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| Preface | |
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| the Process of Reading, Responding to, and Writing About Literature | |
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| What Is Literature, and Why Do We Study It? | |
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| Types of Literature: the Genres | |
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| Reading Literature and Responding to It Actively | |
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| Alice Walker Everyday Use | |
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| Mrs. Johnson, with her daughter Maggie, is visited by her citified daughter Dee, whose return home is accompanied by surprises. | |
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| Reading and Responding in a Computer File or Notebook | |
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| Sample Notebook Entries on Walker's "Everyday Use" | |
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| Major Stages in Thinking and Writing about Literary Topics: Discovering Ideas, Preparing to Write, Making an Initial Draft of Your Essay, and Completing the Essay | |
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| Writing Does Not Come Easily-for Anyone | |
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| The Goal of Writing: to Show a Process of Thought | |
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| Discovering Ideas ("Brainstorming") | |
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| Study the Characters in the Work | |
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| Determine the Work's Historical Period and Background | |
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| Analyze the Work's Economic and Social Conditions | |
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| Explain the Work's Major Ideas | |
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| Describe the Work's Artistic Qualities | |
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| Explain Any Other Approaches That Seem Important | |
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| Preparing to Write | |
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| Build Ideas from Your Original Notes | |
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| Trace Patterns of Action and Thought | |
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| The Need for the Actual Physical Process of Writing | |
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| Raise and Answer Your Own Questions | |
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| Put Ideas Together Using a Plus-Minus, Pro-Con, or Either-Or Method | |
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| Originate and Develop Your Thoughts Through Writing | |
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| Making an Initial Draft of Your Essay | |
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| Base Your Essay on a Central Idea, Argument, or Statement | |
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| The Need for a Sound Argument in Essays About Literature | |
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| Create a Thesis Sentence as Your Guide to Organization | |
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| Begin Each Paragraph with a Topic Sentence | |
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| Select Only One Topic-No More-for Each Paragraph | |
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| Referring to the Names of Authors | |
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| Use Your Topic Sentences as the Arguments for Your Paragraph Development | |
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| The Use of Verb Tenses in the Discussion of Literary Works | |
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| Develop an Outline as the Means of Organizing Your Essay | |
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| Basic Writing Types: Paragraphs and Essays | |
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| Paragraph Assignment | |
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| Illustrative Student Essay (First Draft): Mrs. Johnson's Overly Self-Assured Daughter, Dee, in Walker's "Everyday Use" (NEW) | |
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| Completing the Essay: Developing and Strengthening Your Essay Through Revision | |
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| Make Your Own Arrangement of Details and Ideas | |
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| Use Literary Material as Evidence to Support Your Argument | |
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| Always Keep to Your Point; Stick to It Tenaciously | |
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| Check Your Development and Organization | |
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| Try to Be Original | |
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| Write with Specific Readers as Your Intended Audience | |
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| Use Exact, Comprehensive, and Forceful Language | |
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| Illustrative Student Essay (Improved Draft): Mrs. Johnson's Overly Self-Assured Daughter, Dee, in Walker's "Everyday Use" (NEW) | |
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| Commentary on the Essay | |
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| Essay Commentaries | |
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| A Summary of Guidelines | |
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| Writing Topics About the Writing Process | |
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| A Short Guide to the Use of References and Quotations in Essays About Literature | |
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| Integrate Passages and Ideas into Your Essay | |
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| Distinguish Your Thoughts from Those of Your Author | |
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| Integrate Material by Using Quotation Marks | |
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| Blend Quotations into Your Own Sentences | |
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| Indent Long Quotations and Set Them in Block Format | |
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| Use an Ellipsis to Show Omissions | |
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| Use Square Brackets to Enclose Words That You Add Within Quotations | |
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| Be Careful Not to Overquote | |
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| Preserve the Spellings in Your Source | |
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| Reading and Writing About Fiction | |
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| Fiction: An Overview | |
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| Modern Fiction | |
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| The Short Story | |
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| Elements of Fiction I: Verisimilitude and Donn�e | |
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| Elements of Fiction II: Character, Plot, Structure, and Idea or Theme | |
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| Elements of Fiction III: the Writer's Tools | |
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| Visualizing Fiction: Cartoons, Graphic Narratives, Graphic Novels | |
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| Dan Piraro, Bizarro � Art Spiegelman, from Maus (Expanded) | |
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| Stories For Study | |
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| An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge | |
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| A condemned man dreams of escape, freedom, and family. | |
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| 'Mericans (NEW) | |
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| Through an evil act, a man learns goodness. | |
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| A Rose for Emily | |
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| Even seemingly ordinary people hide deep and bizarre mysteries. | |
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| the Things They Carried | |
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| During the Vietnam War, American soldiers carry not only their weighty equipment but many memories. | |
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| Luigi Pirandello War | |
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| During World War I in Italy, the loss of a loved one outweighs all rationalizations for the conflict. | |
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| Plot: the Motivation and Causality of Fiction | |
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| Writing About the Plot of a Story | |
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| Illustrative Student Essay: Plot in William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" (NEW) | |
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| Writing Topics About Plot in Fiction | |
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| Point of View: the Position or Stance of the Work's Narrator or Speaker | |
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| An Exercise in Point of View: Reporting an Accident | |
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| Conditions That Affect Point of View | |
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| Point of View and Opinions | |
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| Determining a Work's Point of View | |
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| Mingling Points of View | |
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| Point of View and Verb Tense | |
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| Summary: Guidelines for Points of View | |
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| Stories For Study | |
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| This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona (NEW) | |
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| Two old acquaintances friends embark on a journey to recover the body of one of their fathers. | |
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| Neighbors | |
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| Bill and Arlene Miller are looking after the apartment of the Stones, their neighbors, whose life seems to be brighter and fuller than theirs. | |
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| The Lottery | |
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| What would it be like if the prize at a community-sponsored lottery were not the cash that people ordinarily hope to win? | |
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| What I Have Been Doing Lately | |
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| Life develops from the repetition and recirculation of dreams and fantasies. | |
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| How to Become a Writer | |
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| There is more to becoming a writer than simply sitting down at a table and beginning to write. | |
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| Writing About Point of View | |
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| Illustrative Student Essay: Shirley Jackson's Dramatic Point of View in "The Lottery" | |
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| Writing Topics About Point of View | |
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| Characters: the People in Fiction | |
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| Character Traits | |
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| How Authors Disclose Character in Literature | |
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| Types of Characters: Round and Flat | |
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| Reality and Probability: Verisimilitude | |
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| Stories For Study | |
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| Greasy Lake (NEW) | |
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| Young men discover more than a way to kill time at this local hangout. | |
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| Cathedral | |
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| A husband and wife receive a blind visitor who affects the man's way of seeing things. | |
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| A Jury of Her Peers | |
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| In a small farmhouse kitchen, the wives of men investigating a murder discover significant evidence that forces them to make an urgent decision. | |
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| Miss Brill | |
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| Miss Brill goes to the park for a pleasant afternoon, but she does not find what she was expecting. | |
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| The Necklace | |
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| To go to a ball, Mathilde Loisel borrows a necklace from a rich friend, but her rhapsodic evening has unforeseen consequences. | |
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| Two Kinds | |
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| Jing-Mei leads her own kind of life despite the wishes and hopes of her mother. | |
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| Luck | |
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| A faithful follower describes an English general who was knighted for military brilliance. | |
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| Writing About Character | |
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| Illustrative Student Essay: The Character of Minnie Wright in Glaspell's "A Jury of Her Peers" | |
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| Writing Topics About Character | |
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| Setting: the Background of Place, Objects, and Culture in Stories | |
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| What Is Setting? | |
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| The Literary Uses of Setting | |
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| Stories For Study | |
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| Stephen Crane the Blue Hotel (NEW) | |
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| Araby | |
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| An introspective boy learns much about himself when he tries to keep a promise. | |
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| Lu Hsun My Old Home (NEW) | |
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| A man revisits his childhood home. | |
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| Swaddling Clothes (NEW) | |
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| A young woman confronts the realities of life in the lower classes in turn of the century Japan. | |
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| The Shawl | |
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| Can a mother in a Nazi concentration camp save her starving and crying baby? | |
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| Writing About Setting | |
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| Illustrative Student Essay: The Interaction of Story and Setting in James Joyce's "Araby" (NEW) | |
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| Writing Topics About Setting | |
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| Structure: the Organization of Stories | |
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| Formal Categories of Structure | |
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| Formal and Actual Structure | |
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| Stories For Study | |
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| Battle Royal | |
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| An intelligent black student, filled with hopes and dreams, is treated with monstrous indignity. | |
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| Saboteur (NEW) | |
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| Wrongfully detained, a man has revenge as a meal to celebrate his escape. | |
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| the Interpreter of Maladies (NEW) | |
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| A tour guide learns about a troubled American family on a visit to ruins. | |
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| Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? | |
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| A teenage girl is visited by an aggressive stranger who does not accept "no" for an answer. | |
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| A Worn Path | |
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| Phoenix Jackson, a devoted grandmother, walks a worn path on a mission of great love. | |
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| Blue Winds Dancing | |
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| A Native American student leaves college in California to spend Christmas in his hometown in Wisconsin. | |
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| Writing About Structure in a Story | |
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| Illustrative Student Essay: The Structure of Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path" | |
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| Writing Topics About Structure | |
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| Tone and Style: the Words That Convey Attitudes in Fiction | |
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| Diction: the Writer's Choice and Control of Words | |
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| Tone, Irony, and Style | |
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| Tone, Humor, and Style | |
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| Stories For Study | |
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| The Story of an Hour | |
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| Louise Mallard is shocked and grieved by news that her husband has been killed, but she is about to have an even greater shock. | |
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| Barn Burning | |
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| A young country boy grows in awareness, conscience, and individuality despite his hostile father. | |
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| Hills Like White Elephants | |
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| While waiting for a train, a man and woman reluctantly discuss an urgent situation. | |
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| The Found Boat | |
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| After winter snows have melted in a small Canadian community, young people start making discoveries about themselves. | |
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| First Confession | |
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| Jackie as a young man tells about his first childhood experience with confession. | |
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| Orientation | |
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| A new employee is introduced to the rather unusual and surprising situations in the office. | |
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| John Updike A & P | |
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| As a checkout clerk at the A & P near the local beaches, Sammy learns about the consequences of a difficult choice. | |
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| Writing About Tone and Style | |
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| Illustrative Student Essay: Frank O'Connor's Control of Tone and Style in "First Confession" | |
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| Writing Topics About Tone and Style | |
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| Symbolism and Allegory: Keys to Extended Meaning | |
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| Symbolism | |
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| Allegory | |
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| Fable, Parable, and Myth | |
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| Allusion in Symbolism and Allegory | |
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| Stories For Study | |
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| AESOP: The Fox and the Grapes | |
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| What do people think about things that they can't have? | |
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| Anonymous The Myth of Atalanta | |
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| In ancient times, how could a superior woman maintain power and integrity? | |
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| Young Goodman Brown | |
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| In colonial Salem, Goodman Brown has a bewildering encounter that changes his outlook on life. | |
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| A Hunger Artist | |
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| Public interest wanes even in a unique person. | |
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| LUKE The Parable of the Prodigal Son | |
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| Is there any limit to what a person can do to make divine forgiveness impossible? | |
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| A Marquez A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings | |
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| How do simple villagers respond to a miraculous visitor who appears in their town? | |
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| The Jilting of Granny Weatherall | |
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| As the end nears, Granny Weatherall has her memories and is surrounded by her loving adult children. | |
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| The Chrysanthemums | |
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| As a housewife on a small ranch, Elisa Allen experiences changes to her sense of self-worth. | |
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| Writing About Symbolism and Allegory | |
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| Illustrative Student Essay (Symbolism): Symbols of Light and Darkness in Porter's "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall"Second Illustrative Student Essay (Allegory): The Allegory of Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" | |
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| Writing Topics About Symbolism and Allegory | |
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| Idea or Theme: the Meaning and the Message in Fiction | |
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| Ideas and Assertions | |
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| Ideas and Issues | |
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| Ideas and Values | |
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| The Place of Ideas in Literature | |
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| How to Find Ideas | |
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| Stories For Study | |
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| Sonny's Blues | |
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| A devoted brother describes how his brother, Sonny, is hurt by racial prejudice, and how Sonny finds fulfillment through love of music. | |
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| The Lesson | |
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| When a group of children visits a toy store for the wealthy, some of them draw conclusions about society and themselves. | |
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| The Lady with the Dog | |
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| Bored with life, Dmitri Gurov meets Anna Sergeyevna and discovers previously unknown emotions and extremely new problems. | |
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| The Horse Dealer's Daughter | |
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| Dr. Jack Fergusson and Mabel Pervin find, in each other's love, a new reason for being. | |
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| The Hammon and the Beans | |
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| Is American liberty restricted to people of only one group, or is it for everyone? | |
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| Writing About a Major Idea in Fiction | |
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| Illustrative Student Essay: D. H. Lawrence's "The Horse Dealer's Daughter" as an Expression of the Idea that Loving Commitment is Essential in Life | |
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| Writing Topics About Ideas | |
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| A Career in Fiction: Four Stories by Edgar Allan Poe with Critical Readings for Research | |
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| Poe's Life and Career | |
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| Poe's Work as a Journalist and Writer of Fiction | |
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| Poe's Reputation | |
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| Bibliographic Sources | |
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| Writing Topics About Poe | |
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| Four Stories by Edgar Allan POE (CHRONOLOGICALly arranged) | |
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| The Fall of the House of Usher (1839) | |
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| The Masque of the Red Death (1842) | |
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| The Black Cat (1843) | |
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| The Cask of Amontillado (1846) | |
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| Edited Selections from Criticism of Poe's Stories | |
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| Poe's Irony | |
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| the Narrators of "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Fall of the House of Usher" | |
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| "The Fall of the House of Usher" | |
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| "The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" | |
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| "The Masque of the Red Death" | |
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| Symbolism in "The Masque of the Red Death" | |
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| "The Masque of the Red Death" as Representative of a "Diseased Age" | |