Writing about Prose Fiction

Below are some questions and exercises to help you begin analyzing almost any work of prose fiction. Your analysis need not contain comments on every question and exercise below. Select a few items to help develop ideas for a detailed analysis of the work which you are studying. Plot 1. Who is the protagonist of the work? 2. What are the conflicts? Are they physical, intellectual, moral, emotional, intrapersonal, or interpersonal? Are the conflicts sharply differentiated between good and evil, or are they more subtle and complex? 3. Does the plot have unity? Are all of the events relevant to the total meaning or effect of the work? How does each event relate to and/or reinforce the work's theme? Does each incident grow logically out of the preceding incident and lead naturally to the next? 4. Is the ending happy, unhappy, or ambiguous? How is it achieved? Is it contrived or does it grow logically out of the preceding incidents? 5. How is suspense created in the work? Is the interest confined to "what will happen next," or are larger concerns involved? Find examples of mystery and/or dilemma. 6. Does the work have any surprises? Do they grow logically out of the preceding incidents? If not, are they related to the history of the character? Do they serve a significant purpose? Does the work sustain a consistent theme, or does plot and storyline shift and introduce a divergent theme? Characters 1. How does the author reveal traits of the characters? Does the author reveal enough? What use is made of contrasts between characters? 2. Are the characters consistent and motivated in their actions? Are they believable? Are they stock characters, used merely to serve a function in advancing plot, or do the character reveal complexity? Examples of stock characters are the embittered old maid, the beautiful, but tragic young heroine, the handsome, courageous hero. 3. Why is each character included in the work? Justify their role and relate their purpose to the work's theme. 4. Do any of the characters develop or change throughout the work? Is the change large, small, realistic, and/or motivated? Why did they change? Is this change central to the development of plot? 5. What distinguishes the protagonist from the secondary characters? 6. Do the names of people and places add to the development of character and/or plot in the story? If so, how?

1.214 Sterling C. Evans Library College Station, Texas 77843-5000 (979) 458-1455 voice (979) 458-1466 fax http://writingcenter.tamu.edu

Writing about Prose Fiction

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Theme (a central or underlying idea enforced by the work; There may be more than one theme in any given work.) 1. State the theme in a single sentence. Is it implied or frankly stated? 2. Does the theme reinforce or oppose popular notions of life? Does it provide a new insight or refresh and/or deepen an old one? Is the theme dogmatic or complex? 3. Are there secondary themes? 4. Is the theme manifested by a particular character? 5. Keeping in mind specific examples from the work, how does the author establish or reinforce the theme? Point of View 1. Which point of view is used: first person, second person, third person omniscient? Are shifts made from one type of point of view to another? If so, why? 2. What are the advantages of the chosen point of view? Does it provide any clues to the work's purpose? Does the author use it primarily to reveal or to conceal information? Does the author ever unfairly withhold important information know to the main character? 3. If the point of view is that of one of the characters, does this character have any limitations that affect his/her interpretation of events or others? Literary Devices 1. Does the work employ symbols? If so, do they carry or merely reinforce the theme of the work? 2. Does the work employ irony of situation, dramatic irony, and/or verbal irony? What functions do the ironies serve? 3. Does the work aim directly at an emotional effect and/or humor, or is emotion and/or humor merely its natural by-product? Is this good or bad? Is the work overly sentimental at times? When? 4. Does the work employ fantasy? If so, what is the reader asked to assume? Does the work operate logically from this assumption? Is fantasy employed to express some human truth or just for its own sake? If the former, what human truth does it express? 5. Is the work an allegory or myth? Do the characters represent general human characteristics? Does the work chronicle a development of the human psychological condition? General 1. Is the primary interest of the work in its plot, characters, theme, or some other element? 2. What contribution to the work is made by the setting? Is it essential, or could the story have happened anywhere? 3. What are the characteristics of the author's style? Look at the length of the sentences, the complexity of the vocabulary, the use of dialogue, the use of dialect. Is this style appropriate to the nature and/or theme of the work? 4. What light is thrown on the work by its title? Is it ironic? 5. Do all of the elements of the work function together to support a central purpose and theme? Is any part irrelevant or inappropriate? Why did the author include this part? 6. What is the work's central purpose? How fully did it achieve its purpose? How significant is it?

1.214 Sterling C. Evans Library College Station, Texas 77843-5000 (979) 458-1455 voice (979) 458-1466 fax http://writingcenter.tamu.edu