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Elements of a short story:

-Setting
-Character
-Point of View
Setting:
The story The Werewolf by Angela Carter is a great example of setting. Through her descriptions, the
reader knows exactly where the story is taking place and when, all without having to use exact dates
and locations. It's a powerful way to set up the setting, by leaving it all to the reader's knowledge and
imagination which can be the most powerful tool. Is a northern country; they have cold weather, they
have cold hearts. Carter sets up the country as cold and unforgiving. Where lives are hard and there
are no allowances for weakness. Their houses are built of log, dark and smoky within. There will be a
crude icon of the virgin behind a guttering candle, the leg of a pig hung up to cure, a string of drying
mushrooms. The setting is long in the past. Where pig legs hang from the ceiling to cure, everyone is
religious, they use candles as light and the virgin is just a crude replica. At midnight, especially on
Walpurgisnacht, the Devil holds picnics in the graveyards and invites the witches; then they dig up
fresh corpses and eat them. Anyone will tell you that. Walpurgisnacht is a German holiday in April
which is of Pagan origin and is similar to Halloween. Which shows that the story takes place in
Germany, not during Pagan times, they all have statues of the virgin in their homes, but probably not
long after being converted since they still celebrate this holiday and fully believe in it.
Character:
The story of The Handsomest Drowned Man In The World by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a great
example of character. The protagonist in this story is a dead man, yet he takes on a personality and life
of his own. He fills the entire village with his presence and he isn't alive for a single scene. They
secretly compared him to their own men, thinking that for all their lives were incapable of doing what
he could do in one night, and they ended up dismissing them deep in their hearts as the weakest,
meanest and most useless creatures on earth. They are comparing their living, breathing husbands with
a drowned man who washed up onto their shore. They have never met him alive, but they assumed that
he is better than their own husbands. The women who had dressed him, who had combed his hair, had
cut his nails and shaved him were unable to hold back a shudder of pity when they had to resign
themselves to his being dragged along the ground. It was then that they understood how unhappy he
must have been with that huge body since it bothered him even after death. They are attributing even
emotions that he once felt. You can completely imagine this man and the life he must have led but have
no idea about the villagers themselves.
Point of View:
The story of Bigfoot Stole My Wife by Ron Carlson is an example of point of view. Everything in the
story is from the man's point of view and no one else. It makes it more powerful because it is slowly
revealed that he has a gambling addiction and his wife left him. But he is in denial and chooses to
believe that Bigfoot stole her. In the two and a half years we were married, I often had the feeling that
I would come home from the track and something would be funny. Oh, she'd say things: One of theses
days I'm not going to be here when you get home, things like that, things like everybody says. She
threatened many times that she was going to leave but he chooses not to believe that. He thinks she is
joking and we only have his point of view to see it all. We don't know what Trudy is thinking, we don't
know how he is really acting, we just see what he sees and believes. I came home from the track to
find the cupboard bare. Trudy is not home. The place smells funny: hairy. It's a fact and I know it as a
fact: Bigfoot has been in my house. He states that it is a fact. We, as the reader, can only see what he
sees which is evidence of Bigfoot being inside his house.

Elements of figurative language:


-Metaphor
-Personification
-Alliteration
-Symbolism
-Simile
Metaphor:
The Female Body by Margaret Atwood the sentence The Female Body is made of transparent
plastic and lights up when you plug it in. is a metaphor. This is significant to the story because it is a
way of explaining how a lot of women are perceived as just objects made for other's pleasure.
Personification:
The Orange by Benjamin Rosenbaum is personification. An orange becomes the ruler of the world
and develops a personality. The author chooses to personify an orange because it is a reflection on the
petty politics.
Simile:
The Female Body by Margaret Atwood the sentence My topic feels like hell. is a simile of the
variety of how a woman feels. She is expected to be perfect but it isn't how it really is.
Alliteration:
Journey's End by Susanne Paola Antonetta the sentence The bungalows sat across the street from
Barnegat Bay in New Jersey, a body of water about as loveable as the bungalows, murky with inches of
seaweed at the bottom hiding blue-claw crabs, which bubbled slowly from the shells beneath their
eyes. is an example of alliteration. The woman is describing her childhood home that was destroyed,
the alliteration adds a childlike sing-song quality to it.
Symbolism:
The Barbie Birthday by Alison Townsend is an example of symbolism. The story is symbolic of how
women are perceived in today's society and the different types of beauty often overlooked. The Barbie
doll is a direct symbol of woman and the narrator is the girl who is influenced by this standard and will
be for the rest of her life.
Dialogue:
Direct Dialogue: Susan, He sighed. You have to at least pretend to be polite to him. I don't care what
he said yesterday.
Indirect Dialogue: Yesterday was a disaster. Ryan told Susan how he ran into some friends from high
school and ended up going to a bar all night. He completely forgot about Susan waiting at the
restaurant. He apologized repeatedly, even promising her a date anywhere she would like to go. But
Susan was still furious.
Stage Directions: Susan raised her head and said Lynette, will you help me? while looking at her
pillow. Her eyes flicked back up to Lynette's and back to the pillow. Lynette lowered her eyes and
backed slowly towards the bed and reached a silent hand under the pillow while Susan stood in the
doorway watching the hall. Lynette quickly picked up the wrapped object and slipped it in her pocket,

all while keeping an eye on Susan's straight back. She briefly touched her shoulder and both girls left
the room silently.
Internal Dialogue: Susan outwardly smiled while within she seethed. The stupid twit has no idea what
is going to happen. Here she is, blathering on about clothes without a single regard for other people.
She is up for a rude awakening when I am finished.
Creative Nonfiction:
-Musing
-Scene
-Summary
Street Haunting: A London Adventure by Virginia Woolf is an example of all three. The entire essay
is musing. In one paragraph, she is reminiscing about receiving a bowl from an old woman in Mantua.
That is an example of a scene. The last paragraph in the essay is a summary. She is talking about
coming back from the journey and walking through the front door and see her possessions that she was
reminiscing about in the several scenes.
Point of View:
-First
-Second
-Third
-Streaming consciousness
-Omniscient
First:
A writer would use first person point of view to draw the reader in the character's mind.
Second:
Second person point of view would be useful in drawing the reader in. It makes them feel as if the story
is written about them. It propels it forward.
Third:
One of the pros of writing in third person point of view is the ease of moving in and out of other
character's heads. The writer can show what other's are thinking and even the addition of a narrator.
Unreliable Narrator:
The reader cannot trust the narrator of the story. The narrator is obviously biased or compromised, for
example in Bigfoot Stole My Wife by Ron Carlson. The narrator's wife clearly left him but he
continues to insist that she was kidnapped.
Omniscient:
Omniscient narrator is a way for the writer to explore a whole world of characters. Not just their
actions, but their thoughts, feelings, past and future. There is a whole array of options available to a
writer who is using omniscient. The writer can choose to reveal certain plot points to the reader but not
to the characters, thus adding an additional dimension of suspense.
I would like to try Hermit Crab, Braided Essay, and the Collage. I would love to try the Hermit Crab
because it seems like it would be fun to work with and challenging. Hiding your true intentions within

a shell of an idea such as a recipe, menu, a manual, etc. seems like it would be rather enjoyable. The
Braided Essay feels like it packs a lot in within a small amount of words. As the author, you are
weaving together, personal with research and back again. The Collage is very emotional and
sentimental. It makes the reader feel strongly about what is being written, with little snippets of sorrow
and joy scattered throughout, never dwelling on a single emotion for long.
Truth vs. Emotional Truth:
Truth is the facts. What really happened, the date, time, place, people, everything is absolutely true.
Emotional truth is how it felt. Even though they won, someone felt they lost because of the things they
had to do for example. How To Tell A True War Story by Tim O'Brien. He could tell you that it
wasn't actually a baby water buffalo they killed but a young soldier instead, and that would be Truth.
Emotional truth is changing bits and pieces to get at the heart of the story rather than the surface.

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