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The importance of setting in a story
The importance of setting in a story
What is the importance of character development in literature
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The structure of a story is the main key which provides a better understanding and insight analysis to the reader. The elements of structure are time, setting, and character. Each individual element shapes the world of a story, and outlines the values or information which the writer is trying to the readers. In the articles¡¨Boys¡¨and ¡§Orientation¡¨ we can see totally different structures. By comparing these two stories, the two writers present their stories in totally different ways. The ¡§Boys¡¨ is narrated in a chronology linear to give readers the process of growing up, and the ¡§Orientation¡¨ is using traditional structure with humor factor to reflect the office life.
In his story¡¨Boys,¡¨ Rick Moody narrates the process of growing up of boys. The author mentions every single outcome that most of the boys are likely to encounter in their lives. Boys grow up by experiencing some major incidents. In this case, the writer uses the death of their father as an example of that major incident. In another story¡¨Orientation,¡¨ Daniel Orozco describes the scenario in the office. Orozco brings out the typical office affairs to reflect social structure and human relationship.
In ¡§Boys,¡¨ the writer condenses the boys¡¦ life into one paragraph. Even though it is a story with thirty-year time frame, the narrative way ¡§one paragraph¡¨ makes every single account similar. As if readers are looking at the world from a high place. Moody uses repetition,¡¨ Boys enter the house¡¨ in every sentence, makes a connection on every single account in boys¡¦ life. It indicates that every outcome that happens before the turning point is relatively immature. This particular style, repetition, emphasizes the symbolism of the growing process and maturity. The story is based on a thirty-year time frame; from infancy to adulthood. It consists a chronology linear of thirty-year which indicates the amount of the time that boys need to transform to men. The writer condenses the whole story into a paragraph with one incident followed by the other which reflects the pace of time as they age.
In ¡§Orientation,¡¨ Orozco uses a strictly experimental description on the setting of the office scenario. The story is not in sequence. It is a non-chronological structure. There is no time frame but just plain description on people and environment. The writer uses humor and exaggerates elements to make the description more interesting and lively.
Using the metaphor of a show, he is able to translate the show into what occurs in reality. When the boy dies or performs, the usual reaction is to give an encore or in reality, bring it into the public’s awareness in the media, create
Setting expatiates the theme of loss of innocence. For example, the four major characters in this story are sixteen and seventeen years old, which is the age when teenagers prepare to end their childhood and become adults. Also, the Devon school, where the story takes place, is a place where boys make the transition to full adulthood, and so this setting shows more clearly the boys' own growth. Finally, World War II, which in 1942 is raging in Europe, forces these teenage boys to grow up fast; during their seventeenth year they must evaluate everything that the war means to them and decide whether to take an active ...
Daniel Oroczo is a short story writer who wrote the short story “Orientation” for which he received many awards and just as many praises from the writing community. He has since then gone on to bigger and better career achievement and is now employed in the department of English at the University of Idaho, he hints at a novel that he is currently working towards, since the success of his short story writing.
In the short story, “The Intruder”, by Andre Dubus, the main character, Kenneth, experiences changes that affect his relationships with his family and himself. Even though thirteen-year-old boys undergo quite a few changes in this time of their life, Kenneth goes through even more shifts in his world during this story. As Kenneth avoids sharing his imagination with his family, hides his sister, Connie’s, secrets for her, and shoots Connie’s boyfriend, Kenneth’s way of relating with the people in his life is affected drastically. In “The Intruder”, the effect of Kenneth and his family’s actions are shown through the changes Kenneth undergoes.
In Steve Martin’s, “The Death of My Father” Martin takes his reader on a compelling journey through his personal experiences and allows the connection made with the reader to be the gateway in which he provides his information. From the beginning of Martin’s article his story of his father is heartfelt; the reader can immediately feel sympathy for the author. This proves to be a very successful way to insure his readers think deeply about what he has to say. With phrases like this one, “… if I had anything to work out with my parents, I should do it now, because one day that opportunity would be over” (1) Martin expresses one of the valuable lessons that he is portraying to the reader through a meaningful life experience like that of his friend
... overall themes, and the use of flashbacks. Both of the boys in these two poems reminisce on a past experience that they remember with their fathers. With both poems possessing strong sentimental tones, readers are shown how much of an impact a father can have on a child’s life. Clearly the two main characters experience very different past relationships with their fathers, but in the end they both come to realize the importance of having a father figure in their lives and how their experiences have impacted their futures.
To sum up, the boys at Devon have endured a lot as teenagers. They are faced with pressures and values that cause them to develop into adults, at an early age.
Then, as you move through the passage you get a more serious mood and tone in the writing until the final paragraph where the perspective of the author’s backyard and washing line has changed altogether. The structure has no jumping back and forth in it; no going from the child’s perspective to the adult’s, the story is able to flow easily. The structure is almost in the form of stepping stones, where the change in perspective can go from one point of view to the other, child to adult.
Suffering from the death of a close friend, the boy tries to ignore his feelings and jokes on his sister. His friend was a mental patient who threw himself off a building. Being really young and unable to cope with this tragedy, the boy jokes to his sister about the bridge collapsing. "The mention of the suicide and of the bridge collapsing set a depressing tone for the rest of the story" (Baker 170). Arguments about Raisinettes force the father to settle it by saying, "you will both spoil your lunch." As their day continues, their arguments become more serious and present concern for the father who is trying to understand his children better. In complete agreement with Justin Oeltzes’ paper, "A Sad Story," I also feel that this dark foreshadowing of time to come is an indication of the author’s direct intention to write a sad story.
Within every story or poem, there is always an interpretation made by the reader, whether right or wrong. In doing so, one must thoughtfully analyze all aspects of the story in order to make the most accurate assessment based on the literary elements the author has used. Compared and contrasted within the two short stories, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, and John Updike’s “A&P,” the literary elements character and theme are made evident. These two elements are prominent in each of the differing stories yet similarities are found through each by studying the elements. The girls’ innocence and naivety as characters act as passages to show something superior, oppression in society shown towards women that is not equally shown towards men.
In life, everyone experiences a time of hardship, and for the most part, those affected find methods of overcoming the adversity. The idea of getting through hardship is best reflected in; Sherman J. Alexie’s story “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” (274). In the story, victor whose father had recently died from a heart attack has to travel to phoenix Arizona to reclaim his father’s ashes and his truck. Victor is joined by his former childhood friend “Thomas Builds-the-fire”, who finances the trip to phoenix since Victor did not have the means. They drove back truck from phoenix to the reservation. Throughout the trip, Thomas is always telling stories mostly reminiscing about their childhood. It is through Thomas stories that we learn much about Victor’s father. Through the use of symbolism, and character development, Alexie conveys the idea that, when someone is experiencing an adversity, reconnecting and embracing the past may lead to a discovery of a brighter future.
The fictional life and death of a twelve year old little boy named Robert is vividly articulated in this moving tale by Thomas Wolfe. The reader learns of the boy’s life through four well developed points of view. The reader’s first glimpse into Robert’s character is expressed through a third person narrative. This section takes place on a particularly important afternoon in the boy’s life. The second and third views are memories of the child, through the eyes of his mother and sister. His mother paints the picture of an extraordinary child whom she loved dearly and his sister illustrates the love that the boy had for others. Finally, an account from the narrator is given in the ending. It is in the last section of this work that the narrator attempts to regain his own memories of his lost brother.
Nonetheless, this really is a tale of compelling love between the boy and his father. The actions of the boy throughout the story indicate that he really does love his father and seems very torn between his mother expectations and his father’s light heartedness. Many adults and children know this family circumstance so well that one can easily see the characters’ identities without the author even giving the boy and his father a name. Even without other surrounding verification of their lives, the plot, characters, and narrative have meshed together quite well.
The first theory to be discussed is Structurealism, this theory is composed of many different branches. The branches that this paper will be looking into are archetypes. The definition of archetype is typical images, characters, narrative designs and themes and other literary phenomena. Archetypes have their own form of criticism, called archetypal criticism. Archetypal criticism means the generic, recurring and conventional elements in literature that cannot be explained through historical influence or tradition.
In the simplest form, there is a basic structural pattern to narratives, as expressed through Tzvetan Todorov’s explanation of narrative movement between two equilibriums. A narrative begins in a stable position until something causes disequilibrium, however, by the end of the story, the equilibrium is re-established, though it is different than the beginning (O’Shaughnessy 1999: 268). Joseph Cam...