must use such evidence in support of an analysis: the writer’s original, thoughtful examination of the text. Earlier, we
looked at Lee’s analysis of militaristic diction in “The Use of Force,” an analysis that
drew on quotations from the story. Now let’s turn to Wright’s essay.
ANALYZE & WRITE
Write a paragraph or two about how well Wright uses textual evidence and analysis:
1
Focus on quotations, highlighting the one in the title as well as those in paragraphs
2–5. Consider how — and how well — these quotations support Wright’s argument.
2
What improvements might you suggest to the choice of quotations? For example, in
paragraph 5, Wright refers to the “most involved metaphors” of the story but does not
quote any of them. Which metaphors, if any, might she have quoted? Or is summarizing these parts of the story sufficient to support her analysis?
3
What improvements might you suggest to Wright’s analysis of textual evidence? For
example, in paragraph 2, Wright discusses how the parents of the sick child go out of
their way to be polite and respectful to the doctor. However, read paragraph 3 of the
story (p. 501), and consider in what ways this part of the story might complicate
Wright’s analysis of the parents’ behavior.
A CLEAR, LOGICAL ORGANIZATION: COORDINATING KEY WORDS AND TOPIC
SENTENCES
As we have seen, writers try to help readers follow their argument by making their
plan or organization clear to readers. For example, topic sentences that repeat key
terms from the thesis statement help readers connect individual paragraphs to the
larger argument the writer is making.
ANALYZE & WRITE
Write a paragraph or two about Wright’s use of key words in topic sentences:
1
Underline the topic sentences of paragraphs 2, 3, and 5, and circle any key terms that
are repeated in these sentences.
2
Pay special attention to the key terms, noting the way they are used in each topic
sentence and built upon in the paragraph. Assess how well each topic sentence helps
you follow the argument as it is developed in these paragraphs.
PLAYING WITH GENRE
While the traditional essay that analyzes short stories has very specifi c features,
responses to short stories and other forms of literature can take many forms,
including adaptations, sequels, and parodies. Responses to literature in other
media, such as theater, dance, fi lm, and music, are common: The musicalWest
Side Story, for example, is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet; the
2007 opera Grapes of Wrath is based on John Steinbeck’s novel of the same name;
and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby has inspired numerous fi lm versions,
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Students sometimes interpret stories they have studied by presenting them
in different media. The screen shot below is from a video developed by three
students — Natalie George, Lacey Patzer, and Sam Williams — for their digital
storytelling course. It retells “The Story of an Hour” from Mrs. Mallard’s point of
view. This screen shot captures a moment not included in Chopin’s story (pp.
495–97) — the whispering of Mrs. Mallard’s sister and her husband’s friend, as they
discuss the news of Brently Mallard’s death and how to break it to his “widow.”
Adaptations,
Sequels, and
Parodies
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As you work on your own project, you might want to consult some of these
alternative forms of response for inspiration. If the format in which you are
working allows for it — if, for example, you are creating a poster, Web page, or
video — you could take advantage of the strategies available to those working in
multimedia, for example, by embedding images or artifacts relevant to the story
you are interpreting. (Always remember to document properly any material you
might use that was created by someone else.)
471
472
CHAPTER
10 Analyzing
Stories
GUIDE
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The Writing Assignment
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Write an essay analyzing one or more aspects of a story. Aim to convince readers that
your analysis is interesting and contributes to the conversation about the story. Back
up your ideas with supporting quotations and examples from the story.
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This Guide to Writing is designed to help you write your own analysis of a story and
apply what you have learned from reading other students’ essays. This Starting Points
chart will help you fi nd answers to questions you might have about analyzing astory.
Use the chart to fi nd the guidance you need, when you need it.
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A Clear, Arguable
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Writing a Draft
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Writing a Draft: Invention, Research,
Planning, and Composing
The activities in this section will help you fi nd a story to write about, analyze it
thoughtfully, and develop and organize an essay that argues for the position you are
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instructor), and return to them as needed as you revise. :our writing in response to
many of these activities can be used in a rough draft that you will be able to improve
after receiving feedback from your classmates and instructor.
Find a story to write about.
:our instructor may have given you a list of stories to choose from or assigned a
particular story for the class to write about. If so, go on to the next section, Analyze the
Story (pp. 475–79). If you need to fi nd a story on your own, look for one that meets
your instructor’s approval and does one or more of the following:
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Surprises or puzzles you with apparent contradictions
Leads you to wonder what is left out of the story — the backstory or context
Raises questions about characters’ motivations, relationships, or development
Uses conventional story motifs, setting, or other features in unconventional ways
Resonates emotionally, perhaps giving you insight into human frailty or moral
ambiguity
To fi nd a story on your own, browse any literature anthology or short story
collection in a library or bookstore, or try one of the following online sites:
American Literature short story library (americanliterature.com)
Classic Short Stories (classicshorts.com)
Classic Reader: Short Stories (classicreader.com/browse/6)
Short Story Archive (shortstoryarchive.com)
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CHAPTER 10 Analyzing Stories
You might also consider stories in the following subject areas:
Stories Related to Identity and Community
“The Story of an Hour” (pp. 495–97), “Araby” (pp. 497–500), or “Girl” (pp. 504–5),
would make good choices if you are interested in issues of identity and community.
If you would like to look further, here are a few other widely anthologized stories you
might consider writing about:
“The Monkey Garden,” by Sandra Cisneros
“The Open Boat,” by Stephen Crane
“Fleur,” by Louise Erdrich
“A Rose for Emily,” by William Faulkner
“My Kinsman, Major Molineux,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
“A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” by Ernest Hemingway
“The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson
“The Metamorphosis,” by Franz Kafka
“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” by Ursula Le Guin
“My Father’s Chinese Wives,” by Sandra Tsing Loh
“A Pair of Tickets,” by Amy Tan
“Everyday Use,” by Alice Walker
Stories Related to Work and Career
“The Use of Force” (pp. 501–3) would be one good choice if you are interested in
writing about the topic of work and career. Here are some additional stories you
might consider for exploring this topic:
“Sonny’s Blues,” by James Baldwin
“The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
“The Birthmark,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
“Reena,” by Paule Marshall
“Shiloh,” by Bobbie Ann Mason
“Bartleby the Scrivener,” by Herman Melville
“Picasso,” by Gertrude Stein
“The Catbird Seat,” by James Thurber
“A&P,” by John Updike
“Why I Live at the P.O.,” by Eudora Welty
Writing a Draft
GUIDE TO READING
GUIDE TO WRITING
A WRITER AT WORK
THINKING CRITICALLY
475
Analyze the story.
Use the following suggestions as a way into the story. Try out more than one to discover
how different aspects of the story work together and to generate ideas for a thoughtful
analysis. To read the story closely and critically, annotate it as you work through the
suggestions, highlighting key passages and noting your ideas and questions.
WHAT ELEMENTS COULD I
ANALYZE, AND WHY?
Character
WHAT APPROACH
MIGHT I TAKE?
Psychological
You want to know
why a character acts in
a particular way;
For more on annotating,
see Chapter 12, pp. 522–28.
WHAT SHOULD I ASK
MYSELF?
WAYS IN
Does the character change/learn
anything in the course of the story?
How does the character relate to
other characters? For instance, how
does he or she deal with intimacy,
commitment, and responsibility?
how gender or ethnicity
affects relationships;
Does the character seem depressed,
manic, abusive, fearful, egotistical,
or paranoid?
whether a character
changes or grows;
whether we should
approve of a character’s
actions or accept his or
her justifications.
Does any other character seem to
represent the character’s double or
opposite?
Ethical or moral
What are the character’s virtues
and/or vices?
What influences your judgment of
the character? Something in the
story (such as what the narrator or
another character says)? Something
you bring to the story (your views
of right and wrong, based on your
family upbringing or religious
teachings)? Something else?
Do any of the other characters
have different moral values that
could be compared or contrasted
to the character’s values?
Social or cultural
How does the character fit into
and appear to be defined by society, in terms of race, ethnicity,
socioeconomic class, sexual orientation, age, or gender?
(continued)
476
CHAPTER 10 Analyzing Stories
Who in the story exercises power
over whom? What causes the difference in power? What are the effects
of this difference? Does the balance
of power change during the story?
Setting
You want to know
how much time and
place matter;
In relation to the
mood, characters, or
actions
Are there any cause-effect connections between the setting and what
characters are doing, thinking, or
feeling?
what the description of
the setting symbolizes;
how the setting affects
characters.
How does the setting affect the
mood? For example, does it create
feelings of suspense or foreboding?
Historical or cultural
How does the historical period or
cultural context in which the story
is set affect what happens and does
not happen?
How might the story’s meaning be
different if the historical time or
cultural situation were changed?
Metaphoric or
symbolic
Assuming that the setting is a projection of the thoughts and feelings
of the narrator, what does the setting tell you about the narrator’s
state of mind?
Assuming that the setting symbolizes the social relations among
characters in the story, what does
the setting tell you about these
relationships?
Assuming that the setting stands
for something outside the characters’ control (such as nature, God,
or some aspect of society), what
does the setting tell you about the
pressures and rules under which
the characters function?
Plot Structure
You want to know
what the ending means;
whether there is a turning point in the story;
As realistic
(resembling real-life
experience)
After marking where each new
stage of the story begins, how can
the sequence of scenes or events be
understood? In what ways do subplots mirror, undercut, or comment on the main plot?
Writing a Draft
how a subplot relates to
the main plot.
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THINKING CRITICALLY
As surrealistic
(having symbolic
rather than literal
meaning)
Thinking of the story as a series of
images (more like a collage or a
dream than a realistic portrayal of
actual events), what meanings do
you find in the arrangement of
these images?
In terms of what the
narrator actually sees
whether the narrator
can be believed;
Is the narrator a character in the
story or an all-knowing, disembodied voice who knows what every
character thinks, feels, and does?
whose values and interests are represented;
What important insights or ideas
does the narrator have?
how readers’ sympathies
are manipulated.
How do factors such as the narrator’s gender, age, and ethnicity
influence what he or she notices as
important?
Point of View
You want to know
Are there things that the narrator
is not able to see or that he or she
distorts — for example, certain
truths about himself or herself,
about other characters, or about
what happens in the story?
In terms of how the
narrator represents
what he or she sees
How would you characterize the
narrator’s tone at various points in
the story? For example, is the tone
satirical, celebratory, angry, bitter,
or optimistic?
What about the narrator (or about
the situation) might account for
each tone you identify?
What special agenda or motive
might have led the narrator to this
particular way of describing characters and scenes or telling the story?
Literary Motif or Theme
You want to know
whether the story is
about a break with
social conventions, the
In terms of a traditional story motif (or
an ironic reversal of
the tradition)
Could you analyze the text as
. . . an initiation (or coming-ofage or rite-of-passage) story?
. . . a quest (for love, truth, fame,
fortune, or salvation of oneself or
the community)?
(continued)
477
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CHAPTER 10 Analyzing Stories
initiation into adulthood, or some other
common literary motif;
. . . a story about a character’s disillusionment or fall from innocence?
. . . a story about family or surrogate families?
. . . a story about storytelling (or
some other art) or becoming a writer
or an artist?
what the story says
about war, poverty, love,
alienation, or some
other general theme;
how the story illuminates a historical or
current issue.
In terms of a common
literary theme
Might you focus on the theme of
. . . the American dream?
. . . the social construction of
femininity or masculinity?
. . . race relations in America?
. . . alienation?
. . . the urban or suburban
experience?
In addition to generating ideas by taking one of the approaches listed above, you can
consider the details and use those to generate an approach. Or you can list ideas you
had while reading the story and use those to locate supporting details. The Ways In
box that follows can help you generate ideas using these two approaches.
WAYS IN
HOW CAN I GENERATE IDEAS BY MOVING
FROM SPECIFIC DETAILS TO GENERAL
IDEAS?
HOW CAN I GENERATE IDEAS BY MOVING
FROM GENERAL IDEAS TO SPECIFIC
DETAILS?
1. Select two or three quotations, and
write several sentences answering this
question: What idea or ideas does each
quotation suggest, and what in the quotation makes you think so?
1. List ideas you thought of as you analyzed the story, without worrying about
how these ideas relate to one another
or whether they are contradictory. For
example, here are two of Isabella
Wright’s ideas about the doctor in
“The Use of Force” (see A Writer at
Work, pp. 491–93).
2. Write a paragraph analyzing one or
more patterns you found in the story.
Here are a few patterns to help you get
started:
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images in “The Use of Force” that Lee
analyzes)
He has no time for the social conventions upheld by the parents.
His break with social conventions feels
freeing—maybe even transformative.
Writing a Draft
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differences between the parents and the
doctor in “The Use of Force” that
Wright discusses)
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(for example, the doctor’s fury echoes
the young girl’s)
GUIDE TO READING
GUIDE TO WRITING
A WRITER AT WORK
THINKING CRITICALLY
2. Review the story to find quotations or
other details you could use to illustrate
your ideas.
3. Write for a few minutes about your
most interesting ideas and how they connect to one another. For example, in exploring her ideas about “The Use of
Force,” Wright connected her ideas
about breaking social conventions to
develop her main claim about the
transformative power of disobeying the
rules of social behavior.
TEST YOUR CHOICE
Get together with two or three other students who have read your story, and offer responses to one another’s ideas.
Presenters. Take turns telling one another your two or three most promising ideas,
giving an example from the story to support each idea.
Listeners. Briefly respond to each presenter’s ideas, identifying what you find interesting
in them, what you agree or disagree with, and how the ideas could be extended or
complicated productively.
Formulate a working thesis.
Remember that an arguable thesis is not a simple statement of fact or an obvious
conclusion. To get a sense of how you might formulate an arguable thesis, take a look
at the thesis statements from the student essays you’ve studied in this chapter.
As an account of a professional doing harm under the pretense of healing, the story
uncovers how a doctor can take advantage of the intimate nature of his work and his
professional status to overstep common forms of conduct, to the extent that his
actions actually hurt rather than help a patient. In this way, the doctor-narrator
actually performs a valuable service by warning readers, indirectly through his story,
that blindly trusting members of his profession can have negative consequences.
(Lee, par. 1)
Through [the doctor’s] actions and words (uttered or thought), readers are able to
see the freeing, transformative power of breaking with social conventions. Thus, they
are also encouraged to rethink what is acceptable and unacceptable in polite society.
(Wright, par. 1)
479
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CHAPTER 10 Analyzing Stories
You may have already decided on the main claim you want to make in your short
story analysis; if so, try drafting a working thesis statement now. The Ways In activities that follow may help. (Alternatively, if you prefer to develop your analysis before
trying to formulate a thesis, skip this activity and return to it when you’re ready.)
HOW CAN I FORMULATE AN ARGUABLE THESIS?
WAYS IN
Write for ten minutes about your most promising ideas. After writing, read what
you have written and see if you can find one main idea or claim that can serve as
the thesis for your essay. Focus your exploratory writing on questions like these:
How can readers understand a character’s internal conflict or apparent change?
How is the story’s theme reflected in the way the story is told, the way the setting
is described, how characters relate to one another, or some other aspect of the
story?
How does the language used to describe the setting or the characters’ actions
illuminate such things as the main character’s internal conflict, the relationship
between characters, or the theme? (For example, the doctor-patient struggle
described in “The Use of Force” forms the basis of Iris Lee’s argument that the
story warns readers against blindly trusting doctors.)
What does the trajectory of the story (the plot structure) say about the characters or the culture? (For example, Isabella Wright’s analysis of the increasing
tension between repression and expression, social conventions and human willfulness, underlies her argument about the value of breaking with these conventions.)
Reread the story with one of the following questions (or a question of your own) in
mind, underlining passages or taking notes as you read:
How do my ideas about the story form links in a chain leading to some general
conclusion? For example, Wright links two ideas: (1) pressure to adhere to social
conventions and (2) reasons for breaking with these conventions. She is not simply
retelling the story; she is stating her ideas about what happens in the story.
How can I present my ideas as a response to a question — either a question my
instructor asked or one I composed myself ? For example, in their essays, Lee
and Wright responded to the first question we posed in the Analyze & Write
section for “The Use of Force” (p. 503).
What, if anything, does the story say about what may be universally true about
people and society versus what may result from specific historical, economic, or
cultural conditions? About what is usually considered normal versus what is considered abnormal? About how some groups exert power while others may be
oppressed or subversive?
Now reread your notes. Do they suggest one main idea or claim that can serve as
the thesis for your essay?
Writing a Draft
GUIDE TO READING
GUIDE TO WRITING
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THINKING CRITICALLY
481
Use the sentence strategies that follow as a jumping-off point; put your thesis into
your own words when you revise, or use your own words and sentence patterns
now:
Many readers of
point to
[state feature(s) of the story], but an
.
important aspect of the story that is often overlooked is
A common (or superficial) reading of
[common conclusion], but in fact
[name story or character] is that
[your own conclusion].
Through the actions of [name character], [he/she/we] [is/are] led to this [surprising/
.
alarming/disturbing] conclusion:
Through the events unfolded in
, [the main character/we] [is/are] led to this
.
[surprising/alarming/disturbing] conclusion:
Provide support for your argument.
Look back on the ideas that you have generated so far, and ask yourself these questions:
How can I present my ideas as reasons supporting my central claim, the essay’s
thesis? For example, Isabella Wright shaped the ideas she generated moving from
general ideas to specific details (pp. 492–93) into reasons supporting her thesis
about the value of breaking with social conventions.
Have I remembered to include my own analysis in the support instead of just
retelling the story through quotation, paraphrase, or summary? (If you are
unsure, work through the activities in the Ways In box that follows.)
HOW CAN I INTEGRATE EVIDENCE FROM THE STORY?
WAYS IN
As noted earlier, to provide support for a short story analysis, writers may quote,
paraphrase, or summarize parts of the story. However, this evidence should be
offered in the service of a thoughtful examination of the story and go beyond a
simple repetition of description, dialogue, and so on. To effectively integrate material from a story, try these strategies:
Use short quotations frequently to support your analysis. Brief quotations are
not in themselves superior to sentence-length and longer quotations, but they
allow you to stay focused on your own argument and analysis while bringing in
key information or vivid details from the story. Look at these examples from
the student essays in this chapter:
To the contrary, from the beginning, he — and, through him, readers — sees
the little girl as “unusually attractive” and “strong,” with “magnificent blonde
hair.” This description of her seems almost angelic (par. 4). (Wright, par. 5)
(continued)
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CHAPTER 10 Analyzing Stories
Later, the mother reassures the child that the doctor is a “nice man” and
“won’t hurt you,” though she can base those assertions only on what little she
knows of him: his occupation (par. 15). (Lee, par. 2)
Comment directly on what you have quoted, paraphrased, or summarized so
that readers will understand the relevance of this material to your analysis.
These comments should connect the quotation, paraphrase, or summary to the
idea you are trying to support. One good strategy is to refer to quotations or
paraphrases with this, these, or they statements, which are italicized in the
following examples:
After quoting the doctor’s violent thoughts about the girl, Lee comments,
“Although these statements are arguably exaggerated or hyperbolic, they, like the
metaphors of war, imply a tendency to do harm that goes directly against the
narrator’s duty as a doctor” (Lee, par. 4).
After summarizing the doctor’s struggle with the girl, Wright notes, “This
conflict might be interpreted as a process of reverse socialization or reverse
civilization, a transformation that, surprisingly, the story presents as a
potentially positive change” (Wright, par. 5).
Another good strategy is to repeat key nouns from quotations, paraphrases, or
summaries in your analysis. These nouns are italicized in the following examples:
After quoting part of the story that refers to the doctor smiling in his “best
professional manner,” Lee explains that, in using the “phrase ‘professional
manner,’” the narrator admits his actions are not sincere but a calculated
“professional performance.” (Lee, par. 3).
After quoting and paraphrasing information about the parents’ politeness to the
doctor, Wright observes, “In a story where politeness is made to seem absurd, the
doctor’s tactless words and his inappropriate use of force actually have the
potential to be improvements on his character” (Wright, par. 6).
To build on your support, consider doing outside research.
Many analyses of short stories rely on a close reading of the text alone; the writer’s
analysis is the only tool brought to bear on the work. Some approaches to analysis, however, also consider biographical information on the author, his or her other works, or
various critical responses to the short story in question. If your instructor has asked you
to include such information, or if you are curious about some aspect of the text that you
do not understand—or that you suspect your readers will not understand—you might
want to conduct some research and include your findings in your essay. Here are a few
suggestions for getting started:
Do a Google search, using keywords relevant to your analysis. For example, if
you want more information about the context of “The Use of Force,” you could
try keywords such as diphtheria epidemic.
Writing a Draft
GUIDE TO READING
GUIDE TO WRITING
A WRITER AT WORK
THINKING CRITICALLY
483
To see what others have said about an author’s work, conduct a search using a
specialized periodical database, such as the MLA International Bibliography, which
specializes in academic writing about languages and literature. You should
have access to periodical databases through your school’s library. If you are not
sure how to use them, see Chapter 24, pages 674–75, 678–79. Ask a reference
librarian for help if you encounter problems.
As you work, bookmark or keep a record of promising sites. If you download or copy
information you could use in your essay, remember to record source information.
Create an outline that will organize
your argument effectively.
Whether you have rough notes or a complete draft, making an outline of what you
have written can help you organize the essay effectively for your audience. One way to
outline a literary analysis is to lay out your argument as a series of because sentences.
For example, here’s how Iris Lee might have outlined her argument:
I. The story performs a valuable service because,
through the doctor’s actions, readers see that it’s
unwise to blindly trust members of his profession.
II. Readers who see the doctor purely as a bad
person are wrong because the author presents
two sides of him.
A. Although he displays his “best professional
manner,” the doctor does so only because he
knows it will encourage the family’s deference
to him despite his rude and rough behavior.
A. The doctor-as-actor deserves our scorn
because he is capable of brutality under the
guise of professionalism.
B. The doctor shows his untrustworthiness
because he seems more interested in harming
the girl than healing her.
B. The doctor-as-narrator deserves our thanks
because he depicts the crimes of the doctoras-actor, warning readers about the dangers
of placing too much trust in medical
professionals.
Once you have a working outline, you should not hesitate to change it as necessary
while drafting and revising. For instance, you might find you left out an important
idea that is needed to make the chain of reasoning complete. Remember that the
purpose of an outline is to help you organize your ideas logically, not to lock you into
a particular structure.
Write the opening sentences.
The Ways In feature on pp. 480–81 suggests several ways to present an arguable thesis.
In writing your introduction, avoid creating a “funnel paragraph,” which begins with
a broad generalization and then becomes more and more focused and narrow,
culminating in what is usually the essay’s thesis. The problem with this kind of
484
CHAPTER 10 Analyzing Stories
paragraph structure is that broad generalizations are not very interesting and add
nothing to the essay. Look, for example, at the italicized sentences in this modified
version of Isabella Wright’s opening paragraph:
As all of us know, being the subject of a medical examination, especially if you are a child, is
rarely fun. Patients can be nervous and uncooperative, and in the worst cases, doctors can act
like real jerks. William Carlos Williams’s story “The Use of Force” is surprising in that
it does not completely condemn the doctor for doing just that.
It is best to get rid of sentences like these and simply begin by presenting your ideas
about the story.
Draft your analysis.
By this point, you have done a lot of writing to
come up with ideas for your short story analysis;
draft an arguable thesis;
provide support for your argument;
organize your ideas to present them logically to readers.
Now stitch that material together to create a draft. As you write, ask yourself questions like the following:
Early in my essay, should I name the story and also identify the author?
How much do I need to tell my readers about what happens in the story? Should I
assume, as both Iris Lee and Isabella Wright do, that my readers have read the story?
Should I consider placing this particular story in the context of the author’s other
writing or in its historical context?
How can I revise my topic sentences to use the key terms introduced in my
thesis? What synonyms could I use to avoid repeating my key terms too often?
How can I use logical transitions to help readers see how one point connects to
the next? For example, could I use transitions that announce contrasts, such as
but, although, and yet?
Should I consider ending with a new idea that grows out of my argument? Could
I, for example, expand on the cultural or historical implications of my reading of
the story?
Evaluating the Draft: Getting a Critical
Reading
Your instructor may arrange a peer review session in class or online, where you can
exchange drafts with your classmates and give each other a thoughtful critical reading,
pointing out what works well and suggesting ways to improve the draft. A good critical
reading of a literary analysis does three things:
Evaluating the Draft
GUIDE TO READING
GUIDE TO WRITING
A WRITER AT WORK
THINKING CRITICALLY
485
1. It lets the writer know how well the point of his or her analysis comes across to
readers.
2. It praises what works best.
3. It indicates where the draft could be improved and makes suggestions on how to
improve it.
One strategy for evaluating a draft is to use the basic features of a literary analysis as
a guide.
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(continued)
486
CHAPTER 10 Analyzing Stories
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Before concluding your peer review, be sure to address any of the writer’s concerns
that have not been discussed already.
Most word processing software offers features
that allow you to insert comments directly into the text of someone else’s document.
Many readers prefer to make their comments this way because it tends to be faster than
writing on hard copy and space is virtually unlimited; it also eliminates the process
of deciphering handwritten comments. Where such features are not available, simply
typing comments directly into a document in a contrasting color can provide the same
advantages.
Making Comments Electronically
Improving the Draft: Revising, Formatting,
Editing, and Proofreading
Start improving your draft by refl ecting on what you have written thus far:
Review critical reading comments from your classmates, instructor, or writing
center tutor: What are your readers getting at?
Consider your invention writing: What else should you consider?
Review your draft: What can you do to present your argument more compel
lingly?
Revise your draft.
If your readers are having diffi culty with your draft, or if you think there is room for
improvement, try some of the strategies listed in the Troubleshooting Guide that fol
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Improving the Draft
GUIDE TO READING
GUIDE TO WRITING
A WRITER AT WORK
THINKING CRITICALLY
487
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(continued)
488
CHAPTER 10 Analyzing Stories
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Think about design.
Some literary analyses can be enhanced by visuals — for example, drawings, photo
graphs, tables, or graphs — that provide a historical or social context or some other
supporting information.
Suppose in writing about “The Use of Force,” for example, you
are interested in the history of diphtheria epidemics. In doing re
search, you might fi nd or construct a timeline showing how many
children died over the years from the disease, and include this infor
mation in a simple table. If you were writing an analysis of the story
“Araby” and taking a biographical approach, you might include this
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featured in “Araby” as well as in Joyce’s books Portrait of the Artist as
a Young Man, Ulysses, and Finnegan’s Wake.
As always, consider reviewing other analyses of the short story
you are studying or analyses of other stories to see how they use
visuals to support and strengthen their arguments. Use the format
ting instructions for the style manual your instructor requires to de
termine matters such as the width of margins, the use of headers
and page numbers, and the formatting of your works cited list. (For
writing projects in English composition and literature, instructors
frequently ask students to follow MLA style.)
Edit and proofread your draft.
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Our research has identifi ed several errors that occur often in essays
that analyze short stories, including problems with parallelism and
the use of ellipsis marks. The following guidelines will help you check your essay for
these common errors.
Using Parallel Structure
The Problem When you present items as a pair or in a series (for example, I gave him
x and y; or I gave him x, y, and z), you must present the items in the series in the same
grammatical form — all nouns, all prepositional phrases, all adverb clauses, and so on.
Improving the Draft
Mixing and matching leads to lack of clarity and lessens the impact of your prose.
Take as an example one of Iris Lee’s first-draft sentences:
The doctor’s actions actually hurt rather than providing any benefit to a patient.
“Hurt” is a one-word verb; “providing any benefit to,” which should be a parallel
item, combines an -ing verb, an adjective, an object, and a preposition. The resulting
sentence is unnecessarily complicated and clumsy.
The Correction
Lee eventually edited the sentence as follows:
help
The doctor’s actions actually hurt rather than providing any benefit to a patient.
^
The parallelism of hurt and help puts the verbs in the same form and emphasizes the
contrast between these two actions in a way that the first-draft wording did not. For
more examples, see the following sentences:
what he’s read
This image comes more from his reading than from anything he’s observed.
isolation ^
To Kafka, loneliness, being isolated, and regrets are the price of freedom.
^
GUIDE TO READING
GUIDE TO WRITING
A WRITER AT WORK
THINKING CRITICALLY
489
A Note on Grammar
and Spelling Checkers
These tools can be helpful,
but do not rely on them
exclusively to catch errors
in your text: Spelling
checkers cannot catch
misspellings that are
themselves words, such
as to for too. Grammar
checkers miss some
problems, sometimes give
faulty advice for fixing
problems, and can flag
correct items as wrong.
Use these tools as a
second line of defense
after your own (and,
ideally, another reader’s)
proofreading and editing
efforts.
values
Sarah really cares about her brother and to maintain their relationship. She lets
^
us know that she was injured by her mother’s abuse but avoids saying what she
what
felt after the incident, how others reacted to the incident, and that physical pain
^
she endured.
Using Ellipsis Marks Correctly
You will often quote sources when you analyze a story, and you must be careful to
use ellipsis marks (or ellipses) — three spaced periods — to indicate places where you
delete material from a quotation. Look, for example, at how Iris Lee, in an early draft
of her essay, used ellipsis marks in quoting from “The Use of Force.”
Passage from Story
When finally I got the wooden spatula
behind the last teeth and just the point
of it into the mouth cavity, she opened
up for an instant but before I could
see anything she came down again
and gripping the wooden blade
between her molars she reduced it to
splinters before I could get it out
again. . . . (Williams, par. 29)
Quotation with Ellipsis Marks
In describing his attempts to get
the wooden spatula into the girl’s
mouth, the narrator says “she
opened up for an instant but . . .
came down again and gripping the
wooden blade between her molars
reduced it to splinters.”
For practice, go to
bedfordstmartins.com
/theguide/exercisecentral
and click on Parallelism.
490
CHAPTER 10 Analyzing Stories
Failing to use ellipsis marks to indicate the omission of material
misrepresents the quote, which is a serious breach of convention. Using ellipsis marks
incorrectly makes your readers doubt your knowledge of conventions.
The Problem
The Correction
If you are using MLA style, follow these rules about using ellipsis marks:
When you delete words from the middle of a quoted sentence, add ellipsis marks,
and leave a single space before and after each ellipsis point.
When you delete words from the end of a quoted sentence and a grammatically complete sentence remains, add a period after the last word and then three ellipsis marks.
Leave a single space after the period and each of the first two ellipsis marks.
Do not leave a space between the last mark and the closing quotation mark.
When you delete material from the middle of a passage of two or more sentences,
use ellipsis marks where the text is omitted and a period after the preceding text
if it is a grammatically complete sentence.
When you delete words from the beginning of a quoted sentence, use ellipsis marks
only if the remainder of the sentence begins with a capitalized word and is a
grammatically complete sentence.
Single words and brief phrases can be quoted without ellipsis marks.
Examples of sentences edited to show correct usage follow:
For more on using ellipsis
marks to indicate a deletion from a quotation, see
Chapter 26, p. 702.
The narrator describes his patient as “She did not move and seemed, inwardly,
quiet; an unusually attractive little thing, and as strong as a heifer in appearance.
But her face was flushed, she was breathing rapidly, and I realized that she had a
...
high fever. She had magnificent blonde hair, in profusion.”
^
For practice, go to
bedfordstmartins.com
/theguide/exercisecentral
and click on Ellipsis Marks.
According to the narrator, the little girl’s mother was “a big startled-looking
...
woman,/ very clean and apologetic, who merely said, Is this the doctor? and let me in.”
^
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