Reading for Pleasure: американские и британские рассказы ХХ-ХХI вв. (на английском языке) : учебно-методическое пособие

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Министерство науки и высшего образования Российской Федерации Сибирский федеральный университет

READING FOR PLEASURE: АМЕРИКАНСКИЕ И БРИТАНСКИЕ РАССКАЗЫ ХХ-ХХI ВВ. (НА АНГЛИЙСКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ)

Учебно-методическое пособие

Электронное издание

Красноярск СФУ 2021

УДК 82-32=111(07) ББК 83.3(0)я73 R30 Составители: Мучкина Екатерина Сергеевна Кузнецова Нелли Олеговна Щербакова Марина Владимировна Бобихова Любовь Сергеевна Рецензенты: М. А. Битнер, кандидат филологических наук, доцент, зав. кафедрой английского языка ФГБОУ ВО «Красноярский государственный педагогический университет им. В. П. Астафьева»; Ю. Ю. Лушников, канд. пед. наук, доцент цикла лингвистического и информационного обеспечения Военного учебного центра ФГАОУ ВО «Сибирский федеральный университет». R30 Reading for Pleasure: американские и британские рассказы ХХ-ХХI вв. (на английском языке) : учеб.-метод. пособие / сост.: Е. С. Мучкина, Н. О. Кузнецова, М. В. Щербакова, Л. С. Бобихова. (1,3 Мб). – Красноярск : Сиб. федер. ун-т, 2021. – Систем. требования: PC не ниже класса Pentium I ; 128 Mb RAM ; Windows 98/XP/7 ; Adobe Reader V8.0 и выше. – Загл. с экрана. Подготовлено на кафедре теории германских языков и межкультурной коммуникации Института филологии и языковой коммуникации Сибирского федерального университета. Предназначено для занятий по домашнему чтению со студентами 4-го курса отделения иностранных языков. Состоит из серии заданий и упражнений к рассказам, написанных современными британскими и американскими авторами XX-XXI вв. Различные виды упражнений, включенные в пособие, направлены на пополнение словарного запаса обучающихся, их творческих и аналитических способностей, а также на развитие устной и письменной речи. УДК 82-32=111(07) ББК 83.3(0)я73 © Сибирский федеральный университет, 2021 Электронное учебное издание Подготовлено к публикации издательством Библиотечно-издательского комплекса Подписано в свет 29.01.2021. Заказ №12461 Тиражируется на машиночитаемых носителях Библиотечно-издательский комплекс Сибирского федерального университета 660041, г. Красноярск, пр. Свободный, 82а Тел. (391)206-26-16; http://rio.sfu-kras.ru E-mail: [email protected]

CONTENTS Introduction ........................................................................................................... 4 Readers and Reading ............................................................................................ 5 Short Story Analysis ........................................................................................... 13 Writing about subjects, themes and ideas .......................................................... 18 Premium Harmony ............................................................................................. 25 Big Mommy ....................................................................................................... 29 Winter Break ...................................................................................................... 34 Younger Women ................................................................................................ 40 The Human Phonograph ..................................................................................... 43 Last Season's Man .............................................................................................. 48 Appendix A. Useful language for text analysis and interpretation ..................... 52 Appendix B. Glossary of Literary Terms ............................................................ 54 Bibliography ........................................................................................................ 62

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INTRODUCTION It is well acknowledged that there various types of reading as well as different types of readers who pursue specific goals. First and foremost, people read for information. This is how we read textbooks, newspapers, encyclopedias, etc. We do not concentrate our attention on how the text is written. Rather, we focus on facts such as dates, events, names, etc. Secondly, there is reading for pleasure, also referred to as independent, leisure or recreational reading, which can be defined as reading that we do of our own free will, anticipating the satisfaction we will get from the act of reading. Aside from the sheer joy of exercising the imagination, reading for pleasure improves literacy and social skills. It also gives people access to culture and heritage and empowers them to become active citizens, who can contribute to economic and social development. In an academic environment reading for pleasure contributes to students' better learning outcomes in terms of vocabulary, grammar, and spelling. It also has a positive impact on students' cognitive competencies. Reading for pleasure is a collection of exercises to accompany a few short stories by contemporary British and American writers. Before each set of exercises to a story there is a biographical note on the author. Discussion activities that follow are questions on the stories story's theme and characters, designed to stimulate class discussion or to encourage the individual reader to think about the story from different points of view. Language-focus activities direct the student's attention to particular features of language use or style; others focus on specific meanings and their significance in the story. The book is addressed to students of 2–4 year of study at the Linguistics Department, School of Philology and Language Communication, Siberian Federal University. It could also be of great importance for all learners of English at upper-intermediate and advanced levels (CERF). The book can be used for self-study or for class activities.

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READERS AND READING Task 1. Work with your partner. Answer the following questions. 1. What is reading? What is special about the skill? 2. What kind of book do you tend to avoid? 3. How do you decide what to read next? Are you influenced if a book has won the prize? 4. Do you always read to the end of a book once you have started? 5. Do you like being read to? 6. Do you have lots of books on the go at once? 7. Do you read in long chunks or snatched moments? 8. Does your reading change through the year, summer afternoons, winter evenings, going on holidays? 9. What is the most likely to irritate you in a read? 10. Do you read the latest thing to keep up? Give an example? 11. Do you look for familiar or new flavours? 12. Do you ever read short stories? What makes them special compared to novels? Task 2. Read the following article. What type of reader do you belong to? 13 Types of Readers Everyone Knows, Because we aren't All Alike Aside from a shared love of books, no two readers are alike. Some people stick to one genre while others spread the love; a lot of people are faithful to physical books but there are some who love e-readers; there are those who skim the books and others who underline their favorite quotes. The bottom line is, there are certain types of readers everyone knows. Readers come in all different shapes, sizes, and literary preferences, but here are the 13 kinds of readers that everybody knows. Which one are you? 1. Series Junkies. There are those readers who can't bear the idea of standalone novels, because they can only really get into reading when they have an entire series to dive into. They love binge reading, and their favorite bookish hobby is waiting at midnight release parties. When their favorite series ends, they're more likely to reread it then they are to pick up a book without at least one sequel. 2. Literary Snobs. Everyone knows that person who only reads "high brow literature." They'd rather pour over Proust translations than pick up a romantic paperback, or worse, a young adult novel – gasp. They're above that kind of reading. 3. The Polygamist Reader. You might have trouble keeping track of more than one story at once, but there is a certain type of reader who loves to juggle multiple books at once. Their nightstand is like your television queue – full of things you're part of the way through covering every kind of genre. 5

They like to keep things interesting, and multitasking is their most beloved trait. 4. The Habitual Book Clubber. Book clubs are a great way to find friends and great books all at once, but for some readers, they are a complete way of life. From picking out the books to discussing them to coming up with themed food to serve with them, these readers love everything about book clubs. Chances are, they're members of more than once group, and they're always trying to convince their friends, family members, and coworkers to start another group of their own. 5. The Partial Reader. Try as they might, there are just some readers who are incapable of finishing what they started. No matter how invested they are in the beginning, they eventually lose interest, get distracted, or simply move on to the next book. The problem is, they never get to the end of a book. Needless to say, it isn't the best strategy for school reading. 6. The Re-Readers. While some people are thrilled at the prospect of a new book, for others, nothing could be worse than leaving their reading comfort zone for the unknown. These are the re-readers, the people who like what they know and would rather re-read Harry Potter for the umpteenth time than dare visit the "New Releases" section of Amazon. And the idea of trying out a new author? Forget it. 7. The Physical Book Loyalists. Many types of readers say they prefer physical books over e-books and audio books, but there's a group of readers who live and die by printed and bound books, refusing to even call a book in any other form by the word "book." Call them old-fashioned, but for them, there's just something about the feeling of cloth and the smell of paper that make reading a "real" book that much better. 8. The Spoiler Lover. Just like Billy Crystal's character in When Harry Met Sally, there is an entire legion of spoiler addicted readers who always flip to the end of the book before diving into the beginning. These readers don't like surprises, and they make sure that they know exactly what's going to come at the end. 9. Nonfiction Lovers. All readers love getting lost in a good book, but some people prefer the stories grounded in facts. They love reading something that will teach them something, whether it be a historical book, a biography, or a collection of essays. They know that real life is more interesting than fiction. 10. Fiction Fanatics. On the other side of the aisle are the fiction fans, the readers who are in it for the imagination, make believe, and fictional characters. They didn't know why people read nonfiction, because to them, the real stories are the ones invented in the minds of great fiction authors. 11. Adult YA Addicts. Haters are going to hate, but adults who like young adult books are going to read YA books no matter what people think. They don't care if young adult isn't "for them." They enjoy the stories, and that is all that matters to them. 6

12. The Movie Adaptation Lover. Most readers will say that book are always better than their adaptations, but there are some readers who like seeing the movie before reading the original book. Whether they like picturing the actors when they read or just prefer watching surprises unfold over reading about them, movie watchers make their reading lists based on film releases, not the other way around like other readers do. 13. The Emotional Reader. Most readers experience a stirring of emotions when they read, but some of them truly feel all the feels. They get giddy when characters fall in love, and it isn't beneath them to fall into a funk when a favorite character dies. They're emotional readers, meaning they feel everything, so before asking them to hang out, check what they just finished reading. You don't want to spend an entire Friday night wiping their tears over a fallen fictional character... or do you? Task 3. Why read? Scan the edited version of Neil Gaiman's lecture and summarise the key ideas. Neil Gaiman: Why our Future Depends on Libraries, Reading and Daydreaming It's important for people to tell you what side they are on and why, and whether they might be biased. A declaration of members' interests, of a sort. So, I am going to be talking to you about reading. I'm going to tell you that libraries are important. I'm going to suggest that reading fiction, that reading for pleasure, is one of the most important things one can do. I'm going to make an impassioned plea for people to understand what libraries and librarians are, and to preserve both of these things. […] I was once in New York, and I listened to a talk about the building of private prisons – a huge growth industry in America. The prison industry needs to plan its future growth – how many cells are they going to need? How many prisoners are there going to be, 15 years from now? And they found they could predict it very easily, using a pretty simple algorithm, based on asking what percentage of 10 and 11-year-olds couldn't read. And certainly couldn't read for pleasure. It's not one to one: you can't say that a literate society has no criminality. But there are very real correlations. And I think some of those correlations, the simplest, come from something very simple. Literate people read fiction. Fiction has two uses. Firstly, it's a gateway drug to reading. The drive to know what happens next, to want to turn the page, the need to keep going, even if it's hard, because someone's in trouble and you have to know how it's all going to end … that's a very real drive. And it forces you to learn new words, to think new thoughts, to keep going. To discover that reading per se is pleasurable. Once you learn that, you're on the road to reading everything. And reading is key. There were noises made briefly, a few years ago, about the 7

idea that we were living in a post-literate world, in which the ability to make sense out of written words was somehow redundant, but those days are gone: words are more important than they ever were: we navigate the world with words, and as the world slips onto the web, we need to follow, to communicate and to comprehend what we are reading. People who cannot understand each other cannot exchange ideas, cannot communicate, and translation programs only go so far. The simplest way to make sure that we raise literate children is to teach them to read, and to show them that reading is a pleasurable activity. And that means, at its simplest, finding books that they enjoy, giving them access to those books, and letting them read them. I don't think there is such a thing as a bad book for children. Every now and again it becomes fashionable among some adults to point at a subset of children's books, a genre, perhaps, or an author, and to declare them bad books, books that children should be stopped from reading. I've seen it happen over and over; Enid Blyton was declared a bad author, so was RL Stine, so were dozens of others. Comics have been decried as fostering illiteracy. It's tosh. It's snobbery and it's foolishness. There are no bad authors for children that children like and want to read and seek out, because every child is different. They can find the stories they need to, and they bring themselves to stories. A hackneyed, worn-out idea isn't hackneyed and worn out to them. This is the first time the child has encountered it. Do not discourage children from reading because you feel they are reading the wrong thing. Fiction you do not like is a route to other books you may prefer. And not everyone has the same taste as you. […] We need our children to get onto the reading ladder: anything that they enjoy reading will move them up, rung by rung, into literacy. (Also, do not do what this author did when his 11-year-old daughter was into RL Stine, which is to go and get a copy of Stephen King's Carrie, saying if you liked those you'll love this! Holly read nothing but safe stories of settlers on prairies for the rest of her teenage years, and still glares at me when Stephen King's name is mentioned.) And the second thing fiction does is to build empathy. When you watch TV or see a film, you are looking at things happening to other people. Prose fiction is something you build up from 26 letters and a handful of punctuation marks, and you, and you alone, using your imagination, create a world and people it and look out through other eyes. You get to feel things, visit places and worlds you would never otherwise know. You learn that everyone else out there is a me, as well. You're being someone else, and when you return to your own world, you're going to be slightly changed. […]

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I was in China in 2007, at the first party-approved science fiction and fantasy convention in Chinese history. And at one point I took a top official aside and asked him Why? SF had been disapproved of for a long time. What had changed? It's simple, he told me. The Chinese were brilliant at making things if other people brought them the plans. But they did not innovate and they did not invent. They did not imagine. So they sent a delegation to the US, to Apple, to Microsoft, to Google, and they asked the people there who were inventing the future about themselves. And they found that all of them had read science fiction when they were boys or girls. Fiction can show you a different world. It can take you somewhere you've never been. Once you've visited other worlds, like those who ate fairy fruit, you can never be entirely content with the world that you grew up in. Discontent is a good thing: discontented people can modify and improve their worlds, leave them better, leave them different. And while we're on the subject, I'd like to say a few words about escapism. I hear the term bandied about as if it's a bad thing. As if “escapist” fiction is a cheap opiate used by the muddled and the foolish and the deluded, and the only fiction that is worthy, for adults or for children, is mimetic fiction, mirroring the worst of the world the reader finds herself in. If you were trapped in an impossible situation, in an unpleasant place, with people who meant you ill, and someone offered you a temporary escape, why wouldn't you take it? And escapist fiction is just that: fiction that opens a door, shows the sunlight outside, gives you a place to go where you are in control, are with people you want to be with (and books are real places, make no mistake about that); and more importantly, during your escape, books can also give you knowledge about the world and your predicament, give you weapons, give you armour: real things you can take back into your prison. Skills and knowledge and tools you can use to escape for real. […] Another way to destroy a child's love of reading, of course, is to make sure there are no books of any kind around. And to give them nowhere to read those books. I was lucky. I had an excellent local library growing up. I had the kind of parents who could be persuaded to drop me off in the library on their way to work in summer holidays, and the kind of librarians who did not mind a small, unaccompanied boy heading back into the children's library every morning and working his way through the card catalogue, looking for books with ghosts or magic or rockets in them, looking for vampires or detectives or witches or wonders. And when I had finished reading the children's library I began on the adult books. They were good librarians. They liked books and they liked the books being read. They taught me how to order books from other libraries on interlibrary loans. They had no snobbery about anything I read. They just seemed to like that there was this wide-eyed little boy who loved to read, and would talk to me about the books I was reading, they would find me other books in a series, 9

they would help. They treated me as another reader – nothing less or more – which meant they treated me with respect. I was not used to being treated with respect as an eight-year-old. But libraries are about freedom. Freedom to read, freedom of ideas, freedom of communication. They are about education (which is not a process that finishes the day we leave school or university), about entertainment, about making safe spaces, and about access to information. I worry that here in the 21st century people misunderstand what libraries are and the purpose of them. If you perceive a library as a shelf of books, it may seem antiquated or outdated in a world in which most, but not all, books in print exist digitally. But that is to miss the point fundamentally. I think it has to do with nature of information. Information has value, and the right information has enormous value. For all of human history, we have lived in a time of information scarcity, and having the needed information was always important, and always worth something: when to plant crops, where to find things, maps and histories and stories – they were always good for a meal and company. Information was a valuable thing, and those who had it or could obtain it could charge for that service. In the last few years, we've moved from an information-scarce economy to one driven by an information glut. According to Eric Schmidt of Google, every two days now the human race creates as much information as we did from the dawn of civilisation until 2003. That's about five exobytes of data a day, for those of you keeping score. The challenge becomes, not finding that scarce plant growing in the desert, but finding a specific plant growing in a jungle. We are going to need help navigating that information to find the thing we actually need. Libraries are places that people go to for information. Books are only the tip of the information iceberg: they are there, and libraries can provide you freely and legally with books. More children are borrowing books from libraries than ever before – books of all kinds: paper and digital and audio. But libraries are also, for example, places that people, who may not have computers, who may not have internet connections, can go online without paying anything: hugely important when the way you find out about jobs, apply for jobs or apply for benefits is increasingly migrating exclusively online. Librarians can help these people navigate that world. I do not believe that all books will or should migrate onto screens: as Douglas Adams once pointed out to me, more than 20 years before the Kindle turned up, a physical book is like a shark. Sharks are old: there were sharks in the ocean before the dinosaurs. And the reason there are still sharks around is that sharks are better at being sharks than anything else is. Physical books are tough, hard to destroy, bath-resistant, solar-operated, feel good in your hand: they are good at being books, and there will always be a place for them. They belong in libraries, just as libraries have already become places you can go to get access to ebooks, and audiobooks and DVDs and web content. […] 10

Literacy is more important than ever it was, in this world of text and email, a world of written information. We need to read and write, we need global citizens who can read comfortably, comprehend what they are reading, understand nuance, and make themselves understood. Libraries really are the gates to the future. So it is unfortunate that, round the world, we observe local authorities seizing the opportunity to close libraries as an easy way to save money, without realising that they are stealing from the future to pay for today. They are closing the gates that should be open. […] Books are the way that we communicate with the dead. The way that we learn lessons from those who are no longer with us, that humanity has built on itself, progressed, made knowledge incremental rather than something that has to be relearned, over and over. There are tales that are older than most countries, tales that have long outlasted the cultures and the buildings in which they were first told. I think we have responsibilities to the future. Responsibilities and obligations to children, to the adults those children will become, to the world they will find themselves inhabiting. All of us – as readers, as writers, as citizens – have obligations. I thought I'd try and spell out some of these obligations here. I believe we have an obligation to read for pleasure, in private and in public places. If we read for pleasure, if others see us reading, then we learn, we exercise our imaginations. We show others that reading is a good thing. We have an obligation to support libraries. To use libraries, to encourage others to use libraries, to protest the closure of libraries. If you do not value libraries then you do not value information or culture or wisdom. You are silencing the voices of the past and you are damaging the future. We have an obligation to read aloud to our children. To read them things they enjoy. To read to them stories we are already tired of. To do the voices, to make it interesting, and not to stop reading to them just because they learn to read to themselves. Use reading-aloud time as bonding time, as time when no phones are being checked, when the distractions of the world are put aside. We have an obligation to use the language. To push ourselves: to find out what words mean and how to deploy them, to communicate clearly, to say what we mean. We must not to attempt to freeze language, or to pretend it is a dead thing that must be revered, but we should use it as a living thing, that flows, that borrows words, that allows meanings and pronunciations to change with time. We writers – and especially writers for children, but all writers – have an obligation to our readers: it's the obligation to write true things, especially important when we are creating tales of people who do not exist in places that never were – to understand that truth is not in what happens but what it tells us about who we are. Fiction is the lie that tells the truth, after all. We have an obligation not to bore our readers, but to make them need to turn the pages. One of the best cures for a reluctant reader, after all, is a tale they cannot stop themselves from reading. And while we must tell our readers true things and give them weapons and give them armour and pass on whatever wisdom we 11

have gleaned from our short stay on this green world, we have an obligation not to preach, not to lecture, not to force predigested morals and messages down our readers' throats like adult birds feeding their babies pre-masticated maggots; and we have an obligation never, ever, under any circumstances, to write anything for children that we would not want to read ourselves. We have an obligation to understand and to acknowledge that as writers for children we are doing important work, because if we mess it up and write dull books that turn children away from reading and from books, we 've lessened our own future and diminished theirs. We all – adults and children, writers and readers – have an obligation to daydream. We have an obligation to imagine. It is easy to pretend that nobody can change anything, that we are in a world in which society is huge and the individual is less than nothing: an atom in a wall, a grain of rice in a rice field. But the truth is, individuals change their world over and over, individuals make the future, and they do it by imagining that things can be different. Look around you: I mean it. Pause, for a moment and look around the room that you are in. I'm going to point out something so obvious that it tends to be forgotten. It's this: that everything you can see, including the walls, was, at some point, imagined. Someone decided it was easier to sit on a chair than on the ground and imagined the chair. Someone had to imagine a way that I could talk to you in London right now without us all getting rained on. This room and the things in it, and all the other things in this building, this city, exist because, over and over and over, people imagined things. We have an obligation to make things beautiful. Not to leave the world uglier than we found it, not to empty the oceans, not to leave our problems for the next generation. We have an obligation to clean up after ourselves, and not leave our children with a world we've shortsightedly messed up, shortchanged, and crippled. We have an obligation to tell our politicians what we want, to vote against politicians of whatever party who do not understand the value of reading in creating worthwhile citizens, who do not want to act to preserve and protect knowledge and encourage literacy. This is not a matter of party politics. This is a matter of common humanity. Albert Einstein was asked once how we could make our children intelligent. His reply was both simple and wise. "If you want your children to be intelligent," he said, "read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." He understood the value of reading, and of imagining. I hope we can give our children a world in which they will read, and be read to, and imagine, and understand.

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SHORT STORY ANALYSIS A short story is a work of short, narrative prose that is usually centered around one single event. It is limited in scope and has an introduction, body and conclusion. Although a short story has much in common with a novel (See How to Analyze a Novel), it is written with much greater precision. You will often be asked to write a literary analysis. An analysis of a short story requires basic knowledge of literary elements. The following guide and questions may help you: Setting Setting is a description of where and when the story takes place. In a short story there are fewer settings compared to a novel. The time is more limited. Ask yourself the following questions:  How is the setting created? Consider geography, weather, time of day, social conditions, etc.  What role does setting play in the story? Is it an important part of the plot or theme? Or is it just a backdrop against which the action takes place? Study the time period, which is also part of the setting, and ask yourself the following:  When was the story written?  Does it take place in the present, the past, or the future?  How does the time period affect the language, atmosphere or social circumstances of the short story? Characterization Characterization deals with how the characters in the story are described. In short stories there are usually fewer characters compared to a novel. They usually focus on one central character or protagonist. Ask yourself the following:  Who is the main character?  Are the main character and other characters described through dialogue – by the way they speak (dialect or slang for instance)?  Has the author described the characters by physical appearance, thoughts and feelings, and interaction (the way they act towards others)?  Are they static/flat characters who do not change?  Are they dynamic/round characters who DO change?  What type of characters are they? What qualities stand out? Are they stereotypes?  Are the characters believable? Plot and Structure The plot is the main sequence of events that make up the story. In short stories the plot is usually centered around one experience or significant moment. Consider the following questions:  What is the most important event? 13

 How is the plot structured? Is it linear, chronological or does it move around?  Is the plot believable? Narrator and Point of view The narrator is the person telling the story. Consider this question: Are the narrator and the main character the same? By point of view we mean from whose eyes the story is being told. Short stories tend to be told through one character's point of view. The following are important questions to consider:  Who is the narrator or speaker in the story?  Does the author speak through the main character?  Is the story written in the first person “I” point of view?  Is the story written in a detached third person “he/she” point of view?  Is there an “all-knowing” third person who can reveal what all the characters are thinking and doing at all times and in all places? Conflict Conflict or tension is usually the heart of the short story and is related to the main character. In a short story there is usually one main struggle.  How would you describe the main conflict?  Is it an internal conflict within the character?  Is it an external conflict caused by the surroundings or environment the main character finds himself/herself in? Climax The climax is the point of greatest tension or intensity in the short story. It can also be the point where events take a major turn as the story races towards its conclusion. Ask yourself:  Is there a turning point in the story?  When does the climax take place? Theme The theme is the main idea, lesson, or message in the short story. It may be an abstract idea about the human condition, society, or life. Ask yourself:  How is the theme expressed?  Are any elements repeated and therefore suggest a theme?  Is there more than one theme? Style The author's style has to do with the his or her vocabulary, use of imagery, tone, or the feeling of the story. It has to do with the author's attitude toward the subject. In some short stories the tone can be ironic, humorous, cold, or dramatic.  Is the author's language full of figurative language?  What images are used?  Does the author use a lot of symbolism? Metaphors (comparisons that do not use "as" or "like") or similes (comparisons that use "as" or "like")? 14

Your literary analysis of a short story will often be in the form of an essay where you may be asked to give your opinions of the short story at the end. Choose the elements that made the greatest impression on you. Point out which character/characters you liked best or least and always support your arguments. LITERATURE ANALYSIS ESSAYS Character Analysis Essay What is a Character Analysis Essay? In a deeper sense, this is a type of essay which requires an understanding of the character in question. These kinds of essays are used to analyze characters in a literary piece. One of the aims would be to make a profile and analyze characters well. What Is The Purpose? More than to fulfill a requirement, this type of essay mainly helps us understand the character and the world he/she lives in. One of the important purposes of this essay is to look at the anatomy of a character in the story and dissect who he/she is. We must be able to study how the character was shaped and then learn from their life. What Types of Characters are Known?  Protagonists (heroes): The main character around whom most of the plot revolves.  Antagonists: This is a person that is against the protagonist. This is usually the villain but could be also a natural power, set of circumstances, majestic being, etc.  Major: These are the main characters. They run the story. Regularly there are only one or two major characters.  Dynamic (changing)  Static (unchanging)  Minor: These are the figures who help tell the major character's tale by letting them interact and reveal their personalities, situations, stories. They are commonly static (unchanging).  Foils: These are the people whose job is to contrast with the major character.  Three-dimensional (round) personalities: These are people with double-nature, and multiple characters in their mind are all great examples of 3-dimensonal heroes. Have you watched the movie titled "Split" with the guy who had 23 or more personalities living inside of him? That's what we mean! How to Write it? Of course to go into the deeper sense, and to truly understand these characters, one must immerse oneself in the story or literary piece. Take note of the setting, climax, and other important literary parts. You must be able to feel and see through the characters. Observe how the writer shaped these characters into life. Notice how little or how vast the identities of the characters were described. Look at the characters' morals and behavior and

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how it affects situations and other characters in the story. Observe characters whom you find interesting. Consider the following things:  What specific descriptions does the author provide for each character?  What kinds of relationship does your character have with others?  How do the actions of the character move the plot forward? What format should I follow? This step can be considered as one of the most important steps in writing. A well-constructed outline will keep your thoughts and ideas organized. Introduction Make an introduction of your paper brief and meaningful. It should hold together your whole essay and should spark interest in people. Write a short description of the character in question. Body Subdivide your body paragraphs into different ideas or areas to be considered regarding the character. Look at your professor's rubric and make sure that you'll be able to tackle the things required. You should also be provided with questions to be answered to better formulate your analysis. The body should answer the following questions:  What is the character's physical appearance, personality, and background?  What were the conflicts that the character experienced and how did he/she overcome them?  What can we learn from this character? Conclusion Your conclusion should also hold together your ideas and should shape a final analysis statement. Mention things about the character's conflicts which we can experience in real life. Also, you can write about how a character that should've reacted to a certain situation. Sample Character Analysis Essay Captain Ahab is the star of Herman Melville's Moby Dick and is one of the most famous and complex characters in literature. He is insane, egotistical, and obsessive. So then why do his crew follow him willingly on his mad quest for revenge? Perhaps the answer to this lies in the air of mystery and tragedy that surrounds him. Ahab displays a range of personality traits throughout the book that, although deeply flawed, make him appeal to both the crew of the Pequod and the reader. Ishmael, the narrator, knows nothing about the captain before boarding the boat, but hears inspiring tales from others about how he is 'godlike," creating a mysterious picture of an impressive man. On his first appearance to the crew, Ahab mentions his missing leg and his quest for revenge against the whale, thereby encouraging the tailors to take pity on him and feel compassion for his misfortune. Although he often shows his worst side to the crew, often flying into fits of rage, his extreme sense of purpose and the obvious 16

physical damage that he received from Moby Dick inspire his crew to follow him, ultimately to their doom. Ahab is insane and inspiring, courageous and cowardly, and an incredibly complicated man. His motivations are understandable and maybe even admirable, and the loss of his leg inspires pity and understanding with the other sailors. Even though he rarely seems to notice the crew around him, he manages to convince all on board to follow him. Like all tragic heroes, though, his obsession ultimately leads to his death. In Ahab, we can see both the best and worst of human nature. What could be more compelling than that?

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WRITING ABOUT SUBJECTS, THEMES AND IDEAS Every book has a theme and often they contain more than one. In order to successfully identify and write about a book's central theme, you need to closely read the text, plan before you write and provide sufficient analysis and direct quotes from the story to support your point. What Is Theme? Theme has been defined in many ways: the central idea or thesis; the central thought; the underlying meaning, either implied or directly stated; the general insight revealed by the entire story; the central truth; the dominating idea; the abstract concept that is made concrete through representation in person, action, and image. Because the theme involves ideas and insights, we usually state it in general terms. "Eveline," for instance, concerns the conflicts of a specific character, but the story's main idea – its theme – relates to abstract qualities like duty and fear. If someone asks what "Eveline" is about, we might respond with a summary of the plot, with details about the title character's encounter with Frank and her failure to go away with him. But if someone asks for the story's theme, we would answer with a general statement of ideas or values: "Eveline" shows how people can be trapped by fear and obligation. It is easy to confuse subject with theme. The subject is the topic or material the story examines – love, death, war, identity, prejudice, power, human relations, growing up, and so forth. The theme is the direct or implied statement that the story makes about the subject. For example, the subject of "Everyday Use" is mother-daughter relationships, but the theme emerges from what the story says about Mama, Maggie, and Dee – and from an understanding of why these characters behave and interact as they do. The theme, then, is the insight that we gain from thinking about what we have read. Literary themes are implied through elements of the text, so taking notes as you read helps you identify and gather the book's clues. Underlining interesting passages, jotting down questions, marking moments when characters have to make important or difficult decisions and recording instances of symbolism and foreshadowing will deepen your interpretation of the book while also building a toolbox of material to draw from when you write your essay. Is it easy to find the theme? A theme is a universal idea that is often a reflection on human experience suggested by the text. Often a theme can be gleaned from an evaluation of the circumstances surrounding repeated objects or symbols in the story. The central theme can also be identified by examining the characters' strengths, weaknesses, values, thoughts and actions. The theme is not explicitly stated, so your notes are crucial to identifying and evaluating the book's central theme. Examples of book themes include "death is a part of life," "crime doesn't pay," "all humans need to be loved," "aging is inevitable" and "racism harms communities for generations." What is a thesis? When you have determined the theme of the book, you can formulate a thesis statement. The thesis statement conveys a particular point about the theme and how it is manifested in the book. For example, you might identify the theme of Paulo Coelho's book "The Alchemist" as "the treasure of 18

human potential." Using that theme, you can write the thesis statement, "Santiago's journey for external treasure was necessary to discovering the treasure that lay inside him." What should I include in my analysis? An essay on the theme of a book is a synthesis of your reflections on elements of the story and their relationship to a deeper and broader meaning. The analysis shows how the theme is illustrated in the text and why the theme matters, both in story and in the real world. Your analysis can examine why characters make specific choices, how the book's setting impacts the plot, what conflicts exist in the text and how those conflicts are resolved. Most importantly, your analysis should answer the question of why any of these points matter. In addition to analysis, the body of the essay should incorporate evidence to support the analysis. Using direct quotes from the novel, you can concretely link the theme to the story with specific examples. The quotes prove the point you are making at that moment. All quotes must be properly cited and must be accompanied with explanations of how specifically the evidence is a concrete manifestation of the book's overall theme, as well as the essay's overall point. Task 1. Work with your partner. Try to figure out what themes and subjects are most common in literature. Do subjects and themes tend to change over times? Theme Analysis Essay Theme essays are structured around a predetermined theme mentioned in an assignment prompt. To write a thorough theme essay, you'll need to read the prompt carefully and outline your essay. Then, you can write a strong essay with a hook opening line and a focus on theme. Always revise your essay for flow, style, and legibility before you hand it in. 1. Read the essay prompt carefully. A theme essay usually responds to a specific prompt given to you by a teacher or professor. Most essay prompts will ask you to identify the theme, or the overarching message, in a text. Look at the terms used in the prompt and highlight keywords or important terms. This will help you identify what you need to address as you write your essay. For example, an essay prompt may ask you to reflect on the theme of good versus evil in John Steinbeck's East of Eden. 2. Brainstorm ideas for the essay. Once you've read and considered the essay prompt, brainstorm how you can write your essay. In your essay, you will use research and evidence to support a central argument. Start to jot down examples you can use to reflect on the theme.  Make a list of everything you know about the topic. This can be information you learned in class, as well as information you found on your own.  Write down keywords or key scenes in the text that respond to the essay prompt. Think about what words or scenes from the text come to mind when you think of a specific theme. 19

 For example, when you brainstorm ideas on East of Eden, you may write down any moments in the text that seem to speak to the theme of good and evil. 3. Create a thesis statement. A thesis statement is a single sentence that summarizes the entire essay. You'll need to include this thesis statement in your introductory paragraph, and the rest of your essay will need to support it.  Your thesis statement will need to address the theme, your primary example or examples, and the stance you will take on the topic.  For example, your thesis might be: "In East of Eden, John Steinbeck rejects the Biblical idea of good and evil and instead focuses on the contradictions and complications found in good and evil." 4. Outline the essay. Once you've figured out your thesis, you can begin outlining your essay. Some teachers may require a 5-paragraph essay while others may want the essay shorter or longer. A typical essay outline has three main parts: the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. Sample Theme Essay For centuries philosophers have debated the question of whether man is innately evil. William Golding poses this question in his realistic novel Lord of the Flies. Set on a tropical island during World War II, the novel begins when schoolboys from Great Britain are being flown to safety and their plane is shot down. No adults survive, and the boys are left to govern themselves and get rescued. William Golding uses symbolism in the form of the conch to represent the concept of society. The boys' evolving relationship with the conch illustrates Golding's theme that humans, when removed from the pressures of civilized authority, will become evil. In the beginning, the boys view the conch as an important symbol that unites them and gives them the power to deal with their difficult situation. When the conch is first found and blown, it brings everyone together: "Ralph found his breath and blew a series of short blasts. Piggy exclaimed, 'There's one!'" (Golding 16). Here Piggy observes one boy emerging from the jungle but soon boys conform all around. Each comes for his own reason: some for plain curiosity, other for the prospect of rescue. They all form the first assembly thanks to the conch. The first job of this assembly is to unite even further and choose a leader or chief. Once again the conch plays an important part. It is Ralph who is chosen to be chief and the main reason for this is because he holds the conch. When it is put to a vote, the boys exclaim, “Him with the shell. Ralph! Ralph! Let him be chief with the trumpet-thing” (Golding 21). Because Ralph possesses the conch, a symbol of power and authority, he is chosen chief. Thus, at first the conch is an important object bringing civilizing influences to the boys as they work together to make the best of a bad situation. Gradually, however, the conch becomes less important to the boys, signifying their gradual turn to evil. When the boys first start a fire on top of the mountain, Piggy holds the conch and attempts to speak. But Jack rebukes him by saying, "The conch doesn't count on top of the mountain, so you shut up" 20

(Golding 39). Boys like Jack begin to place limitations on the conch and lose respect for it and one another. Then one day at an assembly, Jack places even less importance on the conch excluding more of the boys and thus diminishing the democratic order and authority that the conch provides. He says, "We don't need the conch any more. We know who ought to say thins…It's time some people knew they've got to keep quiet and leave deciding things to the rest of us" (Golding 92). Jack's assertion here clearly connects the demise of the conch to a change in the social order. Jack is slowly becoming a power-hungry dictator, and we wee the orderly influence of the conch replaced by man's evil impulses. In the end, the conch loses significance to all but Piggy, and most of the boys turn into evil savages. Piggy tells Ralph to call an assembly, and Ralph only laughs. Finally, after Piggy' glasses are stolen, he tells Ralph, "Blow the conch, blow as loud as you can." The forest reechoed; and birds lifted, crying out of the treetops, as on that first morning ages ago" (Golding 154). Piggy believes that the authority of the conch will once again bring the boys together, but only four boys meet in this assembly. The rest have joined Jack's savage tribe. The goal of their last assemble is to get Piggy's glasses back form Jack. Therefore, the assembly moves to Castle Rock where Roger, the torturer and executioner of Jack's group, rolls a boulder off the mountain and puts an end to the conch and its one true supporter: The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow form chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist. Piggy, saying nothing, with no time for even a grunt, traveled through the air sideways form the rock, turning over as he went… Piggy fell forty feet and landed on his back across the square red rock in the sea. His head opened and stuff came out and turned red. (Golding 164-165) It is fitting here that the destruction of the conch accompanies the boys' first intentional act of murder on the island. Thus their final descent into evil is complete. Now, with the authority of the conch destroyed, Jack's group is given license to become total savages. The next day, they would hut Ralph to kill him, thus leaving behind the civilizing influences of the conch forever. Golding uses the conch shell to show the slow slide of the boys into savagery, thereby exemplifying the theme that humans have the capability to turn evil. At first, the conch brings everyone together; then, as its power erodes, the group breaks into two. Finally, the destruction of the conch signals the plunge into total savagery. By following the role of the conch in the story, we see how Golding uses it to unify the central events of the story around his theme of inevitable evil. Golding is an artist, not a philosopher, but through his art he answers the question debated for centuries by philosophers: Is man innately evil? According to Lord of the Flies, he is. 21

Setting Essays Setting is one of the three main parts of a story, along with characters and plot. Setting is the location and time of your story. The setting enhances and supports your plot and characters, helping to reveal and further important points and themes. Elements of setting 1. Locale. This relates to broad categories such as a country, state, region, city, and town, as well as to more specific locales, such as a neighborhood, street, house or school. Other locales can include shorelines, islands, farms, rural areas, etc. 2. Time of year. The time of year is richly evocative and influential in fiction. Time of year includes the seasons, but also encompasses holidays, such as Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year's Eve, and Halloween. Significant dates can also be used, such as the anniversary of a death of a character or real person, or the anniversary of a battle, such as the attack on Pearl Harbor. 3. Time of day. Scenes need to play out during various times or periods during a day or night, such as dawn or dusk. Readers have clear associations with different periods of the day, making an easy way to create a visual orientation in a scene. 4. Elapsed time. The minutes, hours, days, weeks, and months a story encompasses must be somehow accounted for or the reader will feel confused and the story will suffer from a lack of authenticity. While scenes unfold moment by moment, there is also time to account for between scenes, when a flashback is inserted, and when a character travels a long distance. 5. Mood and atmosphere. Characters and events are influenced by weather, temperature, lighting, and other tangible factors, which in turn influence the emotional timbre, mood, and atmosphere of a scene. 6. Climate. Climate is linked to the geography and topography of a place, and, as in our real world, can influence events and people. Ocean currents, prevailing winds and air masses, latitude, altitude, mountains, land masses, and large bodies of water all influence climate. It's especially important when you write about a real setting to understand climatic influences. Harsh climates can make for grim lives, while tropical climates can create more carefree lifestyles. 7. Geography. This refers to specific aspects of water, landforms, ecosystems, and topography in your setting. Geography also includes climate, soil, plants, trees, rocks and minerals, and soils. Geography can create obvious influences in a story like a mountain a character must climb, a swift-running river he must cross, or a boreal forest he must traverse to reach safety. No matter where a story is set, whether it's a mountain village in the Swiss Alps or an opulent resort on the Florida coast, the natural world with all its geographic variations and influences must permeate the story. 8. Man-made geography. There are few corners of the planet that have not been influenced by the hand of humankind. It is in our man-made influences that our creativity and the destructiveness of civilization can be seen. Readers want visual evidence in a story world, and man-made geography is easily included to 22

provide it. With this in mind, make certain that your stories contain proof of the many footprints that people have left in its setting. Use the influences of humankind on geography to lend authenticity to stories set in a real or famous locale. These landmarks include dams, bridges, ports, towns and cities, monuments, burial grounds, cemeteries, and famous buildings. Consider too the influences of mankind using the land, and the effects of mines, deforestation, agriculture, irrigation, vineyards, cattle grazing, and coffee plantations. 9. Eras of historical importance. Important events, wars, or historical periods linked to the plot and theme might include the Civil war, World War II, medieval times, the Bubonic Plague, the gold rush in the 1800s, or the era of slavery in the South. 10. Social/political/cultural environment. Cultural, political, and social influences can range widely and affect characters in many ways. The social era of a story often influences characters' values, social and family roles, and sensibilities. 11. Population. Some places are densely populated, such as Hong Kong, while others are lonely places with only a few hardy souls. Your stories need a specific, yet varied population that accurately reflects the place. 12. Ancestral influences. In many regions of the United States, the ancestral influences of European countries such as Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Poland are prominent. The cities and bayous of Louisiana are populated with distinctive groups influenced by their Native American, French-Canadian, and African American forebears. Ancestral influences can be depicted in cuisine, dialogue, values, attitudes, and general outlook. Sample Setting Analysis Essay The settings in Great Expectations are not just the places where scenes happen. They are also physical representations of its themes and ideas. Two of the most important are Satis House, where Miss Havisham lives, and Joe's home. Satis House is an old, run-down mansion in an overgrown garden. Miss Havisham lives there, and has kept everything the same as the day when her fiance abandoned her. The clocks are stopped at 8:40, the exact time she found out, and she even wears her wedding dress still. Yet this place represents the life of leisure and inherited money that Pip dreams of. Therefore, early in the novel, Dickens shows us the truth about Pip's goal to become a gentleman – it is actually not a very noble goal, and it eventually collapses in on itself when Pip loses his fortune. Joe's house is what Pip is running away from, but it becomes one of the most comfortable places in the novel for Pip. Firstly, it represents home, love, and family. Pip has to suffer in uncomfortable places before he can appreciate the comfort of Joe's home. Secondly, with Joe's forge right next door, and Joe happiest "with my hammer in my hand" and "sticking to the old work," it represents the value of hard work. Just as Joe eventually gets the good wife he 23

deserves, so Pip only gets Estella after he has paid off his debts by working as a merchant in Egypt for eleven years. In conclusion, settings are much more than simply backdrops for the action in Great Expectations. Instead, they create parallels with aspects of the story and help communicate the main ideas of the novel. Pip must learn to see Satis House as it really is – stuck in the past and falling down – before he can understand the true value of hard work and home that Joe's house represents.

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PREMIUM HARMONY About the Author Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his parents separated when Stephen was a toddler, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of the elderly couple. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged. Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and then Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated from the University of Maine at Orono in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums. He and Tabitha Spruce married in January of 1971. He met Tabitha in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University of Maine at Orono, where they both worked as students. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines. Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many of these were later gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies. In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching high school English classes at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels. In the spring of 1973, Doubleday & Co. accepted the novel Carrie for publication. On Mother's Day of that year, Stephen learned from his new editor 25

at Doubleday, Bill Thompson, that a major paperback sale would provide him with the means to leave teaching and write full-time. At the end of the summer of 1973, the Kings moved their growing family to southern Maine because of Stephen's mother's failing health. Renting a summer home on Sebago Lake in North Windham for the winter, Stephen wrote his next-published novel, originally titled Second Coming and then Jerusalem's Lot, before it became 'Salem's Lot, in a small room in the garage. During this period, Stephen's mother died of cancer, at the age of 59. Carrie was published in the spring of 1974. That same fall, the Kings left Maine for Boulder, Colorado. They lived there for a little less than a year, during which Stephen wrote The Shining, set in Colorado. Returning to Maine in the summer of 1975, the Kings purchased a home in the Lakes Region of western Maine. At that house, Stephen finished writing The Stand, much of which also is set in Boulder. The Dead Zone was also written in Bridgton. In 1977, the Kings spent three months of a projected year-long stay in England, cut the sojourn short and returned home in mid-December, purchasing a new home in Center Lovell, Maine. After living there one summer, the Kings moved north to Orrington, near Bangor, so that Stephen could teach creative writing at the University of Maine at Orono. The Kings returned to Center Lovell in the spring of 1979. In 1980, the Kings purchased a second home in Bangor, retaining the Center Lovell house as a summer home. Stephen and Tabitha now spend winters in Florida and the remainder of the year at their Bangor and Center Lovell homes. The Kings have three children: Naomi Rachel, Joe Hill and Owen Phillip, and four grandchildren. Stephen is of Scots-Irish ancestry, stands 6'4" and weighs about 200 pounds. He is blue-eyed, fair-skinned, and has thick, black hair, with a frost of white most noticeable in his beard, which he sometimes wears between the end of the World Series and the opening of baseball spring training in Florida. Occasionally he wears a moustache in other seasons. He has worn glasses since he was a child. He has put some of his college dramatic society experience to use doing cameos in several of the film adaptations of his works as well as a bit part in a George Romero picture, Knightriders. Joe Hill King also appeared in Creepshow, which was released in 1982. Stephen made his directorial debut, as well as writing the screenplay, for the movie Maximum Overdrive (an adaptation of his short story "Trucks") in 1985. Stephen and Tabitha provide scholarships for local high school students and contribute to many other local and national charities. About the Story "Premium Harmony" is a short story by American author Stephen King. It was published in the November 2009 issue of The New Yorker magazine. The story is set in Castle Rock, King's famous fictitious city; in "Premium Harmony" the city is almost abandoned and run-down. 26

Cultural Information Wal-Mart a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores Wally World another name for Wal-mart Quik-Pik a chain of convenience stores Little Debbies, Twinkies, Ho Hos, Hostess Sno Ball brands of sweet snacks Bugles brand of a corn snack Christ on a pony Mr King's version of "Christ on a bike!", which is one of many, many expressions used to express shock or exasperation Task 1. Learn the essential vocabulary. Then complete the sentences below with the correct form of one of these words or phrases. circularity the fact of constantly returning to the same point or situation dash to move with sudden speed pinchpenny unwilling to spend money snoop to look around a place secretly, in order to discover things or find out information about someone or something be a sport to be helpful and amiable. In this usage, the phrase usually precedes a request sidle to move in an uncertain manner with one side facing forward gurney a light bed on wheels, used to move patients in a hospital retreat to go to a quiet safe place in order to avoid a difficult situation reprimand to express to someone your strong official disapproval of them flirtatious behaving as if you are interested in someone, in a not serious way protrude to stick out from something be penny-wise and pound-foolish to be extremely careful about small amounts of money and not careful enough about larger amounts of money pick one's spot to choose the time, place and circumstances that are most advantageous to you. The expression can be used in a variety of contexts and situations. 1. When he's done something wrong, he ………. to his bedroom. 2. Bob came in the door and ………. straight upstairs without even saying hello. 3. She had a lively, outgoing manner and was a bit ………. at times. 4. The snake ………. its tongue and hissed loudly. 5. It's not like you let me ………... 6. Her ………. parents aren't likely to loan her the money she needs for the down payment. 7. The story has an almost too-perfect ………. to it. 8. A vertically adjustable ………. is used to maintain patient elevation. 9. Sorry Mr. Jones our ball is in your rose bed again. ……… and throw it back over the fence. 10. The head of department was severely ……….. for failing to report computer thefts. 11. Clara's husband is ……….. on her because he thinks she is seeing another man. 12. She ……….. past him, pretending that she had not seen him. 27

Task 2. Answer the questions. 1. Explain the title. In what way is it suitable to the story? 2. Who tells the story? What point of view is used? 3. Are the events or incidents of the plot presented in flashback or in chronological order? 4. What is the general theme of the story? What is the underlying theme? Can you name any other stories/movies with a similar theme? 5. How does the author handle characterization? Give examples from the text. (by description? conversation of the characters? actions of the characters? combination of these methods?) 6. Where does the primary action take place? 7. What is the time setting for the action? Period of history? Season? Time of day? 8. How much time does the story cover? 9. Does this story contain any of the following elements? (symbolism? suspense? surprise / open ending? irony?) 10. Does the story have a moral? If not, what do you think the purpose of the author was? 11. Where is the climax or turning point(s) in the story? (Identify the paragraph) 12. How does the setting (environment as well as objects) support the theme? 13. Choose the sentences from the story that seem particularly significant and explain why. Task 3. Answer the questions to analyse the story and its elements. Conflict 1. What is the conflict? 2. Why does the conflict occur? 3. How is the conflict resolved? 4. What happens after the conflict is resolved? 5. How does the conflict and its resolution affect the characters? Characters Ray 1. What does he look like? 2. How does he act? 3. How do other characters in the story react to this character? Mary 1. What does she look like? 2. How does she act? 3. How do other characters in the story react to this character? Task 4. Answer the follow-up questions. 1. Who do you think are the antagonist and protagonist of the story? 2. Who do you sympathize with in the story? Why? 3. Do you think Mary and Ray have ever had a happy marriage? 4. How do you think their relationships had been changing throughout their marriage? 5. How was Ray affected by the death of his wife? Task 5. Write an essay based on the story. Write no fewer than 200-250 words.

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BIG MOMMY About the Author Joyce Carole Oates, a literary powerhouse of an American writer, 5-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, nominated for the Nobel Prize, National Book Award and Pen/Malamud Award winner, and too many more to list here has written over 100 books and over 30 collections of short stories. Few modern authors have her prolific and acclaimed reputation. Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates is a novelist, short story writer, playwright, poet, literary critic, professor, editor. She has won many awards for her writing, including the National Book Award, for her novel "Them" (1969), two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal and the Jerusalem Prize (2019). Her novels "Black Water" (1992), "What I Lived For" (1994), and "Blond" (2000) and short story collections "The Wheel of Love" (1970) and "Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories" (2014) were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Oates was born in Lockport, New York, the eldest of three children of Carolina, a homemaker of Hungarian descent, and Frederic James Oates, a tool and die designer. She grew up on her parents' farm outside the town. Her brother, Fred Jr., was born in 1943, and her sister, Lynn Ann, who is severely autistic, was born in 1956. Oates grew up in the working-class farming community of Millersport, New York, and characterized hers as "a happy, close-knit and unextraordinary family for our time, place and economic status", but her childhood as "a daily scramble for existence". Oates became interested in reading at an early age and remembers her grandmother's gift of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as "the great treasure of my childhood, and the most profound literary influence of my life. This was love at first sight!" In her early teens, she read the work of Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Fyodor Dostoevsky, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and Henry David Thoreau, writers whose "influences remain very deep". Oates began writing at the age of 14, when her grandmother gave her a typewriter. As a teen, Oates also received early recognition for her writing by winning a Scholastic Art and Writing Award. She was the first in her family to complete high school. Oates earned a scholarship to attend Syracuse University. Oates found Syracuse to be "a very exciting place academically and intellectually", and trained herself by "writing novel after novel and always throwing them out when I completed them". At the age of 19, she won the "college short story" contest. Oates graduated from Syracuse Universitywith a B.A. summa cum laude in English in 1960, and received her M.A. from the University of Wisconsin– 29

Madison in 1961. She was a Ph.D. student at Rice University but left to become a full-time writer. Oates' first novel, With Shuddering Fall (1964) was published when she was 26 years old. In 1966, she published "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", a short story dedicated to Bob Dylan and written after listening to his song "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue". The story is loosely based on the serial killer Charles Schmid, also known as "The Pied Piper of Tucson". It has been anthologized many times and adapted as a film, Smooth Talk (1985). In 2008, Oates said that of all her published work, she is most noted for "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" Frequent topics in Oates work include rural poverty, sexual abuse, class tensions, racial tension, desire for power, female childhood and adolescence, and occasionally the supernatural. Violence is a constant in her work, even leading Oates to have written an essay in response to the question, "Why Is Your Writing So Violent?". Oates's 2006 short story "Landfill" was criticized because it drew on the death, several months earlier, of John A. Fiocco Jr., a 19-year-old New Jersey college student. Oates writes in longhand, working from "8 till 1 every day, then again for two or three hours in the evening." Her prolificacy has become one of her bestknown attributes, although often discussed disparagingly. The New York Times wrote in 1989 that Oates's "name is synonymous with productivity", and in 2004, The Guardian noted that "Nearly every review of an Oates book, it seems, begins with a list of the number of books she has published". In 1998, Oates received the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Achievement in American Literature, which is given annually to recognize outstanding achievement in American literature. In 2003, Oates herself said that she thinks she will be remembered for, and would most want a first-time Oates reader to read, "Them" and "Blonde". Oates believes that “Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another's skin, another's voice, another's soul.” Yeah, her stories go very deep and into inner worlds that leave a reader haunted. About the Story "Big Mommy" is a short story by Joyce Carol Oates originally published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, March/April 2016, and reprinted in The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror. Task 1. Answer the questions about the author of the story. 1. Was Joyce Oates happy in her childhood? 2. What did she call "the great treasure of my childhood"? 3. What was Oates hobby in her teenage hood? 4. What made her "special" compared to other members of her family? 5. What does "a B.A. summa cum laude" mean? 6. What is the major feature of Oates works she is reproached of? 7. Joyce Oates is renowned by her prolificacy. What does it mean? 30

Task 2. Cultural Information. Find out and explain the following: A transfer student; SUV; McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell, Wendy's, Dunkin' Donuts; Fluffy. Ivor. Big Mitts. Snowball. Scottie. Fiji. Mr. Ruff. Otto; the Easter bunny. Task 3. Make sure of the correct pronunciation of the words: A calloused hand (Mr. Clovis); to rebuff (Violet); to vow (Violet); scrutiny (Mr. Clovis); abashed (Violet's mother), scavenger (Big Mommy), enclosure (Big Mommy). Task 4. Learn the essential vocabulary. Sulky, utter a word, to abduct a toddler, jeez!, to flame – to flush-to blush in crimson, to slap, to slam the door, to investigate leads, to cajole, vanish into thin air, to lie outright, Gross!, to vow, to rebuff, for a fraction of a second, to give in, to stroke – to flinch/ to shrink away, a nape, to walk out on smb., a bundle, take pride in smth., scrutiny; abashed, to ooze along the floor, scavenger, enclosure, a lever. Task 5. Report on the episodes from the story that illustrate the use of the vocabulary in Task 4. Example: sulky – While talking to her mum Violet was always sulky. Task 6. Mark the statements as True of False. 1. Violet got on well with her parent. 2. Violet was a vulnerable teenager. 3. Violet envied Rita Mae. 4. Violet hated her mother. 5. Violet was a transfer student. 6. Violet had never taken the school bus to get back home. 7. Pets and kids had been vanishing for the last two years in the area. 8. Violet made a vow not to quarrel with her mother. 9. Mr. Clovis was good at cajoling. 10. All Mr. Clovis kids were adopted. 11. It was Violet's mother who always scrutinised her. 12. The Clovises took pride in their extraordinary pet. 13. Violet's mother was abashed because she got back home very late. 14. Big Mommy was a scavenger. 15. It was Mr. Clovis who left Violet in the outer enclosure and raised the lever. Task 7. Give a brief rendering of the episodes referred to by the statements: 1. '… And never heard from again, Violet thought with an excited little shiver.”' 2. “Use your common sense, children! You're old enough to be vigilant. 3. Somehow it was worse, the driver was a woman. 4. Violet knew better than to complain to her mother who might become hysterical over the phone making threats against the school principal, or whoever – if the damn bullies stopped, it would be just for a few days. 5. And suddenly Violet had friends at school also, at least Rita Mae Clovis's girlfriends with whom she could sit in the cafeteria and eat lunch, instead of huddling at a remote table by herself, hoping/dreading that someone, anyone, would join her. 6. The rest of the visit at the Clovis's house, that day, passed in a haze. 7. What Violet loved about the 31

Clovis household, next to the way they all seemed so fond of her, was how everybody talked, and everybody listened. 8. This was certain: in all of Violet Prentiss's life no one had ever talked like this about her. Task 8. Answer the questions. 1. Did Violet'mother beat her? 2. How did Violet behave in the presence of her mother? 3. What was Violet self-esteem regarding her appearance? 4. What was the difference between Violet's old and new schools? 5. Where and why did Violet's family move? 6. How did Violet's mother's life change when they moved? 7. What makes 'abduction' different from kidnapping'? 8. …dogs, cats, rabbits were so cute, Violet wanted to cry to think they were lost. 9. Violet flinched to hear these jokes. 10. Yet a few times to her shame Violet heard herself laugh with the others. How do these utterances characterize Violet? 11. What was Mr. Clovis like? 12. Where did the Clovises live? 13. How did Mr. Clovis cajole Violet? 14. Who was Big Mommy? What was it like? 15. Why did Violet's mother feel abashed in the evening she had to wake her up? 16. What was the difference between Mr. Clovis kids and Violet? 17. Why could Violet not rebuff or resist Mr. Clovis? 18. Why did Big Mommy happen in Violet's life? Task 9. Character sketching. Match the major traits/actions and draw portraits of the main characters of the story (Violet, Mr. Clovis, Big Mommy, Violet's mother). Immense / smart-snappy / embarrassed mumble / to make a vow / to lay in coils / to rebuff / serendipity /rejoice / hefty bags / hideous / chow time! / tawny / flushed crimson with joy / eager and anxious / out of meanness / suspicious / to wink at smb / calloused hand / languid and unmoving / squeeze / scrutiny / abashed / to ooze along the floor / scavenger. Task 10. Read the extracts of the Winter Break reviews. Which strikes a chord with you most? Write your own review of the story. a) … Have you met Violet? A thirteen year old who weighs just 90 pounds and is desperate for love and attention. Aren't all teens? But Violet is especially vulnerable. In the neighborhood where she lives, children are disappearing. Gobbled up by God-knows-who would do such a thing. This frightens Violet's mom who warns her to be extra careful but leaves her home alone with mac 'n cheese in the fridge one too many times. One day, when walking home from school, Violet takes a ride from a friend's dad and he brings her home to meet Big Momma. b) ... Big Momma is more horrific then most novels I've read. The story is especially bone-chilling because it contains no element of the supernatural. All could have happened in your city or town. The shy daughter of a struggling and distracted single mother is drawn into a family that offers her lots of attention and affection — maybe too much. Although there's no outright gore, the building dread and realism of the story gives me the shivers. 32

…The story left me feeling queasy and greasy. The way it accurately depicts a young girl being groomed by an older man was abhorrent. Task 11. Write an essay based on the story. Write no fewer than 200-250 words.

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WINTER BREAK About the Author

Born Occupation

Dame1 Hilary Mantel DBE2 FRSL3 Hilary Mary Thompson 6 July 1952 (age 68) Glossop, Derbyshire, England Novelist, short story writer, essayist and critic

Alma Mater

University of Sheffield

Notable Awards

Booker Prize 2009, 2012 Walter Scott Prize 2010 Costa Novel Prize 2012

Spouse

Gerald McEwen (m. 1972)

1. Dame is an honorific title and the feminine form of address for the honour of damehood in many Christian chivalric orders, as well as the British honours system and those of several other Commonwealth countries, such as Australia and New Zealand with the masculine form of address being sir. It is the female equivalent for knighthood, which is traditionally granted to males. 2. DBE – The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established on 4 June 1917 by King George V and comprises five classes across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two of which make the recipient either a knight if male or dame if female. 3. FRSL – The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The society is a cultural tenant at London's Somerset House.

Hilary Mary Thompson was born in Glossop, Derbyshire, the eldest of three children. Her parents, Margaret (née Foster) and Henry Thompson, were both of Irish descent but born in England. Her parents separated and she did not see her father after the age of eleven. The family, without her father but with Jack Mantel who had moved in with them, relocated to Romiley, Cheshire, and Jack became her unofficial stepfather. At this point she took her de facto stepfather's surname legally. Raised as a Catholic she attended St Charles Roman Catholic primary school. Although she lost her religious faith at age 12, she says it left a permanent mark on her, ''… real cliché, the sense of guilt. You grow up believing that you're wrong and bad. And for me, because I took what I was told really seriously, it bred a very intense habit of introspection and selfexamination and a terrible severity with myself. So that nothing was ever good enough. It's like installing a policeman, and one moreover who keeps changing the law.'' 34

She explored her family background as the mainspring of much of her fiction. In 1970 she began her studies at the London School of Economics. She transferred to the University of Sheffield and graduated as Bachelor of Jurisprudence in 1973. After university, Mantel worked in the social work department of a geriatric hospital and then as a sales assistant in a department store. In 1972, she married Gerald McEwen, a geologist. In 1977, Mantel moved to Botswana with her husband where they lived for the next five years. Later, they spent four years in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She later said that leaving Jeddah felt like "the happiest day of her life". McEwen gave up geology to manage his wife's business. They divorced, but remarried after a couple of years. During her twenties, Mantel had a debilitating and painful illness. She was initially diagnosed with a psychiatric illness, hospitalised, and treated with antipsychotic drugs, which reportedly produced psychotic symptoms. In consequence, Mantel refrained from seeking help from doctors for some years. Finally, being desperate in Botswana, she consulted a medical textbook and realised she was probably suffering from a severe form of endometriosis, a diagnosis confirmed by doctors in London. The condition and necessary surgery – a surgical menopause at the age of 27 – left her unable to have children, and continued to disrupt her life. She later said: "You've thought your way through questions of fertility and menopause and what it means to be without children because it all happened catastrophically". This led Mantel in her writing to see the woman's body problematised as a theme, though a shadow rather than what she wrote about constantly. Continued treatment by steroids caused weight gain and radically changed her appearance. She was patron of, and is a supporter of, the Endometriosis SHE Trust. Her first novel, Every Day is Mother's Day, was published in 1985, and its sequel, Vacant Possession, a year later. The next novel, Eight Months on Ghazzah Street (1988), which drew on her life in Saudi Arabia, uses a threatening clash of values between the neighbours in a city apartment block to explore the tensions between Islamic culture and the liberal West. The Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize-winning novel Fludd is set in 1956 in a fictitious northern village called Fetherhoughton, centring on a Roman Catholic church and a convent. A mysterious stranger brings about transformations in the lives of those around him. A Place of Greater Safety (1992) won the Sunday Express Book of the Year award, for which her two previous books had been shortlisted. A long and historically accurate novel, it traces the career of three French revolutionaries, Danton, Robespierre and Camille Desmoulins, from childhood to their early deaths during the Reign of Terror of 1794. An Experiment in Love (1996), which won the Hawthornden Prize, takes place over two university terms in 1970. It follows the progress of three girls – 35

two friends and one enemy – as they leave home and attend university in London. Margaret Thatcher makes a cameo appearance in this novel, which explores women's appetites and ambitions, and suggests how they are often thwarted. Her next book, The Giant, O'Brien (1998), is set in the 1780s, and is based on the true story of Charles Byrne (or O'Brien). He came to London to earn money by displaying himself as a freak. His bones hang today in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. The novel treats O'Brien and his antagonist, the Scots surgeon John Hunter, less as characters in history than as mythic protagonists in a dark and violent fairytale, necessary casualties of the Age of Enlightenment. The long novel Wolf Hall, about Henry VIII's minister Thomas Cromwell, was published in 2009 to critical acclaim. The book won that year's Booker Prize and, upon winning the award, Mantel said, "I can tell you at this moment I am happily flying through the air". Judges voted three to two in favour of Wolf Hall for the prize. Mantel was presented with a trophy and a £50,000 cash prize during an evening ceremony at the London Guildhall. The panel of judges, described Wolf Hall as an "extraordinary piece of storytelling". Leading up to the award, the book was backed as the favourite by bookmakers and accounted for 45% of the sales of all the nominated books. On receiving the prize, Mantel said that she would spend the prize money on "sex and drugs and rock' n' roll". The sequel to Wolf Hall, called Bring Up the Bodies, was published in May 2012 to wide acclaim. It won the 2012 Costa Book of the Year and the 2012 Booker Prize; Mantel thus became the first British writer and the first woman to win the Booker Prize more than once. This award also made Mantel the first author to win the award for a sequel. The books were adapted into plays by the Royal Shakespeare Company and were produced as a mini-series by BBC. In 2020 Mantel published the third novel of the Thomas Cromwell trilogy, called The Mirror and the Light. In a 2013 speech on media and royal women at the British Museum, Mantel commented on Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, saying in passing that the Duchess was forced to present herself publicly as a personality-free "shop window mannequin" whose sole purpose is to deliver an heir to the throne. Mantel also said: "It may be that the whole phenomenon of monarchy is irrational, but that doesn't mean that when we look at it we should behave like spectators at Bedlam. Cheerful curiosity can easily become cruelty." In September 2014, in an interview published in The Guardian, Mantel confessed to fantasizing about the murder of Margaret Thatcher in 1983, and fictionalized the event in a short story called "The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher: 6 August 1983". In the interview she expands on her hatred for the former British prime minister. Allies of Thatcher called for a police investigation, to which Mantel sarcastically responded, "bringing in the police for an investigation was beyond anything I could have planned or hoped for, because it immediately exposes them to ridicule." 36

Currently Hillary Mantel with her husband live in Budleigh Salterton, Devon. She is working on a short non-fiction book, titled The Woman Who Died of Robespierre, about the Polish playwright Stanisława Przybyszewska. Mantel also writes reviews and essays, mainly for The Guardian, the London Review of Books and the New York Review of Books. About the Story ''Winter Break" is a story by Hillary Mantel published in the short story collection 'The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher' (2014). Task 1. Answer the questions about the author of the story. 1. How did the surname "Mantel" come into the author's life? 2. When and why did she abandon her faith? 3. Why did her husband give up his occupation of geology? 4. What is a curious fact about the Mantels marriage? 5. What health problems changed completely her appearance and life on the whole? 6. What are Mantel's major fiction themes? 7. Which of the Mantel's works cited in the note spark your reading interest? 8. When and why did Mantel say, "I can tell you at this moment I am happily flying through the air"? 9. What historical personality did the author dedicate her trilogy? 10. Who is Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge? Does the phrase "the Duchess was forced to present herself publicly as a personality-free "shop window mannequin" whose sole purpose is to deliver an heir to the throne" seem insulting? 11. Give a thought and your comments to the Mantel's statement "Cheerful curiosity can easily become cruelty". Task 2. Cultural information. Find out and explain the following words and expressions. An estate car; tartan; whoops-a-daisy; Heathrow; slip-on; junior suite. Task 3. Learn the essential vocabulary. Report on the episodes which illustrate the use of the vocabulary. A placard; to stab (the air; the brake); to gawp; creased and gritty; a small; to bustle; to shuffle; a hairy, proprietorial hand; a squat; an estate car; garrulous; Whoops-a-daisy; to inch; strewn (to strew strewed/strewn) toys; to hump bags; unbearably agitating; hand-me-downs; to bank up; to punch a head; to wrench; tarpaulin; petulant; thud; a bunch; laudable; complicit; a grubby hand. Task 4. Mark the statements as True of False. 1. The couple was on the way home from winter holiday. 2. The taxi driver was garrulous and caring. 3. Phil was an avaricious person. 4. Although the route was mountainous, with a series of violent bends and swerves, the taxi driver drove safely. 5. Phil's wife saw him as a nice father. 6. Phil had a hankering for fatherhood. 7. Phil adhered to the idea of light travelling.

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Task 5. Give a brief rendering of the episodes referred to by the statements: 1. He drove very fast, treating each swerve in the road as a personal insult, fuming at any hold up. 2. At Heathrow Phil had been a pain in the security queue. 3. Phil began to tell her about the flora and fauna of the high maquis. 4. … he had confessed to her that he found the presence of small children unbearably agitating… 5. She understood that they wouldn't, either of them, mention this dire start to their winter break. Task 6. Answer the questions. 1. Who do you consider a protagonist: Phil, his wife, the taxi driver or somebody else? Why? 2. What can be inferred about the relationships between Phil and his wife? 3. What didn't Phil want to put his wife through? 4. "My wife is chilly." "I wouldn't put you through this." He rubbed her arms for her… he cupped her elbow, caressing it… What do these phrases make reader think about Phil? What is he like? 5. According to the Phil's wife remark "there were two types of taxi man: the garrulous ones with a niece in Dagenham, who wanted to talk right the way out to the far coast and the national park, and the ones who needed every grunt racked out of them, who wouldn't tell you where their niece lived if they were under torture". Which sort of taxi drivers was one in the story? Which one makes you feel at ease? 6. What happened while they were travelling to the hotel? How did the taxi driver and his passengers behave during the incident? 7. Why didn't the couple let the porter take their baggage? 8. How would you feel if such an incident happened with you? 9. "Call no man happy. No man happy until he has gone down to his grave in peace. Or at least to his junior suite: and can rub out today and wake tomorrow hungry." What does the author imply by this? 10. We dress for the weather we want, as if to bully it, even though we've seen the forecast". What does the author mean? Task 7. Character sketching. Match the major traits/actions and draw portraits of the main characters of the story (Phil, Phil's wife, taxi driver). Squat / to gawp/ proprietorial hand / creased and gritty / petulant / to stab / to shuffle / to wrench/ forget your sunshine illusions / to bustle / to fling / to swing open / to slam the door / to bank up / to punch smb's head / to wrench the wheel / to grunt / laudable / thud / a pain in the security queue. Task 8. Read the extracts of the Winter Break reviews. Which strikes a chord with you most? Write your own review of the story. a) This is the short story you wish you'd written if you were a writer who allowed herself a broader swathe of cruelty over her reader. That's the prevailing thought I've cultivated from multiple readings of "Winter Break", a quick cigarette's length of a read to which I know I shall return, to have my heart bruised, bewildered… 38

b) Great short stories waste not a single word, and this certainly is the case with 'Winter Break'. What the reader is left with at the end of the story is a warning. We again see the irony in the woman's words: "whoops-a-daisy. There, there. No harm done". Harm will be done if communication between a husband and wife breaks down to such an extent that they are unable to act and unable to speak out. Would the child have lived if they'd questioned the taxi driver and stopped that awful 'thud, thud, thud'? Task 9. Write an essay based on the story. Write no fewer than 200-250 words.

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YOUNGER WOMEN About the Author Karen Joy Fowler was born in February 1950 in Bloomington, Indiana where her father was a professor of psychology. She says "Bloomington lives in my mind as a sort of Oz-like place where I caught fireflies and watched lightning and ran around. None of the yards were fenced, so we could play games that covered massive amounts of territory." When she was 11 her family moved to Palo Alto, California. She majored in political science at the University of California at Berkeley and had her first baby at twentythree during the last year of her master's program (at the University of Davis). After completing her master degree she entered what she refers to as her "childrearing years" – until the age of 30 when she started to feel restless and took a dance class to reclaim some space for herself – as she says "it was only after I realized that I wasn't going to make it as a dancer that I took a creative writing class in Davis." She started to publish science fiction stories and made herself a name in the sci-fi community with the publication of Artificial Things (short stories). This was followed by the novels Sarah Canary and The Sweetheart Season. In 1991, with sci-fi writer Pat Murphy, she created the James Tiptree Jr Memorial Award which, to quote Fowler, "is presented annually to a short story or novel that explores or expands our understanding of gender...both to honor Alice Sheldon [the science fiction author who used the pen name James Tiptree] and to remind the field of its own importance in the continual struggle to reimagine more livable sexual roles for ourselves." Fowler and her husband, who have two grown children, live in Davis and Santa Cruz, California. About the Story "Younger Women" is a short story by American author Karen Joy Fowler written in 2011. Cultural Information Mrs. Robinson – a term is used to describe an older woman who likes to seduce younger men after the character in the film The Graduate (1967). The film tells the story of 21-year-old Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman), a recent college graduate with no well-defined aim in life, who is seduced by an older woman, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), and then falls in love with her daughter.

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Task 1. Learn the essential vocabulary. Then complete the sentences with one of the words or phrases in the correct form. incriminating making it seem that someone is guilty, especially of a crime go all in common expression in AE, and yes it means to put all of your efforts and resources into a project in order to succeed stand your ground to refuse to be pushed backwards, or to continue in your beliefs in an argument solidify to become or make something become certain linkage a connection, or the action of connecting coarse rude and offensive flee to escape by running away, especially because of danger or fear fatigue extreme tiredness guise the appearance of someone or something, especially when intended to deceive immortal living or lasting for ever 1. I never said I was ………., just old. 2. The men who arrived in the ……….. of drug dealers were actually undercover police officers. 3. The doctor said he was suffering from ………. and work-related stress. 4. War, famine and oppression have forced people in the region to ………. from their homes. 5. There's a direct ……….. between cultural values and the way people live. 6. Bullies always crumble when you ………... 7. He was arrested with several ………. documents. 8. Show a businessman a winning hand, he doesn't need to be a gambler to ………... 9. He …………. his commitment to the treaty, giving a forceful speech in favour of it. 10. As ……….. as that sounds, to deny the truth of it is a lie. Task 2. Answer the following questions. 1. Explain the title. In what way is it suitable to the story? 2. Who tells the story? What point of view is used? 3. Are the events or incidents of the plot presented in flashback or in chronological order? 4. What is the general theme of the story? What is the underlying theme? Can you name any other stories/movies with a similar theme? 5. How does the author handle characterization (by description? conversation of the characters? actions of the characters? combination of these methods?)? Give examples from the text. 6. Where does the primary action take place? 7. What is the time setting for the action? Period of history? Season? Time of day? 8. How much time does the story cover? 9. Does this story contain any of the following elements? (symbolism, suspense, surprise, open ending, irony) 10. Does the story have a moral? If not, what do you think the purpose of the author was? 11. Where is the climax or turning point(s) in the story? (Identify the paragraph) 12. How does the setting (environment as well as objects) support the theme? 13. Choose the sentences from the story that seem particularly significant and explain why.

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Task 3. Answer the questions to analyse the story and its elements. Conflict 1. What is the conflict? 2. Why does the conflict occur? 3. How is the conflict resolved? 4. What happens after the conflict is resolved? 5. How do the conflict and its resolution affect the characters? Characters Jude 1. What does she look like? 2. How does she act? 3. How do other characters in the story react to this character? Chloe 1. What does she look like? 2. How does she act? 3. How do other characters in the story react to this character? Eli 1. What does he look like? 2. How does he act? 3. How do other characters in the story react to this character? Michael 1. What does he look like? 2. How does he act? 3. How do other characters in the story react to this character? Task 4. Answer the questions and discuss the story. 1. Who do you think are the antagonist and protagonist of the story? 2. Who do you sympathize with in the story? Why? 3. How far do you think parents can go to protect their children? 4. Would you like to live forever? Why/Why not? 5. What would you do if you had an internal life? Task 5. Write an essay based on the story. Write no fewer than 200-250 words.

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THE HUMAN PHONOGRAPH About the Author Jonathan Tel is a fiction writer, poet, and critic, who has lived in the United States and United Kingdom. He has traveled widely in Asia and the Middle East. He is best known for his fiction. He has a Ph.D. in Philosophy and History of Science from Stanford University, and currently teaches a course on "Germany and Refugees" at the Stanford University Program in Berlin. His published works include two books set in China: the novel-in-stories, Scratching the Head of Chairman Mao (forthcoming, Turtlepoint Press, January 2020), and the story collection, The Beijing of Possibilities; also Freud's Alphabet, a novel set in Vienna and London, and Arafat's Elephant, a story collection that takes place in Jerusalem. His stories have appeared in Granta, The Guardian, The Sunday Times (UK), Prospect, and Zoetrope. His work has been published in translation in eight languages. His writing has won numerous prizes, including the Sunday Times EFG Fiction Award, the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, and the V.S. Pritchett Prize from the Royal Society of Literature. He was awarded a Fellowship in Fiction from the National Endowment for the Arts. He was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. He was a Fellow at the Breadloaf Writers Conference, and was invited to speak at the Beijing Bookworm Literary Festival. He was awarded residencies at Macdowell, Yaddo, Djerasssi, Millay, Ucross, and Montalvo foundations in the United States, and at the Rockefeller Center at Bellagio, Italy. Tel studied at Stanford University – carrying out research at the Stanford Linear Accelerator – from where he has an M.S. in Physics and a Ph.D in Philosophy and History of Science. He also did graduate studies in quantum physics and general relativity at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge. About the Story The story The Human Phonograph won the 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize and earned the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award in 2016. Background Information October 16, 1964, China successfully exploded its first atomic bomb. However, this brilliant success was achieved under extremely difficult conditions. When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, the Soviet Union agreed to aid China technologically in the development of nuclear industry. However, in June 1959, the USSR refused to provide relevant 43

information as it had previously promised. Moreover, the Soviet Union recalled all technicians and advisers from China. In July 1960 Chairman Mao Zedong called on Chinese scientists to rely on their own efforts and develop China's atomic bomb within eight years. On October 16, 1964, China successfully exploded its first atomic bomb. The Chinese people had finally developed their own nuclear technology. On the same day, the Chinese government made a solemn promise to the world that it developed nuclear weapons only for the purpose of self-defense and safeguarding national security. China would never at any time or under any circumstances be the first to use nuclear weapons. Task 1. Fill in the gaps with the correct adjective. Consult the dictionary. impassive, ecstatic, benevolent, much-thumbed, auspicious, feverish, ignorant, bashful, opaque 1. Don't be … about telling people how you feel. 2. He was a …old man and wouldn't hurt a fly. 3. In the classical music section she notices a … Moonlight Sonata by the great Beethoven. 4. It is the implementation of the process which is of major concern; it is not seen as transparent, but… raising many questions as to how the process actually works. 5. Emily's excellent recording is an … start to what promises to be a distinguished musical career. 6. The new president was greeted by an … crowd. 7. Many teenagers are surprisingly … about current politics. 8. They worked from dark to dawn at a … pace. 9. Nick kept his face … but his mind was racing. Task 2. Fill in the gaps with the correct prepositions. 1. The met … 1961 when she was a senior majoring … Russian at the Foreign Studies University and he was finishing his PhD … geology. 2. The Bomb is a defense … the Soviet Union, and the irony is they helped us make it … the first place. 3. Today the temperature dropped … -200. 4. Sometimes … no apparent reason the train stops … hours. 5. His voice is strained, yet he has an unexpected air ... authority. 6. She has a chair and a desk … her own, army issue, with the characters for 'librarian' painted … red on the underside. 7. What could she complain …? 8. He lowers his gaze. He says … conviction, No, you don't have the talent to be my assistant. 9. … silence he continues sorting the rocks. 10. But he is too simple, too ignorant, to be aware … any danger. 11. There are some odd pauses, places where he seems slightly … of tune, and she realizes these are identical … his original rendition. 12. Were they accused … being counter-revolutionaries? 13. Let the hero meet an entirely suitable woman and they fall … love and live happily ever … . 14. She thinks … the legendary Peach Blossom Spring – the paradise that ta fisherman once found … chance; he continued on his journey, and could never find it again. 15. And at one point, … she sees a gathering of young people in traditional clothing; the women are carrying black umbrellas … the sun. 44

Task 3. Plot analysis. Identify the narrative arc of the story. Where does the rising action start? What is the climax? What is the falling action? What can you say about the denouement? Using the narrative arc trace the development of the central characters. How do they change from the very exposition to the very denouement?

Task 4. Answer the questions. 1. Where and when does the story take place? Find out more about this period in history. 2. The love story theme is announced in the first few lines of this story and it is placed within the combination of the romantic and the scientific context of the moon landing, which is so unreal, yet so utterly real at once. Why does the author choose this figurative way of introducing the theme of love? 3. At the very outset of the story the reader may notice the abundance and importance of the historical events. What are these events? What imprint have they left on the then- and modern history? 4. "It has been seven years. There are thoughts that cannot be spoken but can only be sung". With this line about thoughts that have to be sung, the author prepares the reader for the titular metaphor. What is a metaphor? What is the titular metaphor? Are there any other metaphors in the story? How can you decipher this metaphorical title? 5. The author leaves the central characters with no-name. Why? 6. How can this marriage be described? Is it a happy one? Dwell upon the aspects of a match made in heaven. 7. Who is the Human Phonograph? Discuss his appearance and traits of character. 8. "Hua'er is surely illegal – bourgeois sentiment. … wouldn't he be at risk? Might he betray his master? But he is too simple, too ignorant, to be aware of any danger." What is implied by this danger? 9. There were the other geologists on the team, men like Four Eyes, and Badger, and Quartz, and Uncle Xu. What happened to them? 10. On July 28 th 1969 she sets out from Beijing railway station and on August 21st 1970 she is sent away. Compare the two journeys. What does she feel? Does anything change? Task 5. Recall the moment from the story using the following prompts. 1. a special military train – shuttered windows – the burble of the river – a dog's bark – a bleating – a human shout – only passenger – the secret base

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2. grassland – blue sky – squat cement buildings – soldiers – a thin, hatless man in canvas army shoes – a creased blue suit – an unexpected air of authority – "Comrade" 3. a librarian – journals, preprints, blueprints and technical specifications – a bookshelf – classic literature – beloved Russian [language] – the securest prison – the Cultural Revolution 4. sometimes they sing – Hua'er – no memory for music – an assistant – The Human Phonograph – opaque – a conductor – the tune is remarkable 5. his early days at factory 221 – the primitive conditions – comradeship – men like Four Eyes, and Badger, and Quartz, and Uncle Xu – tension in his voice – the reason of his promotion Task 6. Discuss the symbols of the story. Can you think of some other symbols relevant to the story?  singing  factory 221  Beijing  weather  library Task 7. Find out more about these historical and mythical personalities and phenomena. What figurative meaning do these words carry out? 1. … and the moon itself could perfectly well be Qinghai province for all anybody can tell, and one of the other translators, one who specializes in English, says Mr. Armstrong is saying. "A small step for man, a giant step for man' and she shades her eyes with her hands so nobody can see her cry." 2. She thinks of the legendary Peach Blossom Spring – the paradise that a fisherman once found by chance, he continued on his journey, and could never find it again. 3. The name of the first Bomb test was Operation Qilin. 4. The qilin is a mythical creature with the body of a deer, the tail of an ox, the hooves of a horse and a single horn. … According to the legend, if you burn the horn (what is it really – an antelope's) like a torch, you will see the future. 5. She thinks of Emperor Qin Shihuang, who was so determined to live forever that he took an elixir of immortality which contained mercury, and so brought about his own death. 6. She spends the day in the library stacks, arranging the books. There is rumored to be a cat that roams the base, a wild creature named by the physicists "Schrödinger''.

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Task 8. Comment upon the sentences given in bold. Provide some extra details. 1. They get into an open-framed vehicle, and a sergeant drives them. … A sparrow hawk wheels high above them. 2. … it is the securest of prisons and paradoxically it has most freedom. The Cultural Revolution does not apply here. The scientists are privileged exceptions – more valuable than giant pandas. 3. She is an object of admiration. Perhaps one day she too will become as unremarkable as this qilin. 4. He has secrets, of course. There are things he cannot even whisper in bed. 5. He lowers his gaze. He says with conviction, No, you don't have the talent to be my assistant. 6. When Chekhov wrote The Kiss, he was dying of tuberculosis. She understands him but does not forgive him. 7. Come to the orchid if you would like to taste the cherries; there are thousands of summer flowers blooming. Do not be sad because we are parting; in a few days we will meet. 8. The men and women pair off. She cannot hear through her window, but she supposes that each man is singing to his woman and each woman to her man. Task 9. Write an essay based on the story. Write no fewer than 200-250 words.

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LAST SEASON'S MAN About the Author Christian Karlson "Karl" Stead (born 17 October 1932) is a New Zealand writer whose works include novels, poetry, short stories, and literary criticism. One of Karl Stead's novels, Smith's Dream, provided the basis for the film Sleeping Dogs, starring Sam Neill; this became the first New Zealand film released in the United States. Mansfield: A Novel was a finalist for the 2005 Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize and received commendation in the 2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize for the South East Asia and South Pacific region. He won the 2010 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award for ''Last Season's Man''. C.K. Stead was born in Auckland. For much of his career he was Professor of English at the University of Auckland, retiring in 1986 to write fulltime. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to literature, in the 1985 New Year Honours, and was admitted into the highest civilian honour New Zealand can bestow, the Order of New Zealand in 2007. In August 2015, he was named the New Zealand Poet Laureate for 2015 to 2017. To celebrate the conclusion of CK Stead's term as Poet Laureate, the Alexander Turnbull Library published a signed, limited edition book of his work called In the mirror, and dancing. The little volume of poems was hand-pressed by Brendan O'Brien and illustrated with line sketches by New Zealand expatriate artist Douglas MacDiarmid. The book was launched on 8 August 2017 in Wellington, with the assistance of Gregory O'Brien. On 25 August 2017, Pasifika poet-scholar Dr Selina Tusitala Marsh was named the New Zealand Poet Laureate for 2017-2019. About the Story A bittersweet tale about the damaged ego of a Croatian intellectual has won the acclaimed New Zealand novelist and poet CK Stead the world's most valuable prize for a short story. In 2010 the story received the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank short story award. Task 1. Practice reading the following adjectives. 1. subltle – [ˈsʌtl] 2. enigmatic – [ˌenɪɡˈmætɪk] 3. precarious – [prɪˈkeəriəs] 4. sufficient – [səˈfɪʃənt] 5. genuine – [ˈdʒenjuɪn] 6. blasphemous – [ˈblæsfəməs] 48

7. reluctant – [rɪˈlʌktənt] 8. even-handed – [ˌiː.vənˈhæn.dɪd] 9. tranquil – [ˈtræŋ.kwɪl] 10. peculiar [pɪˈkjuː.li.ər] Task 2. Match the adjectives given above with their definitions a-j. 1. calm and quiet 2. as much as is necessary 3. not wanting to do something 4. mysterious and impossible to understand completely 5. delicate, not obvious or easy to notice 6. likely to become worse 7. sincere and honest 8. strange, often in an unpleasant way 9. expressing a disrespect for God and a religion 10. treating everyone fairly and equally Task 3. Fill in the gaps with the following adjectives: subtle, enigmatic, precarious, sufficient, genuine, blasphemous, reluctant, even-handed, tranquil, peculiar 1. Her health remained …, despite the treatment. 2. He shows a … concern for the welfare of his students. 3. The dog's … behavior worried them. 4. Several broadcasters have been criticized for failing to give … treatment to all the parties during the election campaign. 5. The book has been widely condemned as … . 6. The house was once again … after the kids moved outside to play. 7. It was her … way of telling me to mind my own business. 8. In the gallery there were some unfathomed, … paintings that seemed to embody the psyche of this brilliant but troubled artist. 9. She didn't have … time to answer all the questions. 10. Many victims of crime are … to go to the police. Task 4. Using the prefixes in-, im-, un- form the opposites. Significant, pervious, arguable, secure, forgiving, known, interrupted, tractable, equivocal, different, faithful, steady, certain, requited, stoppable, patient, mortal, usual, spoken, evitable, appropriate. Task 5. Identify the narrative arc of the story. Task 6. Answer the questions about the elements of the story. Setting 1. How is the setting created? Consider geography, weather, time of day, social conditions. 2. What role does setting play in the story? Is it an important 49

part of the plot or theme? Or is it just a backdrop against which the action takes place? 3. When was the story written? 4. Does it take place in the present, the past, or the future? 5. How does the time period affect the language, atmosphere or social circumstances of the short story? Characterisation 1. Who is the main character? 2. Has the author described the characters by physical appearance, thoughts and feelings, and interaction (the way they act towards others)? 3. Are they static/flat characters who do not change? 4. Are they dynamic/round characters who DO change? 5. What type of characters are they? What qualities stand out? Are they stereotypes? 6. Are the characters believable? Conflict 1. How would you describe the main conflict? 2. Is it an internal conflict within the character? 3. Is it an external conflict caused by the surroundings or environment the main character finds himself/herself in? Theme and Style 1. How is the theme expressed? 2. Are any elements repeated and therefore suggest a theme? 3. Is there more than one theme? 4. Is the author's language full of figurative language? 5. Does the author use a lot of symbolism? Metaphors (comparisons that do not use "as" or "like") or similes (comparisons that use "as" or "like")? Task 7. Comment upon the part given in bold. 1. Branko is "our very own Bergman". He is "among the immortals"! 2. Tomislav was tall, well-built, Byronically handsome and charming. 3. He was out o on the street with nowhere to go but the home of friends, a couple whose welcome was genuine but troubled, affected by the climate of the moment. 4. Now he was liberated form deep faith, and felt able to pray without worrying that such requests might be blasphemous. He would leave it to her to decide on the technical aspects of his petition. 5. Reviews of his work were of the "on the one hand, but on the other" kind; and when he met and talked to people, even good friends, there was often something unspoken hovering between them – a cloud, a reservation, a faint aura of embarrassment. 6. Branko made another visit to the Virgin. "Are you teasing me, Mother of God? Giving me my with in a form that is itself a punishment?" 7. He worked industriously and with a kind of stillness that was new. He was in a state of expectation, "waiting" (as he explained it once to close friends) "for the blow to fall". 8. One they had coffee together on the seafront and, thinking it might precipitate some kind of resolution, he told her that when they were together there was always an elephant in the room.

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Task 8. Recall the moment from the story using the following prompts. 1. Tomislav – his famous article – hit hard – devilish and unarguable accuracy – Branko didn't respond – self-defense – indifferent, impervious 2. twenty-eight – tall, well-built, Byronically handsome and charming – 'in fashion' – art openings – Zagreb's intellectual community – relaxed, smiling, witty 3. the breakup of his second marriage – sensitized, precarious, in need of a secure place or retreat and the support of a loving wife – the balance swung against Branko – no longer had protection – unfaithful husband 4. a side chapel of the cathedral – used to light a candle – the Virgin – would pray for the death of his enemy – blasphemous 5. No encounters – an art opening – a fine-looking young woman – his heart raced, his mouth went dry – in love with her – a fir of nerves, a panic attack, confusion Task 9. Write an essay based on the story. Write no fewer than 200-250 words.

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APPENDIX A USEFUL LANGUAGE FOR TEXT ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION The story is about … The story deals with … The story speaks about the morality of … The story describes the life of … The story shows the difference between … The story highlights one of the topical issues of today, … The story gives a vivid description of … The story gives a good insight into human nature. The story gives a good picture about how … The story gives a good horror feel. The story gives a good account of … The story gives a good warning to us to consider what … The story gives a good view of how things could have been back then. It's hard to understand at once … From the episode of … we see … Judging by this, we can say that … The story criticizes … The story reveals … The story raises questions about what it means … The events that follow show … The end of the story is quite unexpected … The end of the story is suggestive enough because … The point of the story is … The author's main point is about … It's interesting to note that … The story introduces us to the events … The attraction of the story lies in the fact that … If anything, the story is humorous. What strikes me as unusual is … It brings out the best (worst) in (smb) … It is the story of a man named … The plot centers round … The author proves to be a master of… The author gives a convincing picture of … The title of the story is rather suggestive/symbolic/implicit/catchy/highly relevant to the story's plot/. The story is humoruous / gripping / amusing / straightforward / dull and meandering / simplistic and predictable / fast-paced / melodramatic / moving / mysterious. 52

The plot is simple / complex / intricate / dynamic / full of unexpected twists. The story is written in the third/first person. The (protagonist), who tells the story as a first-person account, is the (lawyer Matthew Shardlake). The story is narrated mainly through internal monologues. The story is narrated by … The first-person narrator is vital to the story's impact. By showing the reader a narrator who is suffering deep emotional and mental problems, the story becomes less about (the factual events) and more about (the culture of the times).

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APPENDIX B GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS allegory An allegory is a symbolism device where the meaning of a greater, often abstract, concept is conveyed with the aid of a more corporeal object or idea being used as an example. Usually a rhetoric device, an allegory suggests a meaning via metaphoric examples. Example: Faith is like a stony uphill climb: a single stumble might send you sprawling but belief and steadfastness will see you to the very top. allusion An allusion is a figure of speech whereby the author refers to a subject matter such as a place, event, or literary work by way of a passing reference. It is up to the reader to make a connection to the subject being mentioned. analogy An analogy is a literary device that helps to establish a relationship based on similarities between two concepts or ideas. By using an analogy we can convey a new idea by using the blueprint of an old one as a basis for understanding. With a mental linkage between the two, one can create understanding regarding the new concept in a simple and succinct manner. Example: In the same way as one cannot have the rainbow without the rain, one cannot achieve success and riches without hard work. antagonist The entity that acts to frustrate the goals of the protagonist. The antagonist is usually another character but may also be a non-human force. antihero / antiheroine A protagonist who is not admirable or who challenges notions of what should be considered admirable. cacophony A cacophony in literature refers to the use of words and phrases that imply strong, harsh sounds within the phrase. These words have jarring and dissonant sounds that create a disturbing, objectionable atmosphere. Example: His fingers rapped and pounded the door, and his foot thumped against the yellowing wood. character A person, animal, or any other thing with a personality that appears in a narrative.

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climax The moment of greatest intensity in a text or the major turning point in the plot. coming-of-age story A type of novel where the protagonist is initiated into adulthood through knowledge, experience, or both, often by a process of disillusionment. Understanding comes after the dropping of preconceptions, a destruction of a false sense of security, or in some way the loss of innocence. conflict The central struggle that moves the plot forward. The conflict can be the protagonist's struggle against fate, nature, society, or another person. diction Word choice. Whether a character uses dry, clinical language or flowery prose with lots of exclamation points can tell you a lot about his or her attitude and personality. 
 epithet An epithet is a literary device that is used as a descriptive device. It is usually used to add to a person or place's regular name and attribute some special quality to the same. Epithets are remarkable in that they become a part of common parlance over time. These descriptive words and phrases can be used to enhance the persona of real and fictitious places, objects, persons and divinities. Example: “Alexander the Great” is the epithet commonly used to refer to Alexander III of Macedon. The young king has come to be recognized by this epithet in all of history and popular culture owing to his spectacular achievements in creating one of the largest ever historical empires. figurative language Language that is not meant to be interpreted literally. The most common types of figurative language are metaphors and similes, which compare two unlike things in order to suggest a similarity between them – for example, "All the world's a stage," or "The moon is like a ball of green cheese." (Metaphors say one thing is another thing; similes claim that one thing is like another thing.) first-person point of view A literary style in which the narrator tells the story from his or her own point of view and refers to himself or herself as "I." The narrator may be an active participant in the story or just an observer.

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flashback Flashback is a literary device wherein the author depicts the occurrence of specific events to the reader, which have taken place before the present time the narration is following, or events that have happened before the events that are currently unfolding in the story. Flashback devices that are commonly used are past narratives by characters, depictions and references of dreams and memories and a sub device known as authorial sovereignty wherein the author directly chooses to refer to a past occurrence by bringing it up in a straightforward manner. Flashback is used to create a background to the present situation, place or person. Example: Back in the day when Sarah was a young girl… foil A foil is another character in a story who contrasts with the main character, usually to highlight one of their attributes. Example: In the popular book series, Harry Potter, the character of Hogwarts principal Albus Dumbledore, who portrays "good", is constantly shown to believe in the power of true love (of all forms and types) and is portrayed as a strong, benevolent and positive character while the antagonist Lord Voldemort, who depicts the evil and "bad" in the series is constantly shown to mock and disbelieve the sentiment of love and think of it as a foolish indulgence, a trait that is finally his undoing. foreshadowing The literary device foreshadowing refers to the use of indicative word or phrases and hints that set the stage for a story to unfold and give the reader a hint of something that is going to happen without revealing the story or spoiling the suspense. Foreshadowing is used to suggest an upcoming outcome to the story. Example: "He had no idea of the disastrous chain of events to follow". In this sentence, while the protagonist is clueless of further developments, the reader learns that something disastrous and problematic is about to happen to/for him. hero / heroine The principal character in a literary work or narrative. hyperbole A hyperbole is a literary device wherein the author uses specific words and phrases that exaggerate and overemphasize the basic crux of the statement in order to produce a grander, more noticeable effect. The purpose of hyperbole is to create a larger-than-life effect and overly stress a specific point. Such sentences usually convey an action or sentiment that is generally not practically/ realistically possible or plausible but helps emphasize an emotion. Example: "I am so tired I cannot walk another inch" or "I'm so sleepy I might fall asleep standing here".

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imagery Language that brings to mind sense-impressions, representing things that can be seen, smelled, heard, tasted, or touched. irony The use of irony in literature refers to playing around with words such that the meaning implied by a sentence or word is actually different from the literal meaning. Often irony is used to suggest the stark contrast of the literal meaning being put forth. The deeper, real layer of significance is revealed not by the words themselves but the situation and the context in which they are placed. Example: Writing a sentence such as, "Oh! What fine luck I have!". The sentence on the surface conveys that the speaker is happy with their luck but actually what they mean is that they are extremely unhappy and dissatisfied with their (bad) luck. litotes Litotes are figures of rhetoric speech that use an understated statement of an affirmative by using a negative description. Rarely talked about, but commonly used in modern day conversations, litotes are a discreet way of saying something unpleasant without directly using negativity. Sometimes called an ironical understatement and/or an avoidance of a truth which can be either positive or negative. Common examples: "I'm not feeling bad," or "he's definitely not a rocket scientist." The actual meanings are: "I am feeling well," and "he is not smart." Litotes were used frequently in Old English Poetry and Literature, and can be found in the English, Russian, German, Dutch and French languages. metaphor Metaphors are one of the most extensively used literary devices. A metaphor refers to a meaning or identity ascribed to one subject by way of another. In a metaphor, one subject is implied to be another so as to draw a comparison between their similarities and shared traits. The first subject, which is the focus of the sentences is usually compared to the second subject, which is used to convey a degree of meaning that is used to characterize the first. The purpose of using a metaphor is to take an identity or concept that we understand clearly (second subject) and use it to better understand the lesser known element (the first subject). metonymy Metonymy in literature refers to the practice of not using the formal word for an object or subject and instead referring to it by using another word that is intricately linked to the formal name or word. It is the practice of substituting the main word with a word that is closely linked to it.

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mood The literary device "mood" refers to a definitive stance the author adopts in shaping a specific emotional perspective towards the subject of the literary work. It refers to the mental and emotional disposition of the author towards the subject, which in turn lends a particular character or atmosphere to the work. The final tone achieved thus is instrumental in evoking specific, appropriate responses from the reader. motif A recurring idea, structure, contrast, or device that develops or informs the major themes of a work of literature. narrator The person (sometimes a character) who tells a story; the voice assumed by the writer. The narrator may straightforwardly report what happens, convey the subjective opinions and perceptions of one or more characters, or provide commentary and opinion in his or her own voice. The narrator and the author of the work of literature are not the same person. nemesis In literature, the use of a nemesis refers to a situation of poetic justice wherein the positive characters are rewarded and the negative characters are penalized. The word also sometimes refers to the character or medium by which this justice is brought about as Nemesis was the patron goddess of vengeance according to classical mythology. Example: In the popular book series Harry Potter, the protagonist Harry Potter is the nemesis of the evil Lord Voldemort. onomatopoeia The term "onomatopoeia" refers to words whose very sound is very close to the sound they are meant to depict. In other words, it refers to sound words whose pronunciation to the actual sound they represent. oxymoron Oxymoron is a significant literary device as it allows the author to use contradictory, contrasting concepts placed together in a manner that actually ends up making sense in a strange, and slightly complex manner. An oxymoron is an interesting literary device because it helps to perceive a deeper level of truth and explore different layers of semantics while writing. Example: Sometimes we cherish things of little value. / He possessed a cold fire in his eyes. plot The arrangement of the events in a story, including the sequence in which they are told, the relative emphasis they are given, and the causal connections between events. 58

point of view The perspective from which a story is told. In first-person point of view, the narrator involves him or herself in the story. ("I went to the store"; "We watched in horror as the bird slammed into the window.") A first-person narrator is usually the protagonist of the work, but not always. In third-person point of view, the narrator does not participate in the story. A third-person narrator may closely follow a specific character, recounting that individual character's thoughts or experiences, or it may be what we call an omniscient narrator. Omniscient narrators see and know all: they can witness any event in any time or place and are privy to the inner thoughts and feelings of all characters. Remember that the narrator and the author are not the same thing! protagonist The main character around whom the story revolves. setting The location of a narrative in time and space. Setting creates mood or atmosphere. simile Similes are one of the most commonly used literary devices; referring to the practice of drawing parallels or comparisons between two unrelated and dissimilar things, people, beings, places and concepts. By using similes a greater degree of meaning and understanding is attached to an otherwise simple sentence. The reader is able to better understand the sentiment the author wishes to convey. Similes are marked by the use of the words 'as' or 'such as' or 'like'. Example: He is like a mouse in front of the teacher. structure and organization How the parts of the work
 are assembled. Some novels and stories are narrated in a linear, chronological fashion, while others skip around in time. Some plays follow a traditional three-or five-act structure, while others are a series of loosely connected scenes. Some authors deliberately leave gaps in their works, leaving readers to puzzle out the missing information. A work's structure and organization can tell you a lot about the kind of message it wants to convey. subplot A secondary plot that is of less importance to the overall story but may serve as a point of contrast or comparison to the main plot. suspense Suspense is the intense feeling that an audience goes through while waiting for the outcome of certain events. It basically leaves the reader holding their breath and wanting more information. The amount of intensity in a suspenseful moment is why it is hard to put a book down. Without suspense, a 59

reader would lose interest quickly in any story because there is nothing that is making the reader ask, "What's going to happen next?" In writing, there has to be a series of events that leads to a climax that captivates the audience and makes them tense and anxious to know what is going to happen. symbol An object, character, figure, or color that is used to represent an abstract idea or concept. Unlike an emblem, a symbol may have different meanings in different contexts. synecdoche A synecdoche is a literary devices that uses a part of something to refer to the whole or vice versa. It is somewhat rhetorical in nature, where the entire object is represented by way of a fraction of it or a fraction of the object is symbolized by the whole. Example: "Weary feet in the walk of life", does not refer to the feet actually being tired or painful; it is symbolic of a long, hard struggle through the journey of life and feeling low, tired, unoptimistic and "the walk of life'' does not represent an actual path or distance covered, instead refers to the entire sequence of life events that has made the person tired. syntax Word order and sentence construction. Syntax is
 a crucial part of establishing an author's narrative voice. Ernest Hemingway, for example, is known for writing in very short, straightforward sentences, while James Joyce characteristically wrote in long, incredibly complicated lines. 
 theme A fundamental and universal idea explored in a literary work. A work may have many themes, which may be in tension with one another. tone The author's attitude toward the subject or characters of a story or poem or toward the reader and/or the mood or feeling of the text. Diction and syntax often contribute to the tone of a work. A novel written in short, clipped sentences that use small, simple words might feel brusque, cold, or matter-offact. tragedy In literature, the concept of tragedy refer to a series of unfortunate events by which one or more of the literary characters in the story undergo several misfortunes, which finally culminate into a disaster of ''epic proportions". Tragedy is generally built up in 5 stages: a) happy times b) the introduction of a problem c) the problem worsens to a crisis or dilemma d) the characters are

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unable to prevent the problem from taking over e) the problem results in some catastrophic, grave ending, which is the tragedy culminated. voice An author's individual way of using language to reflect his or her own personality and attitudes. An author communicates voice through tone, diction, and syntax.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Evans V., Dooley J. Pathways to Literature. Teacher's book. UK: Express Publishing, 2014. 2. McMahan E., Coleman L.S. Literature and the writing process. Pearson: Pearson Education, Inc. 2017. 3. Thompson L. Love Stories. Oxford: Macmillan Education, 2009. INTERNET SOURCES 1. AP English notes. Available at: https://www.apstudynotes.org/ english/sample-essays/character-analysis-hamlet/ (accessed 28 July 2018). 2. CourseHero. Available at: https://www.coursehero.com/ (accessed 20 July 2018). 3. Discover The Basic Elements Of Setting In A Story. Available at: http://www.writersdigest.com/tip-of-the-day/discover-the-basic-elements-of-set ting-in-a-story (accessed 23 August 2018). 4. How To Write A Character Analysis Essay. Available at: https://essaypro.com/blog/character-analysis-essay/ (accessed 21 August 2018). 5. How To Write A Theme Essay. Available at: https://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Theme-Essay (accessed 21 August 2018). 6. How To Write An Essay On The Theme Of A Book. Available at: https://penandthepad.com/write-essay-theme-book-2200.html (accessed 20 August 2018). 7. How To Write Literary Analysis. Available at: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/rebecca/how-to-write-literary-analysis/ (accessed 21 August 2018). 8. Literary Devices. Available at: http://literary-devices.com/ (accessed 23 August 2018). 9. 13 Types of readers everyone knows, because we aren't all alike. Available at: https://www.bustle.com/articles/166488-13-types-of-readerseveryone-knows-because-we-arent-all-alike (accessed 18 August 2018). 10. Neil Gaiman: why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/ neil-gaiman-future-libraries-reading-daydreaming (accessed 15 September 2020).

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