Madison Hodges

SEAO: Plainswoman
MLA Citation
Forrest, Williams. Plainswoman. The Language of Literature. Ed. Applebee, Arthur, et
al. Evanston, Il.: McDougal Littell, 2002. 8-19. E-text.
Importance of Title
The importance of the title is explaining the the protagonist is a plainswoman; a
woman who lives on the great plains.
Purpose
To learn to identify the elements of a short story.
Point of View
The point of view is third person limited because you can only see the thought
process and the emotions of the protagonist.
The narrator is reliable because there is no evidence to state that they are
unreliable.
Setting
The setting is in The Great Plains of the United States. It takes place during the
1840s and 1850s, because there was no mention of any cars for traveling. Its
Autumn, about to be winter. The duration of the action is only a few minutes long.
Characters
The protagonist is Flat and dynamic. Shes the stereotypical fragile woman who
depends on males in the era of time she was in. Shes dynamic because
eventually at the end of the story she changes her mind about removing the
finger.
The antagonist is nature or the plains because its preventing her from going to
the city and taking care of her problems. Its a dangerous, isolated place that she
may have to live in alone if she doesnt help out the man who suffers from a
potentially fatal infection.

Minor Characters: Pleny, the man whos got an infection on his finger that will
eventually kill him if not properly attended to. He is build external plot conflict.

The other minor characters would be the pregnant lady on the train, the young
cowboy, and the woman with the gun. They all appear in the flashback.

Conflict:
The external conflict would be Pleny and his finger, how the Plainswoman has
to remove the infected finger.
The internal conflict includes how she struggles with the thought of being alone
on the dangerous plains and what she would have to do to protect her baby.
The main conflict is a mix of how she will have to live in the plains alone if her
friend dies of the infection and also being afraid of becoming the harsh
Plainswoman she needs to be in order to survive.
Plot:

Exposition: Nora is a pregnant city woman who is wed to a cattle herder of the
Great Plains. She is left alone with Pleny, a ranch hand while her men go and
herd cattle. She is cooking breakfast.
Rising action: Pleny enters the room with a infected finger, demanding Nora
attend to it by cutting it off. Nora runs to her room to avoid the problem while
remembering how she had arrived to the plains. Pleny continues to ask for help
regarding his finger. Nora opens the door asking what she needs to do to help.
She proceeds outside to the chopping block.
Climax: The point where she swings the axe and she removes his finger
Falling action: When she sees the men returning home. Shes kneading bread
and feels the first kick of the baby while laughing because she has become a
Plainswoman.
Theme: You need to overcome your fears to survive
Subject: Responsibility
Nora only seems happy after she has removed Plenys finger which suggest she
will only be comfortable if she adapts.

Self assess. Fill out the chart prior to submitting your work for feedback:
Comments: Student
Concerns
(Evidence criteria/standards (Improve or
met)
Remediate)
1-2

Criteria
(Proficient)
CCSS standard &
Description of mastery

Advanced
Exceeded
Standard
3-4

I demonstrated the
understanding of the
material and standard by
including evidence from the
text.

Determine central ideas

or themes of a text and
analyze their development;
summarize the key
supporting details and
ideas

I demonstrated could break

down the text instead of
giving large summaries.

Analyze the structure of

texts, including how
specific sentences,
paragraphs, and larger
portions of the text (e.g.,
a section, chapter, scene,
or stanza) relate to each
other and the whole

I could make logical

inferences and assumptions
from the text based on the
evidence provided in the
text.

Read closely to determine

what the text says
explicitly and to make
logical inferences from it;
cite specific textual
evidence when writing or
speaking to support
conclusions drawn from
the text

Comments: Teacher

A student who earns a 4 goes beyond what was taught. A student who earns a 3 demonstrates a strong knowledge
of what is explicitly taught. A student who earns a 2 shows a grasp of the simpler concepts and may have errors or
omissions when it comes to the more complex concepts taught. A student who earns a 1 only demonstrates a partial
understanding of simpler concepts taught (Marzano 2006).