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Essays
Definition of the essay
There is no one definition which all critics agree upon.
The most widely-accepted definitions is a definition
suggested by the noted literary critic M.H.Abrams in his
famous Glossary of Literature Terms " Any brief
composition in prose that undertakes to discuss a matter,
express a point of view ,or persuade us to accept a
thesis on any subject whatever."
There are four major characteristics:
1-Length
The max. An essay can be is approximately 50 pages.
Otherwise, it will be called a "treatise", a dissertation"
or a book.
The essay is relatively short in length.
2-Prose
Nearly all essays are written in prose.
3- On any Subject
the subject matter of essays is broader.
3-According to many critics, the essay is ultimately the
most flexible of all literary forms, offering its writers
almost absolute freedom in choosing
their subject matter.
4-The purpose of writing
Types of the essay
1-The Descriptive Essay
It is an essay belonging to this category conveys
facts and ideas to the reader through description.
EX. on this type: Anais Nin (Morocco)

2-The Narrative Essay

It is an essay which communicates the speaker's feelings,
impressions, ideas and facts through narration.
Ex. on this type: George Orwell (Shooting an Elephant
Ideas in Descriptive and Narrative essays are most often
expressed indirectly through the story that is being told
and through the description that is being presented.
3-The Expository Essay
It is to uncover, disclose, explain, or clarify an idea, a
concept, or a fact which is either totally unknown to the
reader or known but still vague and unclear.
Ex. on this type: Cardinal Newman (What is a
University)
Ideas in Expository essays are stated explicitly and this
is essential in such essays.
4-The Argumentative Essay
An essay in which attempts to "argue" a concept or
matter, or argue against it. The main focus here is not to
explain or clarify a point (as in the case of expository
texts) but to convince or persuade the reader of it.
The main force of your argument is geared toward
showing how the position you are arguing against is
weak or false.
The argumentative and expository essays are closely
related in:
1-Both aim to reveal and uncover certain truths and
facts.
2-Both address the audience directly.
There is times when it is difficult if not impossible to
distinguish between the two, though there is reasonable
distinction between them placed in the matter of
emphasis in other words what the writer wants to show
mainly in the essay.
Ex. Mailer (Superman Comes to the Supermarket) as
an

argumentative essay.
5-The Speculative Essay
It is a highly imaginative, usually literary or philosophic,
piece of writing which ventures beyond the normal
boundaries of knowledge and awareness; it penetrates the
surface and delves deep to uncover truths which we can
become aware of or experience only when we broaden
our horizons.
Ex. Bertrand Russell (Knowledge and
Wisdom) The distinction between the
Expository and
Argumentative essay on one hand and the Speculative
on the other hand is related not so much to style but to
subject -matter and idea.
If the idea being exposed or argued is acceptable to the
majority of us, the text is expository or argumentative; if
we find it too avant grade or hard to accept, the text is
speculative.
Elements of the essay
Literary works are nor fixed objects which can be dealt
with systematically.
In order to practice an essay, you need to know two
things:
1- To read it (the essay) carefully and thoughtfully.
2-To acquaint (know very well) yourself with the
elements of the essay.
A-Thought
Deep down literary works are ideas, and so are essays.
In case of the essay, ideas are of the primary importance.
The essayist has a message, and he/she writes out of
urge to share the message with the readers, in the hope
that this reader will take the message seriously,
understand it, respond to it, and be influenced by it.


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B-Structure
The message the author conveys to the reader through
an essay has to be presented in an effective manner.
The manner of organization is structure. Structure,
which is at times called "form", is defined by many
critics as the "organizing principle."
While Arabic essays are generally freer and somewhat
more loosely structured, English essays follow a
somewhat meticulous and highly disciplined mode of
organization.
Meticulous:

Three things should be known about structure of the
essays:
1- Essays in English are divided into paragraphs.
The paragraphs composed of no less than four
sentences.
Each essay has one main idea.
2- Argument is often built on what one may call
antithetical relation.
Terms on which the structure of most essays (and
literary works) in English is built: The thesis, Antithesis,
and synthesis.
The thesis: it is the statement which the author begins by
affirming.
The synthesis: usually the theme of the essay or the
ultimate idea, when the writer resolves the conflict
between the thesis and the antithesis.
3- The argument in many paragraphs s built either on an
analogy (comparison) or on a contrast.
Reminder:

We speak of comparison or analogy when we

compare something to something else by showing the
similarities between them.
Whereas we speak contrast when we compare two
things by focusing on their dissimilarities or difference.
C- Style
It is the manner of linguistic structure. In other
words how the author uses language.
When structure is how the ideas are organized, style is
how words and sentences are employed to create certain
effects.
Style has to do with:
1- Diction which is the types of words writers uses in
their works.
Archaic or obsolete words: are words which we no
longer use.
The essayists living in the sane period and in the same
region may have striking differences in the words they
choose.
2- Sentence structure or syntax
The language of some essayists is close in its form and
rhythm to everyday language, and this is called Plain
style.
3- The use of Figurative language such as similes and
metaphors...etc.
We can distinguish between three levels of style:
1- The low style or plain style which is based on simple
diction, simple structure, and either no figures of speech
or simple ones.

2- T he high or grand style ...one which is based on lofty

specialized terms, complex sentence structure, and
elaborate figures of speech.
3- The middle style...one which has a bit of the first and a
bit of the second.
D- Voice
It refers to the authors "attitude" embodied in the
subject matter he/she is presenting and to the "tone" he
uses in conveying this attitude.
Essays are written by human beings who carry
certain feelings and attitudes toward the ideas they
convey in their essays, they speak o us with certain
"tone of voice ". Voices vary greatly, depending on the
nature of subject, the occasion, the psychological state
of the speaker, the reader, and so on.
The best and easiest way to notice and understand tone
in essays is to think of the essayists as people speaking
to you.
Francis Bacon "Of Studies"
When reading the essay, make sure you do the
following:
1- Read something about the life of the author
from
standard anthology or an encyclopedia.
2- Think about the title of the essay before you delve into
the reading.
Titles are the first thing you come across in a text, and
they are naturally chosen carefully to give the reader an
idea about the subject of the essay.

3- As you read, keep an eye on the major ideas, on the

examples given to illustrate these ideas, and on the
figurative language.
When approaching and essay you have to:
1- Determine the genre of the essay (the type of the
essay).
2- Talk about the title:
The choice the particular word "studies" is revealing in
many ways.
Studying is serious activity which implies many mental
processes and acts.
Of studies is an expository essay.
Thought
A careful reading of the essay reveals three main ideas:
1- The function of books: Bacon asserts that books have
three distinct functions:
A- Entertainment
B- Enrichment of one's linguistic ability.
C- Sharpening of one's mind.
2- It has to do with the different attitudes of people
toward books.
3- How to read books.
Bacon is concerned in "of studies" become inevitable.
One ought to think about why one reads a book and
how. Bacon's argument is both lucid and potent.
Some readers of the essay, however, feel that while
Bacon has spoken at length about the value and benefit
of reading books, he has not stressed enough the negative
effects of books on people and the potential danger.
Discuss?
Books can have two main negative effects:

1- When people memorize books and not think about

what they read.
2- This is an argument widespread in conservative and
moralist circles, stems from the belief that bad books
mislead, misguide and corrupt people.
Structure
1- The first thing to notice is that the whole essay is one
paragraph.
Bacon's interest is not so much the overall structure and
the systematic division of it, but in the development of
the idea as it comes to the mind.
The focus is more on the sentence than the paragraph and
this is called Organic Structure.
Organics may be applicable to poetry, drama and fiction,
but not to the essay.
2- Bacon's emphasis on what we called the thesis.
Style
Notices about the essays style:
The familiarity of the essay's language.
The essay language if very close to present-day
discourse.
The diction is modern.
There are some archaic words and some seventeenthcentury lingo.
Archaic and obsolete words and usages, and the Latin
expressions, do not constitute a real obstacle in front of
the modern reader.
The number of such words or expressions is limited.
Bacon's language is neither highly specialized nor
abstract and ambiguous. It is somewhere between.

His essays are carefully phrased and, succinct and

precise.
Simplicity and succinctness and precision, which can
also be attributed to Bacon's solid background in
science, are reflected at the sentence level.
Even though most of Bacon's sentences are long they
are composed of short phrases and clauses.
The punctuation marks are crucial here not only as
guidelines for the reader as to where to pause but also
as dividers of pieces of information and ideas which the
reader takes in piecemeal and not all at once.
Bacon's economic use of words and sentence structure.
There is hardly any repetition of words and phrases.
He does at times use a couple of synonyms for the same
word in the same cause or sentence.
The repetition is not lavishly and too frequently used.
And it can be easily justified on semantic and stylistic
grounds. Semantically, each synonym is often denotative
and connotative meaning from the other.
Systematically, these synonyms are necessary for certain
rhythmic effects.
Prose has characteristic rhythm of its own.
Bacon's prose is highly rhythmic.
The synonyms constructions are part and parcel of the
overall rhythm.
Rhythmically they serve many purposes:
1- They give the sentence a verse-like quality.
2- Slow down a bit the pace and speed of information
and words.
Bacon gives the reader highly dense and highly intense
clauses and sentences.
3- Relieve the reader mentally a bit and to make the
prose less monotonous.

The punctuation marks serve Bacon well when he omits

certain expressions. This stylistic strategy appears in
many sentences throughout the essay.
Another stylistic feature is the use of poetic devices. The
essay contains many such devices:
A- Alliteration: which is the repetition of certain
consonant sounds at the beginning of words within
the same clause or sentence.
B- The repetition of phrases or clauses of the same
length.
C- The use of figurative language (similes and
metaphors).
Voice
Bacon's tone throughout the essay is serious tone. He is
speaking to the reader formally and in a straightforward
manner.
There is no irony, no puns and no humor of any sort.
Jonathan Swift writes "A modest Proposal" he writes in
an angry, satirical, provocative and ironic manner.
What helps Bacon gain the constant attention of the
reader is the intelligent manner in which he deals with
the subject, the profound analysis, the extreme
confidence and belief in what he is saying, the beautiful
variety of sentence patterns, and the interesting
examples and metaphors.
Samuel Johnson "On
Sorrow"
When you read this essay you have to:
1- Read it carefully
2- Keep up the dictionary handy because there are many
words with which you may not be familiar.

3- Find something about the author's life and the

characteristics of the age in which he lived.
The eighteenth century is known as the age of
enlightment, reason, and neo-classicism.
The essay is both expository and argumentative, for
Johnson did his best to define and explain and then
convince the reader of his own sense of what sorrow is,
what causes it, and what should be done about it.
Thought
The essay is rich in ideas:
1- The difference between sorrow and the other human
passions or affections.
2- What sorrow is and what is not.
3- The anther's opinion of sorrow.
4- The solution which some people suggest and the
solution which the author offers.
Some think the best solution lies in preventing the
problem from happening.
"Do not love something so dearly so that the loss won't
bring sadness".
The author rejects this precautionary measure because it
is unrealistic and unwise to deprive people of initial joy
and happiness for the sake of preventing a bad
consequence.
People also have suggested two remedies for the
problem:
The first: Encouraging sad and dejects individuals or
forcing them. If necessary, to express joy.
The second: Diverting the attention of dejected people
by making them aware of the miseries of other fellow
human beings; such a diversion, they believe, helps

individuals forget their own misery or feel its weight

less heavily.
The author rejects these two suggestions and offers a
more effective one. The best way to help people who
experience sorrow is to involve them in fruitful work.
Two points needs to be noticed about the essay:
1- Johnson's argument is both plausible and persuasive.
2- His choice of the subject.
The eighteenth century does not emphasize private
feelings very much. The tendency in the Age of
Reason is to stress themes related to the person's
contribution to society and contribution to his own
social welfare. The ideal in the eighteenth century is a
person who serves society, who invents a machine or a
system that human beings can use, who gets involved in
social and political, who engages in profitable business.
To Johnson, sorrow is a problem which stands in the
way of a person's performance and contribution. Also he
is a moralist who believes that people must live their life
correctly and a pragmatist who believes that people
must contribute to the welfare of man.
Structure
"On sorrow" is a well organized essay.
The argument is very skillfully drawn.
The essay is composed of fourteen paragraphs of
which develops an idea which is connected directly to
the rest.
The introduction, embodied in the first and second
paragraphs, informs the reader about the difference
between the various types of affections and passions on
the one hand, and on sorrow on the other hand.

The body begins in the third paragraph with the

definition of sorrow, what it is and what it is not.
The fourth, fifth, and sixth paragraphs present the two
forms of sorrow or levels of sorrow, the acceptable and
the unacceptable.
From the seventh paragraph to the thirteen, Johnson
addresses the solutions which other people prescribe and
those which he himself prescribes.
The conclusion appears in the fourteenth paragraph, in
which the author briefly summarizes the argument.
Unity and Cohesion appear at the level of the essay as
a whole and also reflected at the paragraph level.
Each paragraph introduces one main idea and
develops it coherently and meticulously. Even though
the paragraphs tie in nicely with the argument of the
essay, each is autonomous.
The essay is divided into two parts:
The first: paragraphs 1-6, which presents the problem.
The second: paragraphs 7-13, which offers the
solution.
The most interesting structural feature of the essay
is the development of the argument through contrast.
Style
The first thing the reader notices about the essay is its
Difficulty that stems from a number of factors:
1- Johnson's use of erudite vocabulary which is a
vocabulary that can be understood only by highly
educated readers or by readers who will read it
several times and use the dictionary constantly.
2- The nature of the subject matter itself.
3- The length of the sentence.

Most of the sentences are extremely long type; and

most have compound, complex, or compound-complex
structure.
A short sentence is a line and half long.
The medium sentences are in the neighborhood of three
lines.
The rest of the sentences are of super length and are
highly complex and convoluted in structure.
4- Johnson uses the negative and double negative
frequently in his argument.
5- The allusive style: which is the reference to persons
and events outside text.
Illustration.
One: The reference to King Pyrrhus, who was the Greek
king of Epirus who won a battle against the Romans in
which his losses were heavy, appears in the first
paragraph.
Two: The story of the "stags of Crete "and" Aelian "
which appears in the second paragraph.
Three: The reference to the Christian concept of
"atonement" which is roughly defined as "The effect of
Jesus" suffering and death on redeeming mankind and
bringing about the reconciliation of God to man. And
this appears in the third paragraph.
Four: The reference to and quotation from the poems by
Grotius and F. Lewis, who is a Dutch scholar, poet,
jurist, and statesman that appears in the fourth paragraph.
Though his sentences are long, they are well-written
and well-balanced.
The allusions to figures and stories outside the text,
they certainly enrich the text and deepen the meaning of
its message.

Voice
Throughout the essay, Johnson speaks with a serious,
confident, scholarly, and assertive and at times
authoritive tone.
He speaks as an authority and expert.
He is confident and assertive, though he is often
cautious and careful.
The carefulness is also clear in the frequent use of but,
yet, though, and so on.
The striking balance between assertiveness and
cautiousness, confidence and carefulness makes
Johnson's essay sophisticated essay and makes his
voice believable.
Johnson is generally formal; he does not use the first
person pronoun I.
Erudite
Thomas De Quincey "On the Knocking at the gate
in Macbeth"
The essay is a comment on an important moment in
Macbeth.
The story of Macbeth:The hero of the play, Macbeth (a general in the army of
Duncan), and his wife, known as Lady Macbeth, upon
a prophecy of the three witches that Macbeth will
become king, plot to kill the king Duncan. They do, and
Macbeth does become king.
The moment that De Quincy is interested in is the
knocking at the gate which takes place immediately
after Macbeth and his wife murder Duncan, a knocking
which

comes at a dramatic moment and startles the two

murderers.
He is interested in interpreting the meaning of one
symbolic incident, the knocking at the gate.
The essay is an attempt to explore the meaning or
meanings symbolized by the knocking.
The essay can be generated to many types of essays
but the most suitable type for it is to be Speculative,
because it is attempting to introduce and idea which
very few readers are aware of and it is attempting to
suggest the importance of an event which readers or
spectators may not recognize as important at all.
Thought

The ideas in the essay:

1- The essayist's puzzlement over the effect of a certain
incident in Macbeth.
The first paragraph introduces the conflict between the
essayist feeling toward the murderers which he is
powerfully aware of and his powerlessness to explain
and comprehend the feeling.
De Quincey is a romantic author, romanticism
emphasizes feelings a great deal.
Romantics ask the individual to leave society and go
nature since it is related to the fact that in nature the
individual feels more freely and intensely than in society.
Through feelings the person achieves knowledge.
The romantics reject reason and analysis, which
eighteenth-century Neoclassicists and rationalists
consider the best way of deriving knowledge and
arriving at the truth.
2- The district of the faculty of understanding.

Comparison.
The Romantics divide the mind into several faculties.
Among these faculties are: memory, reason, intellect,
the understanding, intuition, imagination, the organic
faculty, and so on.
According to the Neoclassicists the faculty of reason
or the understanding is the most reliable faculty in the
mind; anything which the faculty of reason or the
understanding tells us is true we accept as the truth.
The Romantics believe that the understanding is one of
the lowest faculties of the mind.
There are times when we can rely on understanding.
But there are some other times when we cannot and
must not, for there are certain thrusts which can not be
revealed by the understanding or reason.
The understanding may explain very well the physical
and material world, but it cannot explain metaphysics.
And it is unable to explain deep feelings and hidden
truths.
3- Feelings are extremely reliable, and that they can be
understood, not through the faculty of reason or
understanding but through serious thinking and
contemplation.
4- Explaining the effect of the knocking.
5- Praising Shakespeare, and comparing the work of art
to nature itself.
Structure
The essay is well-organized.
The introductory: paragraph contains the main idea, the
feelings of the essayist when he hears the knocking and
his inability to explain it.

The body: the second, third and forth paragraphscontains the development of the theme.
The conclusion: fifth paragraph is about the richness of
art in general, a richness which mirrors that of nature.
The structure is built around a conflict and resolution of
the conflict.
The conflict is essentially between the heart and the
intellect, the understanding and intuition.
The structure can also be looked at in a dialectical terms.
Style
The essay reveals that it is generally free from archaic
or obsolete words.
The language of the romantics period is indeed very
close to twentieth century language.
There are many difficult, specialized or technical
words, such as "debut" which means appearance,
"soliloquies" which means when the characters address
themselves.
Allusive quality that adds complexity to the essay:
The first major allusion is the plot of Macbeth.
The essay refers also in the third paragraph to a murder
committed by a sailor named Williams, a reference in
paragraph four to another play written by Shakespeare,"
Measure for Measure", a reference in the same paragraph
to Milton's " Paradise Lost", and so on.
These allusions make it more challenging and appealing
to the reader.
The essay is equally interesting and rich in the manner
with which it deals with its subject.
It employs several generic features.
Other moments in the essay give the impression that the
essay is argumentative.

The use of many generic features in one essay

makes the essay rich and sophisticated.
The diction is rich and complex.
The ideas are sophisticated, the essay as a whole is not
very difficult to understand.
The argument is logical, lucid and persuasive.
The sentences are carefully phrased and skillfully
punctuated.
The essay is based on a combination of both short and
long sentences.
The excerpt is composed of very long sentences, then a
very short sentences, and then a relatively long
sentences.
The rhythmic effect created by such strategy is very
positive. There is no undesirable monotony and no
boredom.
Ping-pong style: a style of writing uses sentences of
more or less the same length.

.
And it is the same strategy Bacon's employed: since
both divide the long sentence into carefully punctuated
short phrases and clauses.
De Quincey is both using a grand and a simple style in
presenting his material, at the same time.
Voice
De Quincey uses both the formal and informal tone,
even though he uses the former more than the later.
He is being autobiographical and narrative in style at
some moments.
To be informal is to be closer to the reader.

He speaks with confidence and authority.

He is serious throughout.
There are no overtones of irony, cynicism, or
factiousness.

Factiousness:

Boredom
W. H. Auden

This essay is both an easy and difficult work to read.

The words are generally simple, and so is the structure; but t
The difficulty stems primarily from the fact that much of wha
He is generally skeptic.
The modernists and the post modernists are generally untrad
Reading is a revolutionary text in many ways.
As Auden himself is against classifying authors and their work
Auden's essay is essentially argumentative.

Thought
Why did Auden choose this subject?
1- His decision is quite pertinent.
2- The subject of reading is crucial in post-modernist
thought.
The main thesis in the essay is the relationship between
the reader on the one hand and the author or the work

itself on the other, and on the fact that the reader

determines the nature of the relationship.
Ideas in the essay:
1- Readers see in the in the text only what interests them,
what they think is important, or what they are capable of
seeing or understanding.
Intentional fallacy: the exaggerated interest in the
intention of the authors.
Auden is adopting this revolutionary position.
2- Why readers read literary works, the answer is simply
for pleasure.
Auden distinguishes between three types of pleasure:
a- That of the child.
b- That of the adolescent.
c- That of the adult.
3- Tense relationship between the reader as critic and the
author.
The reasons for Auden's annoyance with critics are:
1- They impose their own will on art and they are
not humble in their attitude.
2- Because of their prescriptive attitude toward art.
The true task of the critic according to Auden is to
introduce the reader to works which the reader does not
know, and help them understand and appreciate literary
works.
Structure
The essay is not structured in a traditional way.
There is no emphasis on paragraph unity and on overall
unity of thought and cohesion.
Post-modernism does not see plans, schemes, systems,
and strict principles of organization as a virtue in writing
or in art.

Many paragraphs are one or two sentences.

.
The ideas are not presented in three equal sections and
are not laid out in front of the reader systematically and
carefully.
The overall structure is immensely spontaneous, loose,
and liberal.
Immensely:
Spontaneous:
Modernists and Post-modernists rebelled against the
traditional structure, against evenness and
systematization.
Style
Auden is obviously writing in modern English and in
what one may call The Modern Style.
Words themselves are familiar to modern readers.
There are no difficult words.
The diction is simple and straightforward.
Auden employs short and medium sentences most of the
time.
There is no monotony in the rhythm and there is no
difficulty or confusion in the sentence structure.
The long sentences which he uses once in a while are
so carefully phrased and coherently structured that one
has little difficulty following the argument in them.
The argument in the essay is all that simple and
straightforward.

" Reading" like most modernist and Post-modernist

essays, is characterized by ambiguity.

Such ambiguity is considered a virtue, it also makes the

essay rich in meaning.
Ambiguity stems from :
1- The subject itself.
2- The abstract ideas that Auden asserts.
The whole argument is based on a series of
abstractions.
3- The fact that most of the assertions in the essay are
based on a reversal of what we generally know or take
to be true.
4- The explicit and implicit allusive style.
The most obvious are the two quotes at the beginning
of the essay and the series of allusions in the section
subtitled " Eden" .
We have an allusion to the " mixed origin " of English
language( known by only those who are familiar with the
history of English), to Baroque which is a style of
architecture, there are also implicit allusions to
psychological theories, sociological issues, and literary
approaches.
5- Level of ambiguity emerges from the figurative
language, some of which may be interpreted in a
multiplicity of ways and some may be extremely
difficult to interpret.
Voice
The essay is mixed tonality. at times Auden is speaking
formally, at other times he is speaking informally.
Auden is being scholarly, and he is speaking analytically
and objectively. At other moments, especially when he
becomes autobiographical, he is extremely informal.
The informal tone also appears in some of the metaphors
and similes that Auden uses.

The tone also shifts back and forth between extreme

assertion and extreme caution.
Auden also speaks with a confident voice, and though
he argues, quarrels, and prescribes most of the time, he
is believable.
Though he is often informal, he does speak with
confidence and a sense of authority.
Unite 2
Short Story
Types of short story
Fiction : narrative texts, written in verse or prose.
Some of the poems which we read do tell a story and in
this sense, there is a fictive or fictional elements in
them. The term fiction which we today use is almost
exclusively in connection with prose works.
Fiction is essentially narrative told in prose.
When we use the term, we are excluding historical
narratives or what we call non-fiction prose.
Historians are at times very subjective.
Fiction deals generally with what may happen, with that
which has the guise of reality but which is not actual or
real in the sense we generally use the term.
Fiction is not a faithful account or study of daily reality
but a representation or recreation of it.
Language of fiction is :more figurative, more suggestive,
more ambiguous, and more complex than the language of
historical and sociological, anthropological and scientific
texts.
The fiction writer seeks to tell the truth, but it is a
different type and level of truth.
Fiction also aims to convey ideas.

Fiction aims to present facts and truths about man and

society, but it does that implicitly and indirectly through
the setting, the characters, and the events.
Fiction varies in length. It can be parable, fable or short
story of one page or less, and it can be a novel or trilogy
of several thousand pages.
The Parable
A very short narrative, usually not more than a
paragraph, based on an analogy between the actual
details of the story it tells and the implicit lessons it
aims to illustrate.
The incidents in the parable are important, their
importance springs from the theme or idea they aim to
illustrate.
The parable revolves around one main incident. Its plot
is very simple, and it is usually told in a language which
the average reader or listener can understand. The story
is generally allegorical or symbolic and the meaning or
meanings suggested by it are obvious. Naturally it is
highly dedicated and moralistic.
The fable
A short story, usually longer than a parable, which aims
to exemplify a moral lesson, often stated explicitly at the
end.
The most famous fables are the beast fables in which the
major characters are animals such as Kalila Wa Dimnh.
The plot of the fable is more elaborate and complex than
that of the parable. There is more action at the physical
and mental level.
There are many characters.
The themes are rich.

The fable is allegorical or symbolic and

moralistic. The story embodied in the fable is
brief, it is rich. It is highly suggestive.
The tale
A short story, where you can find an obvious concern
with " telling " a story more than introducing settings,
characters, and events and letting them interact to
produce the overall effect.
The tales are generally classified into two types :
1- Tale of incident : the interest in it is in what happens,
in the events.
Fairy tale :tales of incidents are widespread.
2- Tale of character : it emphasis on the revelation of an
aspect of the state of mind, motivation, or quality of a
person.
The tale is less elaborate and complex in structure, style,
characterization, and theme than the short story, even
though it maybe longer and it is less symbolic,
allegorical and moralistic than the fable.
The Short Story
It is more interact and complex than the parable, the
fable, and the tale, But it is less so than the novel.
Its plot is more fully developed than the other forms of
the short story, but more simpler than that of the novel.
There is ample room in the short story for detailed
presentation of setting, character, complication, analysis,
point of view and event; but such room is less simple
than the available room in the novel.
Compared to the novella or novel, short story is more
economic and more limiting and limited.

It is shorter, and does not afford to go into an elaborate

treatment of character, situation, and theme. Usually
there is one main point which the story revolves and
one single plot. The novel, in contrast, there can be
several plots and sub-plots.
The short story is more modern and advanced as an art
form, and more popular today, than the parable, the fable
or the tale.
It is less explicitly didactic, less moralistic, and more
interesting in its presentation of point of view.
Its narrative technique is also more creative and subtle.
The Short Novel (Novella )
It is also called The Novelette or The Short Novel .
The novella lies in its complexity or simplicity of setting,
characterization, plot, event, conflict, and complication,
exactly in the middle between the short story and the
novel.
The novella shares all the aspects of the short story and
the novel but it differs in magnitude, it is more elaborate
and complex than the short story, and less so than the
novel.
It is a well known and very popular modern form.
Elements Of Fiction
1- Plot
It is defined as the structure of the action.
one must distinguish between the action in the story and
its plot :
the action of the story refers to what happens, the
events themselves, while the plot is the way the events
are recognized, built or structured to give a certain
effect.
The plot is how things happen.

Not all plots are structured in the same way.

In some fiction the plot is based on chronology: what
happens first, then what happens next, and so on.
In the more interesting and complex works of fiction, the
plot is not chronologically presented.
Some times we begin at the end of the protagonist's life
or story and then move backwards, sometimes in the
middle and then move forward and backward, and so
on.
2- Characters
We need to know the following about the characters :
1- Characters are either major or minor.
The major characters include : the protagonist : the
hero or heroine of the story, some also include antagonist
: the villain or the bad person.
Many of the major characters are often referred to as
round character.
Change is significant.
Most profound characters change.
Flat characters : characters who often remain as they
are from the beginning to the end, who stand for one
position, and who are always predictable in what they
say or do.
2- Characters generally stand for ideas.
They are generally part of the plot and they signify,
through their actions and words, certain ideas.
Characters are generally symbolic.
Ex. Captain Ahab in Moby-Dick , stands for rebellion,
tyranny, blasphemy, suicidal determination.
A character is physical appearance, a heart, and a mind.
Characters who have distinct, well-defined facial
features, are most likely to be assertive, open and
courageous. Those who have a long nose, a long, thin

face and dark eyes are most likely cunning, conniving,

and villains.
Those who are fat and bald are either innocent, kindhearted, and loving or greedy and ugly.
Appearance can be deceptive. A character who is
physically strong may be morally weak, who is
physically ugly may be sweet, and who is tiny and little
may be dangerous.
At times, the names of the characters are revealing.
EX. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's " Young Goodman
Brown ", the wife is named Faith, her name is
allegorical because " Faith " is not much Goodman
Brown's wife, but his Faith.
Goodman Brown, is revealing. His first name implies
his goodness, innocence and naivete; his last name
implies the mixed ground between goodness and evil-Brown is mixed color.
In Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, the Heroine's
husband is named Chillingworth; her lover is named
Dimmesdale. The two names are highly suggestive : The
former(chillingworth), implies coldness and hardheartedness, while The later( Dimmesdale) implies
meekness, weakness, waste and decay, but it also implies
depth and secrecy.
Setting
The local or physical location within the context of
which the action takes place.
The characters are traveling on a ship across the Atlantic
Ocean, they are likely to experience danger.
If a hero is climbing a hill, we know hill symbolizes
difficulty and challenge.
A desert stands for danger.

The shore symbolizes for safety.

Flat areas symbolizes for slowness of life and boredom.
Spring stands for birth or hope.
Summer represents maturity or manhood.
Autumn represents old age and decay.
Winter represents disease, death or hibernation.
Darkness stands for evil or death.
Morning stands for beginning of life.
Evening represents the approach of danger or death.
May represents immorality or optimism.
Some times there is a reversal of these symbols : Spring
may not bring hope or salvation with it.
November may not necessarily symbolize weakness,
evil, or old age.
Point Of View
It is the angle of vision which the story is told, or the
way the story is presented. In great part it refers to the
position of the narrator and the type of narrative the
author chooses to convey the story to the reader.
Point of view is roughly divided into two categories:
1- Third-person narrative :it is when the narrator uses he,
she or they in introducing other characters.
The third person narrator can be either all-knowing or
all-involved or partly-knowing and partly-involved. The
former is called omniscient narrator while the later is
called the limited-omniscient.
The omniscient narrator is the one who is telling us
about everyone and everything. He is external to the
action, but he knows everything about the situational and
about the characters and speaks with great confidence
and great authority.

The omniscient narrator is reliable in the information he

communicates and the judgment he makes.
He also knows no limits. He describes the characters
and events as an observer, and he can go inside the
minds of the various characters. He is not confined to
any particular character.
The omniscient narrator is generally not a character in
the story. He is close to what we take to be the author.
The limited-omniscient narrator is a narrator who
confines his perspective to one single character. He
sticks to this character, sees the world through her/his
eyes, and tells everything from the perspective of this
character. He is an insider and outsider to the single
character he sticks to, but he is an outsider to the rest.
2-The first-person narrator is also known as the Inarrator.
The mode here is autobiographical.
The I-narrator speaks essentially about himself.
Some first-person narrators focus on their own
experience almost exclusively, they refer to other
characters, but the main focus is on themselves.
Their story is primarily a bildungsroman which is a
story about growth and development.
Most I-narrators characters are major characters in the
story but some can be relatively minor, such as Nick in
The Great Gatsby and Marlow in Heart of Darkness.
The omniscient narrator is more reliable than the Inarrator.
The former(omniscient) knows more about everybody
and everything in the narrative, and he is speaking as a
knowing biographer or historian.
The I-narrator sees everything from his own perspective,
he cannot but be subjective, either biased or prejudiced.

The omniscient narrator may be unreliable in the sense

that he is ultimately selective.
Omniscient narrators are like biographers or historians
who choose to tell certain things and hide others.
The I-narrator is not totally unreliable, for who knows
one better than oneself?. We generally trust what the Inarrator say, but we should look carefully at why and
how they select and why and how they say certain
things about characters and certain things about
themselves.
5- Language Style
6- Theme
It is the lesson, the idea, or the moral which a story aims
to convey or communicate to the reader.
Points need to be stressed about the elements of the
theme :
1- There are in any literary work, many themes, not one.
E.X. Catherine Mansfield's story " Miss Brill ", is about
loneliness, about the sensitivity of the individual and the
insensitivity of the crowd, about man's cowardliness in
the modern world, about passivity, etc.
2- How one can find a theme.
There are many ways to do so :
1- The theme is stated explicitly.
2- In some stories the narrator states either at the
beginning, the middle, or the end of the story what it is
partly about.
3- Looking at the various details of the plot and come up
with a conclusion.
The best way to arrive to the multiplicity of themes in
the stories is to think about the ultimate meanings of all
the elements of the story, especially the setting, the
characters, and the events.

3- Not all readers agree on the same theme or themes.

4- The relationship between theme and motif.
Motif is sometimes as a form of theme. Generally a motif
is an element or type of incident or device which appears
very frequently in stories.
7- Tone
8- Imagery
9- Symbol

.

Discussion of Specific Short Stories
When discussing the following short stories we
should do the following :
1- Summarize the plot, highlighting the most significant
moments of tension, conflict, and correspondence, and
paying attention to the major shifts and relations within
it.
2- Think about the interesting similarities or differences
between events and happenings in the life of the author
and events happening in the story.
3- Think about the title.
Sherwood Anderson " Sophistication
" 1- Plot
Sophistication opens with a description of life in a small
American town, Winesburg, in Ohio.
The story then moves to focus on two characters. The
first is George Willard, and the second is Helen White.
2- Author
Two things are important for our purpose here :
1- The authors birth and stay for period of time in a small
town in Ohio.

2- His restlessness in his relation to his career.

3- Title
Linguistically " Sophistication " is the opposite of
simple, meaning either " Profound " or " Refined ".
Sophistication then is associated largely with growing
up; what distinguishing adulthood from childhood is
the awareness of the complexities of life, the anxiety
about one's role and contribution.
Sophistication has both negative and positive
implications : negative because the individual becomes
less secure, less happy and less carefree.
Positive because one becomes wiser, profounder, and
more experienced.
4- Setting
There are essentially four references to the setting
: 1- At the opening of the story.
2- A little later, in the ninth paragraph, in connection
with George's and Helen's first serious encounter.
3- The contrast of the rural, simple Winesburg and the
urban, sophisticated world beyond it.
The Midwest is less known and important than the east,
where most ambitious American go to seek economic
and educational opportunities.
4- The hill which George and Helen climb and descent
that night. It symbolizes the lofty status they have
achieved in their attempt to seek what they really
want. Symbols :
Evening : signifies the approach of darkness or evil.
Autumn : is associated with getting old.
The brown leaves : symbolize a fall of some sort, death
or vulnerability and weakness.
Dust : signifies discomfort.

Evening also symbolizes their awareness of the dark

side of life.
The fall: symbolizes the fall of their spirit into the mode
of seriousness, anxiety and dejection.
The fallen leaves: symbolize their separation from their
family and eventual loneliness and vulnerability.
Dust: symbolizes their confusion and discomfort.
Summer: symbolizes their maturity; they are no longer in
the spring of life.
The country setting and the young corn: represents their
youthfulness, innocence and simplicity.
The juxtaposition of summer stands for adulthood.
Country and young corn: stands for childhood.
Mountain : foreshadows their future rise in the world and
desire to amount to something in the world.
5- Point Of View
Clearly, the narrator is omniscient.
The characters themselves speak very little.
The narrator is both truthful in depicting what each
feels, as well as reliable.
He is extremely assertive, lucid, and persuasive in his
presentation of the story.
6- Characters
The first major character is George Willard. The
protagonist. Several things can be said about him :
1- He is growing up.
2- George is also serious, ambitious, and distinguishing
in many ways.
Determined to pursue his dreams and realize his
aspiration. He depends on himself to achieve all of this.

He is self-reliant. He is sincere in his feelings toward

Helen.
He is also courage.
George stands for the ambitious , exception, sincere and
sensitive young man who is trying to balance passion
and reason, dream and reality, love and responsibility.
Willard implies strength of will and perseverance.
George has many positive connotation :
One remembers the many English kings name George,
and also remembers George Washington.
nd
The 2 character is Helen White :
She is very similar to George in many ways.
She is going through transition.
She is ambitious, intelligent, and she has substance.
She is childish to some extent and she cares about her
image in public.
She is mature enough and profound enough to reject the
instructor because he is pompous and shallow, this shows
that she her independence of mind, self-reliance, and
courage.
Her first name is rich in associations, it is reminding of
Helen of Troy. Her last name White signifies her purity,
innocence, and good nature.
rd
The 3 character-minor but important- the college
instructor.
He is young, well dressed, and presumably good looking.
Negative things about the instructor :
1Even though he is originally from small town, he thinks
of himself as a city person and looks down on town
people as inferior and provincial.
The instructor is somewhat pompous, unoriginal,
insincere, and fake.

2- He seems to know nothing beyond his own field of

study.
Pedant person : a narrow-minded person who looks
issues from a very limited and limiting angle.
3- Because of complacency, patronizing attitude,
insensitivity, and narrow mindedness he fails to attract
Helen.
4- His failure to value Helen and appreciate her except as a
commodity, when she shows interest in him in front of
the young men and women of the town and he thinks
she is attracted to him.
He thinks of marring her because her father is a banker
and because a scholar like himself should have money.
th
The 4 character is the mother :
She is common, typical, and undistinguished.
She is mainly interested in marrying her daughter to
someone from outside Winesburg.
She is hypocritical, shallow, and interested in
appearance.
She also seems to have an inferiority complex.
There are other characters to whom the text
alludes.
These characters are minor such as Seth Richmond( the
boy George thought Helen would marry), Westley
Moyer( the town horseman who won the race), the
clerks, the villagers, and so on.
7- Style
Generally, the story is written in simple language.
Most words are easily understood.
The first paragraph is typical, both in terms of the diction
used and the ideas.
There are, however, moments when the language
becomes more difficult and abstract.

Whenever the narrator describes George's and Helen's

anxieties and confusion, the language becomes less easy
to grasp and the ideas less easy to pin-down.
The author uses a mixture of short, medium, and long
sentences.
Most of his sentences are either short or medium; the
long sentences are relatively few.
Anderson masters the rhythm of the paragraph.
He avoids monotony in narration.
The narrator also uses metaphors to clarify some of the
more abstract concepts.
The metaphor in the expression " a door is torn open"
and a simile is in " as though they marched " . both make
concrete and lucid an idea which is somewhat too
abstract and philosophical to grasp.
The tone of the narrator is also interesting.
Most of the time, he is straightforward.
There are times when he is being ironic and satirical.
The irony lies in the fact that if one is to amuse one's
self, one has to take it easy and not exhaust one's self.
The satire is obvious in his implied criticism of the town
working so hard and terribly to please itself.
The story is built, stylistically, on description, narration,
analysis, and little dialogue.
The characters speak very little.
8-Structure
The structure of the story is built around a major
analogy and a series of contrasts.
The analogy is between the lives of the two
protagonists, George and Helen.
Both are sensitive, kind, intelligent, serious,
unpretentious, courageous, etc.

But both are going through an uncomfortable period of

change.
Both are trying desperately, but also cheerfully as
possible to understand what is happening to them and
what stand they have to take.
The contrasts in the story are :
1- Between George's and Helen's feelings of insecurity,
uncertainty, loneliness and (some) unhappiness on the
hand, and society's celebrative mood during and after the
fair, on the other.
2- Between the deep-spontaneous, pure, instinctive,
emotional, and intelligent-attraction George and Helen
feel for each other, and the shallow, essentially social,
connection Helen's mother wants her daughter to make
with the instructor.
3- Between the present life of a small Midwestern town
and the future life of a bigger, more promising city.
The story is free, flexible, and shifting movement of the
narrator in space and time.
The structure is also based on a conflict and a resolution
of it.
The conflict works on two levels :
1- George's and Helen's initial separation from each
other.
2- The psychological, intellectual, and philosophic level.
The resolution also woks at two levels :
1- When, due to(because of) their courage and
determination, George and Helen are able to meet.
2- When they both finally understand what they have
been " experiencing ".
The story ends on a positive note.
9- Theme

1- The title of the story and its analysis.

2- Innocence and experience.
Innocence is generally defined as the state of
indifference, it is when the individual has a very positive
outlook and is either unaware of responsibility, duty, and
the distribution elements of daily life and existence or is
aware but takes them lightly.
George and Helen are struggling, in the story, to
understand the implication of becoming experienced.
Several other themes can be stated briefly here :
a- The story is about maturing.
b- About growing up.
c- About the pleasure and pain of transition and change.
d-About the determination to follow one's own heart.
e- About the challenge of self-assertion.
f- About the challenge of wanting to achieve.
g- About the secret of deep attraction, and so on.
James Joyce "
Araby" 1- Plot
The story is about a boy's disappointment. Most of the
events are told chronology.
.
2- The author
James Joyce was born in Dublin. In his childhood he
moved from one house into another, each less
genteel and more shabby than the other.
He was brought up Catholic. He was religious in his
early years, but he rejected Catholicism during his last
years at collage.
He left Dublin for Paris and lived in poverty.
He came back for death of his mother.

Even though he spent most of his life abroad, Dublin

occupied most of his thoughts.
Several things are important in Joyce's life :
1- The houses are shabby houses in which he lived his
life as child.
2- Joyce's poverty.
3- Title
" Araby " refers literally to an oriental bazaar, containing
a variety of materials from the East, which usually
organized for a charitable cause, and it usually lasts for
week or so.
Not the bazaar contains exotic objects of all kinds but a
visit to is an experience in itself.
The bazaar is also symbolic.
" Araby " brings to the mind the exotic world of Arabia
and the East. To many westerns, Arabia, specially, and
the orient, more generally, stand for romantic world, a
world which is glamorous, grand, etc.
At the end of the story, the bazaar becomes as
disappointing, unfulfilling, and unglamorous as the
boy's dirty, muddy neighborhood.
4- Setting
The interesting thing about this story is that the setting is
neither mentioned in passing reference nor stated simply
an briefly at the beginning of the story.
The references to the setting in the story :
1- North Richmond street, where most of the action takes
place. Joyce describes the street as "blind" and "quiet " ,
the two adjectives are negative, and they foreshadow
many of the disappointing events which follow. "Blind "
foreshadows the advent of darkness and disillusionment,

and the absence of light and hope; "quiet " signifies the
absence of excitement and fulfilling action.
The "uninhabited " house which is " detached " reminds
us of the narrator's own loneliness.
The " other " houses which gaze at each other with "
imperturbable "(unexcited, impassive) faces stand for
the unsupportive, cold relationship among the people in
general as well as the lukewarm, unfulfilling
relationship between the narrator and the girl he loves.
2- A series of quick references. The first the " back
drawing room" where the priest has died, to the " musty
" air which fills all the rooms, and to the " waste room"
which is "littered with old useless papers. These all are
symbols of neglect, waste, decay, deadness and death.
There is also the reference to a " wild garden behind the
house " containing " central apple-tree and a few
straggling bushes " under one of which the narrator
finds a " rusty bicycle-pump ", and these symbolize
breathing space, growth, life, and beauty.
The story takes place in winter, winter itself is generally
is a negative season.
3- The market. " the most hostile place to romance". It is
full of " flaring " streets, " drunken " men, and
"bargaining" women.
4- Araby.
Most of the events takes place at night.
Light represents hope.
The moments of beauty and hope in the life of the
narrator are quite marginal compared to moments of
anxiety, frustration, disappointment and failure.
5- Point of View

The narrative in the story is first-person. A boy is telling

his own story.
He must be in his early or mid-teens, judging from the
fact that he plays with the peers under street lights and
in muddy alleys and from the fact that he has begun to
be attracted to the other sex (mangan`s sister).
The story is told exclusively from his own point of view.
We look at it through the eyes of the boy.
"Araby " is autobiographical.
The events in the story, thoughts, and feelings are
experienced by the boy as a boy, but they are told or
narrated by the boy as an adult and point of view or
strategy us called combined or mixed point of view.
*

.
In "Araby", the language used, the analysis, and the
description employed in the story are those of an adult
narrator.
What we have then is perspective which is both
adolescent and adult at the same time.
The other indication of this combined perspective is the
use of " was " in the first sentence indicates that the boy
as an adult if speaking about his experience as a boy.
The narrator is not judgmental and this is a sign of
modernist literature generally.
6- Characters
The main character in the story is the narrator himself.
Things to be noticed about him :
1- He is nameless. Among the reasons why he is not named
in the story is that the boy is not assertive, he fails to
make himself recognized, and also a reflection of his
invisibility.

2- His age.
He is young, he is probably in his early teens.
Young people are generally inexperienced and largely
innocent, and so is the narrator.
The boy is also shy, whenever he meets mangan`s sister
he does not know exactly what to say to her.
3- The narrator is kind-hearted, sensitive, and well
meaning.
4- There is no indication in the story that he does harm to
anybody.
The narrator does not complain.
5- His most apparent characteristic is his loneliness and
isolation.
The dark atmosphere in the story is to a great extent
symbolic of his loneliness and isolation.
6- The narrator in the story is anti-hero.
He has sense of determination.
7- The narrator is passive, timid, weak, and unassertive,
and this makes him and anti-hero.
nd
The 2 important character is Mangan`s sister.
She is not named.
She is nice, attractive, and courteous.
Her courteousness appears clearly when she speaks to
the narrator.
She is romantic.
She is obedient and respectful.
rd
The 3 character is the narrator's uncle.
We don't know how he looks, he is also unnamed . Most
references about him are negative, and appears in :
1- when the narrator tells us that when the kids who play
in the street sees him, they hide until he disappears.
2- when the narrator reminds him of his intention to go to
the bazaar.

3- he is unloving, unfriendly and somewhat hostile.

4- when he comes late to the dinner even though he has
been told that the narrator wants to go to the bazaar. This
is somewhat careless and irresponsible. ***We must
emphasize that the uncle is not necessarily a villainous or
an evil person, he does take care of the narrator, he
apologizes for forgetting his promise to the narrator to
come early, he does let him go to the bazaar, and he does
give him the money he needs.
th
The 4 character is the aunt. She abuses him, she gossip
about people, she is unromantic and somewhat ignorant,
she appears to be kind to the narrator, sympathetic, and
loving.
There are references to other characters in the story :
1- The priest, he was described as kind and charitable.
2-Mrs. Mercer; a widow who collects stamps for "pious"
purpose, she does not like to stay late at night for fear of
bad effect on her health.
3-The unfriendly young lady at the bazaar who stands
talking flirtingly to a couple of young men.
7- Style
The diction employed in the story is generally simple.
This is deliberate on the part of Joyce because the story
is a boy's story.
The sentence structure is simple, it is composed of either
short sentences or short phrases.
Every thought or image that comes to the mind of the
narrator or every act is embodied either in a sentence or a
part of it.
Not all the words are simple, for example : freemason
means the Masonic order in the mid section.
Florin which is a two chilling coin.

There is also some allusions in the story that appear in :

1- The books by Sir Walter Scott(an English romantic
novelist), The Abbot, by the Franciscan Friar, Pacifius
Baker, The Devout Communicant(a religious work), and
by the French police agent, soldier of fortune, and writer
Vidocq, The Memories of Vidocq.
2- references to come-all-you, signifying any popular
song beginning " come all you Irish " and another
reference to the " The Arab's Farewell to his steed ", a
sentimental poem by Caroline Norton.
3- O'Donovan Rossa is a reference to Jeremiah
O'Donovan, an Irish nationalist banished to the
United States for revolutionary activities.
Even though the text is explicit and straightforward in
general, there are moments when it is allusive and
suggestive.
4- the most significant allusion is embodied in the title
itself. Araby brings to the mind all kinds of
associations with Orient.
There is also symbolism in the story :
1- The symbolism of the setting.
2- The color symbolism.
Gray and black associated with the darkness of the dusk
and night, respectively, symbolize evil and failure.
White color represents a sharp contrast to blackness.
Violate symbolize disappointment and sorrow.
Feeble color symbolize the littleness and isolation of the
narrator in particular and man in general.
The narrator resorts at times to the use of figurative
language.
The tone of the of the narrator is series tone, there is no
direct irony of any sort. The boy is, too series, too
innocent, and too honest to use irony.

8- Structure
There are many ways to look to structure of the story
: 1-To view it as based on a series of peripheral but
important experience and one central experience. The
peripheral experiences, both personal and communal, are
infinite: there is first his boyish adventures in the evening
under the street lights. And secondly there is his
experience with the back drawing-room in which the
priest has died and in which he confesses his love of
Mangan`s sister to himself, and other experiences that
contribute to his wisdom and maturity.
The central and most important experience is his love of
Mangan`s sister.
2- To view it as a series of either unfulfilling or
disappointing experience culminating in a realization
of disillusionment.
His trip to the market with his aunt shows his fear of
society around him and his exaggerated sense of
detachment.
3- To look at the structure through seeing the narrator as
bouncing continually between hope and disappointment,
a promise and failure to fulfill it, or rise and fall.
The events in the story are arranged chronologically, in
the sequence they happen in time : the first, the second,
the third, etc.
There are two interesting things to notice :
1- The events are not so much mentioned or stated
highlighted and dramatized.
2- The structure is related to the adult narrator, who lives
in the present and is telling a story that happens in the
past.

The events are not so much external or historical

happening but psychological moments of emotional
intensity.
9- Meaning
Themes appear in the story :
1- The transition from innocence to experience. Some
refer to it as initiation.
Innocence is generally defined as unawareness or
ignorance of the negative or evil in life.
The negative events are :
A- The death of the priest.
B- The market experience.
2- Theme of love.
3- The littleness of modern man and his weakness vis-vis challenges.
4- The sensitivity of the individual in a ruthless society.
5- Unrequited love.
6-Lonileness and isolation.
7- Absence of faith.
Luigi Pirandello " War"
1-The Plot
The story is about a group of people(seven in all),
primarily parents, who ,meet in second-class carriage
abroad during the war(world war 1). It is dawn and the
carriage is stuffy and smoky.
2- The Author
Luigi Pirandello is an Italian author. He was born in
Cecily, and he was the son of a prosperous sulfur mine
owner in Cecily. He studied in Rome and Germany.

As a result of the flooding of his father's mine, he was

financially ruined and his wife had a nervous
breakdown which he develops into paranoia later.
Several things are important in Pirandello's life :
1- The financial misfortune from which he suffered.
2- The condition of his wife.
War is about people under trying or unfortunate
circumstances.
3- The fact that he witnessed the first world war and the
disasters it brought with it.
3- The Title
"War " evokes in the mind of the reader a negative
image, for wars generally are associated with suffering,
misfortune and death.
He interestingly chooses the effect of war on nonwarriors in this particular case, parents.
War is given prominence over everything else.
The story is not going to be about a protagonist but an
antagonist.
4-Setting
The setting in war is referred to briefly at the beginning
of the story.
The setting is both rich and interesting in many ways.
The station to which the night passengers have arrived is
a "small" station and this symbolizes the littleness and
insignificance of these people.
The fact they are "night" travelers signifies the evil
surrounding these characters.
Dawn stands for hope, except that when dawn comes
passenger find themselves in a "stuffy" and "smoky"
atmosphere- as if the author is telling us that dawn is

deceptive, for when morning comes, we find many of the

characters in "mourning".
The action throughout the entire story happens on board
of a train.
These passengers find two things in common :
1- They all suffer from the war.
2- Most of them are parents of sons deeply involved in
the war.
A journey on a train is symbolic of life as a journey, and
the image of what goes on in the second-class carriage is
an image of what goes on in society.
The other dimension of the setting which is referred to
briefly is the front war .
The front is symbolic of real danger, harm, and death.
5-Point of View
The narrator is obviously omniscient.
The narrator differs somewhat from other omniscient
narrators in the sense that he is an external narrator.
He is primarily descriptive.
The narrator in " War" describes the characters primarily
from the outside.
There are moments when he takes the reader inside the
husband and the mother, such moments are rare in the
story.
This particular omniscient narrator does not impose his
own knowledge on the narrative. He confines his role to
description and some analysis and lets the characters tell
their own story. This is an omniscient who knows his
limits.
6- Characters