Key Points for Understanding

1. Fiction, briefly defined, is the interpretation of human experience in narrative form.

Despite the prevailing practice of some modern writers to chafe the limitations created
by certain conventions in storytelling, short fiction is said to be effective or successful
when it adheres to certain qualifies of narratives: unity of impression (or of effect), a
well-controlled plot, and a building up of narrative events towards a crisis or conflict
(Lucero, Torres, Macatangay, & Bayot, 1992, p. 7).

2. Textual reading, not commentary or criticism, is still the heart and soul of literature.
Lectures on background, history, literary theory, and the like must take secondary
importance in reading a story. There is still nothing like letting the literary selection speak
for itself (David-Maramba, 1998, p. xxxiv).

3. “Every discussion of a story must be adapted to that particular story. There is no single
analytical approach that works for everything. In considering examples of critical
analysis, it might be especially appropriate to ask why each discussion takes the form it
does, emphasizing the aspects of the story it does, and whether it leaves out anything
important about the story it treats. It is the reader’s business to adapt himself to whatever
fictional world he enters. It is the writer’s business to make such adaptation worthwhile”
(Scholes, 1978, in The Literature Department/De La Salle University, 1992, p. 7).

4. Fiction distinguishes itself from other literary forms primarily because of its basic
elements:

4.1. Setting is the time and location in which the story takes place. It provides a
physical environment or context in which the characters exist or inhabit. It depicts
objects, events, or institutions that enable readers to place at a particular place
or era the credibility of the characters and their conflicts or actions. A setting may
initiate the complication in a story; may shape the lives of the characters, influence
the meaning or the impulse of the narrative, Writers may create a fictional setting
or take advantage of the reader’s knowledge of a “real” place or an actual time
and historical period.

4.2. Characters are representations of people that have inner and outer selves. They
are either static (whose essential nature does not change in the course of the
story) or dynamic (emerges different or changed in terms of attitude or
understanding (revelation) at the end of the story brought about by a their
experiences. Characters are usually presented, characterized or revealed by the
following methods:

4.2.1. Direct presentation of a character is done when the author, other

characters, or the characters themselves give their external or internal
characteristics.

Dr. Eden Regala Flores ENG611M Week 3 Page 1 of 5

 4.2.2. Indirect presentation of a character is done through the actions and
thoughts of the characters.

4.3. Plot is a series of causally related actions that move the story forward. It is through
the author’s arrangement and selection of the action that the story conveys a
meaning. Traditionally, a story has a beginning, middle and end, i.e., it has a
conflict which gives rise to complications, which in turn are resolved in the end.
Plots may not be chronologically arranged, but must be causally connected.
Storytelling may be enhanced by various literary devices like foreshadowing
(which hints at subsequent developments through narrative comments, dialogue,
setting, atmosphere, imagery, and symbols) or flashback (which momentarily
stops the flow of events by inserting past events in relation to the present or future
events). What may weaken the plot is the author’s use of chance or coincidence
(which provides a means of resolving the fictional problem or simply to get the
characters out of trouble or simply to provide a happy ending). The use of deus
ex machina is another name for this device.

A plot of the story may take the following shape:

climax

crisis denouement

complication end

exposition
The exposition provides background information or details about the characters,
their traits, interests, desires, and basic assumptions.

The complication is the onset of the major conflict in the plot.

The crisis is the part of the story where tension, doubt, curiosity is most felt or
heightened.

The climax is the story’s highest point which means that a character in conflict
must make a choice, an action, a decision that may bring about change in his life
or those around him. Realizations may also occur here.

The denouement is the part of the story that provides finishing touches to it and
immediately leads to the story’s ending.

4.4. Point of View and Narrator are usually confusedly interchanged by an unknowing
reader.

The narrator is a means by which the writer controls the way in which the story
is told or communicated to the reader. The narrator is the character, visible or
invisible, from whose perspective the events and the characters are
Dr. Eden Regala Flores ENG611M Week 3 Page 2 of 5
 seen/perceived and through whose intelligence the action is the story acquire
meaning.

Point of View is the physical and psychological position taken by the narrator
which establishes the “credibility” and/or “authority” by which the reader perceives
the fictional narrative. It is from the narrator’s point of view that a reader views
the story and understands its meaning.

There are three basic kinds of narrators: first-person, third-person limited, and
omniscient.

Theme is the point or the central idea of the story. It is what unifies the seemingly
unrelated parts of the story together. It may or may not be explicitly stated in the
story. Contrary to popular belief, the theme of the story is not equated to the
story’s moral or lesson. It is stated in complete statements as generalizations
about people or life in general which may be stated in more than one way. To
understand best the story, the reader is challenged to combine both the relations
among the details in the story and the his/her outside knowledge, own
experiences with the world, and sensitivity to the feelings of other people.

Answer the following and be ready to discuss these next meeting.

Set A
1. In reading fiction, what do we usually focus on? Why?
2. What are the best features or sides of this kind of focus/approach? What are its limitations?
3. How do you teach your students to analyze or interpret a short story? What is/are the
rationale behind this decision/choice? Expound on your answer.
4. Can we say that when we approach our teaching this way our discussion is
adequate/sufficient? Explain.
5. Why can’t there be a perfect or best approach in teaching or reading a literary work? As a
teacher of literature, how do you deal with this reality?

Set B

1. Close Reading of Aida Rivera-Ford’s, The Chieftest Mourner.

1.1. Read the title of the story you are about to read. Speculate on its subject and/or its
plot. Make as many guesses as you can guided by what the title suggests.
1.2. Do you have any questions in relation to the title, plot, characters, setting, etc., of the
said story?
1.3. Read the story and answer the worksheet below as you read.

Dr. Eden Regala Flores ENG611M Week 3 Page 3 of 5

 Worksheet # 9
Literary Analysis of Aida Rivera-Ford’s, The Chieftest Mourner

Elements Answer/s Textual Evidence/Support Your

Answer

Setting

Time _____________________

Place _____________________

Traits or
Characters characteristics

1. ____________ _____________________

2. ____________ _____________________

3. ____________ _____________________

4. ____________ _____________________

5. ____________ _____________________

Character 1

Conflict

what is the Character 2

bone of
contention?

Plot

Complication/s

Crisis

Dr. Eden Regala Flores ENG611M Week 3 Page 4 of 5

 Climax

Denouement

End

Imagery

Symbolism

Theme

Give two questions about the story you will ask your students to help them understand and
appreciate it. Provide a short explanation (1-2 sentences) as to why you will ask these.

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

Dr. Eden Regala Flores ENG611M Week 3 Page 5 of 5