Understanding the work as a whole: Interpretation and synthesis

To write about a work as a whole. You must understand it thoroughly. You must consider each of its parts separately before you can interpret the meaning of entire work. Here is a list of questions about the parts of short story. After have read a short story carefully, ask yourself the following questions: 

1.Author: Who is the author is the story?

2.Title: What is the story title? Does the title suggest the story's subject or them?

3.Setting: What are the time and place of the story? What mood is created by setting? Does the setting determine the action or conflict of the story/

4.Point of view: Is the story written from the first or third person point of view? Is the narrator limited or omniscient?

5.central conflict: What is the central conflict, or struggle, of the story? Is this conflict is external. Is it a conflict between two people, between a person nature. Between a person and society, or between a person and supernatural force?

6.Plot: What are the major events of the story? what happens in introduction? What is the inciting incident? What happens during development? What is the climax of the story? How is the central conflict resolved, or ended? What, if anything, happens after the resolution? That is, does the story have a denouement? 

      What special plot devices are used in the story? Does the story make use of foreshadowing or flashbacks? Is the story suspenful? If so, what expectations on the part of the reader create this suspense? Does the story have a surprise ending?

7.Characterization: Who is the main character, or protagonist? Who are the other major and minor characters? What is the revealed in the story about each character's appearance, personality, background, motivations, and relationships? What conflicts do these characters face? Which of these characters change in the course of the story and in what ways? What roles do the minor characters play in advancing the action of the story?

8.Devices of sound and figures of speech: Does the story make use of special devices of sound such as onomatopoeia or parallelism? of figures of speech such as metaphor or hyperbole?

9.Theme: What is the theme, or message, of the story? How is this theme revealed?

          In this lesson you will learn how to write a composition of several paragraphs that explains you interpretation of a short story. Your composition will have three main parts: an introduction will include include a thesis statement- a sentence that makes an important general point about the story. The body will give specific examples from the story that support the thesis statement. Your answers to the questions in the preceding list will provide these examples. Finally, the conclusion will restate the thesis statement and sum up the main point of your composition.