Discussion 5
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This week, we will continue our discussion on the elements of fiction, focusing on plot structure, theme, symbols, and figurative language. Be sure to read the definitions of those terms before responding to this discussion.
For this week's discussion, you will use the same format you did last week to develop your response through a series of questions.
Read both "Homecoming" and "The David Thuo Show" and write out your responses to the following questions for one of the stories. Explain your answers using examples and quotes from the story as well as terminology from the list of definitions in Learning Resources. Be sure to document your responses using MLA formatting.
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Week 5, Learning Resources
During Week 5, we continue our focus on the short story and its elements. Last week we considered plot, character, and point of view. We will build on that material by adding other elements into our discussion.
As a review, keep in mind that short stories have five main elements: theme, plot, characters, setting, and point-of-view. We bring a set of expectations about the arrangement of these elements when we read stories. As we saw last week, we expect the plot to have a clear beginning, middle, and end. We expect background information on the characters to be introduced in the beginning, the main character to be engaged in a conflict in the middle, and the conflict to be resolved in some way by the end.
Traditionally stories have followed this pattern. Contemporary authors, however, often diverge from tradition and experiment with ways to make story construction more closely reflect their individual points of view. Their fiction challenges our expectations by beginning a story in the middle (in medias res), avoiding a clear resolution of the conflict, or disrupting convention in other ways. Whether authors follow or diverge from traditional story and character development, they must carefully arrange the elements of the story into a unified whole in order to convey meaning.
This week we add the elements of theme, setting, and symbol and figurative language. These elements function at a higher level of analysis: we sometimes have to stop and reread a section or look for the ways that the writer is using language, literally and metaphorically, to convey an idea. That idea is often the underlying theme of the story.
As you need to, keep reviewing the following materials about the documentation style of the Modern Language Association ("MLA"). You will need to use this documentation style in your upcoming papers and projects, including the paper due at the end of Week 5. In the discussion, continue to practice documenting your writing by including a reference to the page number where you found your example(s) in the short story. You will need to do so for the upcoming assignment which is due at the end of the week.
- The Purdue OWL: MLA Style
- UMGC Library: MLA Citation Examples
Literary Terms for Week 5: Fiction
- setting: where (a geographical or physical place) and when (present, past, future, time of day, season) the story takes place, if known, along with any physical details. The setting can establish the mood, situation, and tone of the story.
- symbol
- theme
- Figurative language (see also links to metaphor, simile, personification, irony)
Student Analysis of "The Yellow Wallpaper"
The theme in "The Yellow Wallpaper" deals with feminine oppression and its psychological effects. The narrator of the story is confined at home recovering from an illness. She feels that she could be useful by doing some "congenial work, with excitement and change." However, her husband John is a physician and thinks that he knows what is best for her, which is why he continuously dissuades her from expressing ideas that involve more than being a domestic housewife. The theme of female imprisonment becomes clear through the focus on the room, decorated with yellow wallpaper, where the narrator is basically confined. Throughout the story, the narrator makes several statements that focus on the yellow wallpaper and its unwanted influence upon her. For example, she states that the wallpaper has "a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down." By the narrator personifying the wallpaper, she is able to convince readers how trapped she feels. The "two bulbous eyes" likely refers to the narrator feeling that she is being watched by her husband. In another statement, the narrator states that "the wallpaper sticks closer than a brother - they must have had perseverance as well as hatred."
Through her narrative, readers learn that she stares at the pattern of the yellow wallpaper and discovers the figures of several women in it, who are trapped behind bars. As a result of her being repeatedly discouraged by her husband to do anything creative or useful, she focuses on the image of one woman in the wallpaper, and becomes inspired to liberate "the woman." In the story, the yellow wallpaper is symbolic of the theme in several aspects. First, the fact that it is yellow in color symbolizes her illness and the repeated references to the sunlight. The issue of feminine oppression relates to the mention of sunlight because she cannot be creative during the day and must keep to the list of domestic duties that her husband prescribes for her. On the other hand, the color yellow becomes a positive symbolism to her, in that she has freedom at night under the moonlight, when she can liberate herself. She also describes the wallpaper as "a smoldering, unclean yellow." The pattern of the wallpaper is symbolic in that she describes it with "bars...as if it had been through wars...and moving from the woman behind it shaking." Through the course of action with her in the room with the wallpaper, she identifies the unjust rules and restrictions that women are being forced to live by, which in turn, gives her motivation to tear down the wallpaper and liberate herself.
Faculty Comments
You make several good points about the story, Theresa, but some concerning the symbolic structure of the story need to be clarified. In your first paragraph you need to explain the significance of the quote about the wallpaper sticking "closer than a brother." I also am not clear on the association between the yellow wallpaper and sunlight. I like your point that the yellow color suggests her illness. Use the quote about it being "a smoldering, unclean yellow" to support this. Also, I'm not sure I would associate the color yellow with moonlight.
Your first sentence could be used as a thesis statement. You could develop/support this thesis through an examination of the story's symbolic structure or include other elements such as point of view or plot development. However you choose to support your thesis, make sure your paragraphs are organized around one main point that relates to/supports your thesis and that you have smooth transitions between paragraphs.
How Do We Write about Short Stories? From Idea to Essay
Theresa Dozier, the student who has written these responses, needs to find a good focus for her essay. She decides that she wants to look at oppression and its psychological effects and show how specific fictional elements in the story help support this focus.
Theresa's next step is to determine how she will support her thesis with the following outline:
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- Second body paragraph focusing on the story's point of view
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As you read through her essay, note the careful inclusion of relevant details and quotes that help develop and support her thesis. Click here to read Theresa's essay.
Read:
Samuel Munene's "The David Thuo Show"
Once you have read the materials and studied the terms, please proceed to the discussion for the weekly conversation about our readings.
There are 2 short stories. One is by Vamba Sherif called "Homecoming" and the other is "The David Thuo Show" by Samuel Munene
https://learn.umgc.edu/d2l/le/lessons/1376726/units/35728608
" The David Thuo Show" is written by Samuel Munene, a writer based in Nairobi, Kenya. He writes fiction and creative non-fiction. He has been published in various journals, including Kwani. Amongst other work, he co-wrote the script of the award-winning Kenyan movie, Nairobi Half-Life.
One World Two : A Second Global Anthology of Short Stories, edited by Chris Brazier, and Ovo Adagha, New Internationalist Publications, Limited, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/umuc/detail.action?docID=5944938.
SAMUEL MUNENE Kenya THE DAVID THUO SHOW The First Big Quarrel happened on the eve of my 13th birthday. That was the first time Dad and Mum argued loud enough for us to hear almost every word from their bedroom. Mum accused Dad of cheating and Dad accused Mum of sleeping with her boss. For a short period after that we didn’t talk amongst ourselves. We were silent even when watching television. Then Mum started laughing mockingly whenever watching The Jeffersons in Dad’s presence. Initially I didn’t understand why Mum had suddenly developed a liking for the comedy but then I noticed how Mr Jefferson – short, bald and clumsy – looked very similar to Dad. On Thursdays Dad made sure to come home after 7.30pm, when The Jeffersons had been aired but in time for Love and Hate, another sitcom. Dad also started laughing when watching comedies. Previously Dad had looked bored when they aired but now he loved them more than any other program. Again I didn’t comprehend the change of taste until I observed he snickered only in those parts not obviously funny, when the rest of us would be silent, waiting for the punchline. His laughter had nothing to do with jokes; it was just a way of making the rest of us in the family look unintelligent. We got the flow. Mum raised her game, for that is what it was turning out to be. Mum’s favorite program was Love Is Made Of This, a Mexican soap opera. In it, Lorenzo, the lead character, acted the perfect husband; hard-working, rich and showering his wife with lots of gifts. Watching the program, Mum placed her hands on her chest and moaned softly. The rest of us seemed lost. The fact that we could not connect emotionally to the program as Mum did meant that we were
One World Two : A Second Global Anthology of Short Stories, edited by Chris Brazier, and Ovo Adagha, New Internationalist Publications, Limited, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/umuc/detail.action?docID=5944938.
