Văn học các nước nói tiếng anh – CHAPTER 1. RESPONDING TO LITERATURE – Studocu

CHAPTER 1. RESPONDING TO LITERATURE

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GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Responding to literature requires both imagination and critical reading skills. As
readers, we anticipate, imagine, feel, worry, analyze, and question. A literary work is
like an empty balloon that we inflate with the warm breath of our imagination and
experience. Our participation makes us partners with the author in the artistic
recreation.

First, readers must imagine and recreate that special world described by the writer. The
first sentences of a short story, for example, throw open a door to a world that-
attractive or repulsive-tempts our curiosity and imagination. Like Alice in Alice in
Wonderland, we cannot resist following a white rabbit with pink eyes who mutters to
himself, checks his watch, and then zips down a rabbit hole and into an imaginary
world.

Here are three opening sentences of three very different short stories:
Young Goodman Brown came forth at sunset into the street at Salem village; but put
his head back, after crossing the threshold, to exchange a parting kiss with his young
wife.
– Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown”

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself
transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.
– Franz Kafka, “The Metamorphosis”

The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer
day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was green.
– Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery”

Whether our imaginations construct the disturbing image of a “gigantic insect” or the
seemingly peaceful picture of a perfect summer day, we actively recreate each story.
Responding to literature also requires that readers reread. First, you should reread for
yourself-that is, reread to write down your ideas, questions, feelings, and reactions. To
heighten your role in re-creating a story or poem, you should note in the margins your
questions and responses to main characters, places, metaphors and images, and themes
that catch your attention: ‘‘Are the names of Hawthorne’s characters significant? Is
Young Goodman Brown really good? Is his wife, Faith, really faithful?” “Why does
Emily Dickinson have her speaker personify Death as the driver of a carriage? Why
does her speaker say that ‘he kindly stopped for me’? What action is taking place?”
Don’t just underline or highlight passages. Actually write your questions and
responses in the margins.

Second, you should reread with a writer’s eye. In fiction, identify the major and minor
characters. Look for conflicts between characters. Mark passages that contain
foreshadowing. Pinpoint sentences that reveal the narrative point of view. Use the
appropriate critical terms (character, plot, conflict, point of view, setting, style, and
theme) to help you reread with a writer’s eye and see how the parts of a story relate to
the whole. Similarly, in poetry, look for character, key events, and setting, and always
pay attention to images and metaphors, to voice and tone, to word choice, and to
rhythm and rhyme. Each critical term is a tool-a magnifying glass that helps you
understand and interpret the literary work more clearly.

In addition to rereading, responding to literature requires that readers share ideas,
reactions, and interpretations. Sharing usually begins in small-group or class
discussions, but it continues as you explain your interpretation in writing. A work of
literature is not a mathematical equation with a single answer. Great literature is worth
interpreting precisely because each reader responds differently. The purpose of
literature is to encourage you to reflect on your life and the lives of others-to look for
new ways of seeing and understanding your world-and ultimately to expand your
world. Sharing is crucial to appreciating literature.

1. RESPONDING TO A SHORT STORY

Read and respond to Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.” Use your imagination to
help create the story as you read. Then reread the story, noting in the margin your
questions and responses. When you finish rereading and annotating your reactions,
write your interpretation of the last line of the story.

PROFESSIONAL WRITING

THE STORY OF AN HOUR

Kate Chopin
Kate O’Flaherty Chopin (1851-1904) was an American writer whose mother was
French and Creole and whose father was Irish. In 1870, she moved from St. Louis to
New Orleans with her husband, Oscar Chopin, and over the next ten years she gave
birth to jive sons. After her husband died in 1882, Chopin returned to St. Louis to
begin a new life as a writer. Many of her best stories are about Louisiana people and
places, and her most famous novel, The Awakening, tells the story of Edna, a woman
who leaves her marriage and her children to fulfill herself through an artistic career.

Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to
break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.
It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed
in half concealing. Her husband’s friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he
who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was
received, with Brently Mallard’s name leading the list of “killed.” He had only taken
the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to
forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message.

She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed
inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment,
in her sister’s arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her
room alone. She would have no one follow her.

There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she
sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to
reach into her soul.

She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all
aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the
street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which
someone was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in
the eaves.

There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had
met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.

She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless,
except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried
itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.

She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a
certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed
away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection,
but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.

There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it?
She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of
the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.
Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing
that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will–
as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been. When she abandoned
herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and
over under the breath: “free, free, free!” The vacant stare and the look of terror that
had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast,
and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.

She arose at length and opened the door to her sister’s importunities. There was a
feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of
Victory. She clasped her sister’s waist, and together they descended the stairs.
Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.

Someone was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who
entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had
been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one. He
stood amazed at Josephine’s piercing cry; at Richards’ quick motion to screen him
from the view of his wife.

When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease–of the joy that kills.

TECHNIQUES FOR RESPONDING TO LITERATURE

As you read and respond to a work of literature, keep the following techniques in
mind.

– Understanding the assignment and selecting a possible purpose and
interpret a work of literature. Your audience will be other members of your class,
including the teacher.
– Actively reading, annotating, and discussing the literary work. Remember
that literature often contains highly condensed experiences. In order to give
imaginative life to literature, you need to reread patiently both the major events and
the seemingly insignificant passages. In discussions, look for the differences between
your responses and other readers’ ideas.

– Focusing your essay on a single, clearly defined interpretation. In your
essay, clearly state your main idea or thesis, focusing on a single idea or aspect of the
piece of literature. Your thesis should not be a statement of fact. Whether you are
explaining, evaluating, or arguing, your interpretation must be clearly stated.

– Supporting your interpretation with evidence. Because your readers will
probably have different interpretations, you must show which specific characters,
events, scenes, conflicts, images, metaphors, or themes prompted your response, and
you must use these details to support your interpretation. Do not merely retell the
major events of the story or describe the main images in the poem-your readers have
already read your story or poem.

WARMING UP: Journal Exercises
Read all of the following questions and then write for five minutes on two or three.
These questions should help clarity your perceptions about literature or develop your
specific responses to “The Story of an Hour”

1. On your bookshelves or in the library, find a short story that you read at least
   six months ago. Before you reread it, write down the name of the author and the title
   of the work. Note when you read it last and describe what you remember about it.
   Then reread the story. When you finish, write for five minutes, describing what you
   noticed that you did not notice the last time you read it.

2. Write out the question that “The Story of an Hour” seems to ask. What is your
   answer to this question? What might have been Kate Chopin’s answer?

3. The words heart, joy, free, lift, and death appear several times in “The Story of
   an Hour.” Underline these words (or synonyms) each time they appear. Explain how
   the meaning of each of these words seems to change during the story. Is each word
   used ironically?

4. Write out a dictionary definition of the word feminism. Then write out your own
   definition. Is Mrs. Mallard a feminist? Is Kate Chopin a feminist? What evidence in
   the story supports your answers?

5. Kate Chopin’s biographer, Per Seyersted, says that Chopin saw that “truth is
   manifold” and thus preferred not to “take sides or point a moral.” Explain how “The
   Story of an Hour” does or does not illustrate Seyersted’s observations.

6. Literature often expresses common themes or tensions, such as the conflict

evaluative essay cites evidence to show why a story is exciting, boring, dramatic,
puzzling, vivid, relevant, or memorable.
3. Problem solving. Writers of interpretive essays occasionally take a problem-
solving approach, focusing on how the reader overcomes obstacles in understanding
the story or poem, or on how the author solved problems in writing key scenes,
choosing images and language, developing character, and creating and resolving
conflicts. Particularly if you like to write fiction yourself, you may wish to take the
writer’s point of view: how did the writer solve (or fail to solve) problems of image,
metaphor, character, setting, plot, or theme?

4. Arguing. As readers share responses, they may discover that their
interpretations diverge sharply from the ideas of other readers. Does “The Story of an
Hour” have a feminist theme? Is it about women or about human nature in general? Is
the main character admirable, or is she selfish? In interpretive essays, writers
sometimes argue for their beliefs. They present evidence that refutes an opposing or
alternate interpretation and supports their own reading.

Most interpretive essays about literature are focused by these purposes, whether used
singly or in combination. Writers should select the purpose(s) that are most
appropriate for the work of literature and their own responses.

1. RESPONDING TO SHORT FICTION

Begin by noting in the margins your reactions at key points. Summarize in your own
words what is happening in the story. Write down your observations or reactions to
striking or surprising passages. Ask yourself questions about ambiguous or confusing
passages.
After you respond initially and make your marginal annotations, use the following
basic elements of fiction to help you analyze how the parts of a short story relate to
the whole. Pay attention to how setting or plot affects the character, or how style and
setting affect the theme. Because analysis artificially separates plot, character, and
theme, look for ways to synthesize the parts: Seeing how these parts relate to each
other should suggest an idea, focus, or angle to use in your interpretation.

CHARACTER A short story usually focuses on a major character-particularly on
how that character faces conflicts, undergoes changes, or reveals himself or herself.
Minor characters may be flat (one-dimensional), static (unchanging), or stereotyped.
To get a start on analyzing character, diagram the conflicts between or among
characters. Examine characters for motivation: What causes them to behave as they
do? Is their behavior affected by internal or external forces? Do the major characters
reveal themselves directly (through their thoughts, dialogue, and actions) or indirectly
(through what other people say, think, or do)?

PLOT Plot is the sequence of events in a story, but it is also the cause-and effect
relationship of one event to another. As you study a story’s plot, pay attention to
exposition, foreshadowing, conflict, climax, and denouement. To clarify elements of
the plot, draw a time line for the story, listing in chronological order every event –
including events that occur before the story opens. Exposition describes the initial
circumstances and reveals what has happened before the story opens. Foreshadowing
is an author’s hint of what will occur before it happens. Conflicts within characters,
between characters, and between characters and their environment may explain why
one event leads to the next. The climax is the high point, the point of no return, or the
most dramatic moment in a story. At the climax of a story, readers discover something

character told the story, how would that affect the theme?

SETTING Setting is the physical place, scene, and time of the story. It also eludes the
social or historical context of the story. The setting in “The Story of an Hour” is the
house and the room in which Mrs. Mallard waits, but it is also the social and historical
time frame. Setting is usually important for what it reveals about the characters, the
plot, or the theme of the story. Does the setting reflect a character’s state of mind? Is
the environment a source of tension or conflict in the story? Do changes in setting
reflect changes in key characters? Do sensory details of sight, touch, smell, hearing, or
taste affect or reflect the characters or events? Does the author’s portrait of the setting
contain images and symbols that help you interpret the story?

STYLE Style is a general term that may refer to sentence structure and to figurative
language and symbols, as well as to the author’s tone or use of irony. Sentence
structure may be long and complicated or relatively short and simple. Authors may use
figurative language (Mrs. Mallard is described in “The Story of an Hour” as sobbing,
“as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams”). A symbol is a
person, place, thing, or event that suggests or signifies something beyond itself In “The
Story of an Hour,” the open window and the new spring life suggest or represent Mrs.
Mallard’s new freedom. Tone is the author’s attitude toward the characters, setting, or
plot. Tone may be sympathetic, humorous, serious, detached, or critical. Irony
suggests a double meaning. It occurs when the author or a character says or does one
thing but means the opposite or something altogether different. The ending of “The
Story of an Hour” is ironic: The doctors say Mrs. Mallard has died “of joy that kills.”
In fact, she has died of killed joy.

THEME The focus of an interpretive essay is often on the theme of a story. In arriving
at a theme, ask how the characters, plot, point of view, setting, and style contribute to
the main ideas or point of the story. The theme of a story depends, within limits, on
your reactions as a reader. “The Story of an Hour” is not about relationships between
sisters, nor is it about medical malpractice. It is an ironic story about love, personal
freedom, and death, but what precisely is the theme? Does “The Story of an Hour”

carry a feminist message, or is it more universally about the repressive power of love?
Is Mrs. Mallard to be admired or criticized for her impulse to free herself? Do not
trivialize the theme of a story by looking for some simple “moral.” In describing the
theme, deal with the complexity of life recreated in the story.

4. Time line. In your journal, draw a time line for the story. List above the line
everything that happens in the story. Below the line, indicate where the story opens,
when the major conflicts occur, and where the climax and the denouement occur. For
“The Story of an Hour,” student writer Karen Ehrhardt drew the following time line.

5. Feature list. Choose a character trait, repeated image, or idea that you wish to
investigate in the poem or story. List, in order of appearance, every word, image, or
reference that you find.

6. Scene vision or revision. Write a scene for this story in which you change
some part of it. You may add a scene to the beginning, middle, or end of the story.
You may change a scene in the story. You may write a scene in the story from a
different character’s point of view. You may change the style of the story for your
scene. How, for example, might Eudora Welty have described the opening scene of
“The Story of an Hour”?

7. Draw a picture. For your poem or short story, draw a picture based on images,
characters, conflicts, or themes in the work of literature. Student writer Lori Van Sike
drew the following picture for “The Story of an Hour” that shows how the rising and
falling action of the plot parallels Mrs. Mallard’s ascent and descent of the stairs.

8. Character conflict map. Start with a full page of paper. Draw a main character

in the center of the page. Locate the other major characters, internal forces, and
external forces (including social, economic, and environmental pressures) in a circle
around the main character. Draw a line between each of these peripheral characters or
forces and the main character. For his character conflict map for “The Story of an
Hour,” student writer Darren Marshall used images from his computer program to
surround his picture of Mrs. Mallard.

9. Background investigation. Investigate the biographical, social, or historical
context of the poem or story. Go online or to your library databases to find
biographical information or other stories or poems by the same author. How does this

1.3 SHAPING

Test each of the following possible shapes against your ideas for your essay. Use or
adapt the shape or shapes that are most appropriate for your own interpretation.

– EXPLAINING RELATIONSHIPS Interpretative essays often analyze how the
parts of a poem or story relate to the whole. As you explain these relationships, you
should show how key images, lines, or scenes contribute to the overall theme or idea
of the poem or story.

Introduction and thesis: The details and images in the work reveal that the theme is X.

First scene, stanza, or group of lines: How details and images establish the theme.

Second scene or group of lines: How details and images relate to or build on previous
images and contribute to the theme.

Third scene or group of lines: How details and images continue building the
theme.
Conclusion: How the author highlights the key images or themes.

EVALUATING If your response suggests an evaluating purpose, you may wish to set
up criteria for an effective poem or short story and then provide evidence showing how
this poem or story does or does not measure up to your standards. Using criteria for a
story, your essay might use the following outline.

Introduction and thesis: Story X is highly dramatic.

Criterion 1: A dramatic short story should focus on a character who changes his or her
behavior or beliefs. Judgment and evidence for Criterion l.

Criterion 2: A dramatic story must have striking conflicts that lead to a crisis or a
predicament. Judgment and evidence for Criterion 2.

Criterion 3: A dramatic story should have a theme that makes a controversial point.
Judgment and evidence for Criterion 3.

Conclusion: Reinforces thesis

ARGUING During class discussion, you may disagree with another person’s
response. Your thesis may then take the form, “Although some readers believe this
story is about X, the story can also be about y”
Introduction and thesis: Although some readers suggest the poem or story is about X,
it is really about Y

Body paragraphs: State the opposing interpretation and give evidence for that
interpretation. Then state your interpretation and give evidence (images, characters,
events, points of conflict) supporting your interpretation.
Conclusion: Clarify and reinforce thesis.

INVESTIGATING CHANGES IN INTERPRETATION Often, readers change
interpretations during the course of responding to a piece of literature. Thus, your main
point might be, “Although I initially believed X about the poem or story, I gradually
realized the theme of the poem or story is Y” If that sentence expresses your main
idea, you may wish to organize your essay following the chronology or the steps in the
changes in your interpretation.

Introduction and thesis: Although I initially thought X, I now believe Y

Body paragraphs:
First step (your original interpretation of the story or poem and supporting
evidence).
Second step (additional or contradictory ideas and evidence that forced you to
reconsider your interpretation).
Third step (your final interpretation and supporting evidence).
Conclusion: Show how steps lead to thesis.

Note: One strategy you should not use is to simply retell the key parts of a poem or the