Analyze the following piece of prose.

You must identify the literary structures and

techniques used as well as make an educated hypothesis about the movement associated
with this piece. Do not simply summarize the passage, but demonstrate that you can
deconstruct it based on the literary structures present. (This is a complete text. It is not an
excerpt)

With one wheel gone wrong, she careens into the checkout line. A perfect shopper, she
prides herself on sailing the circulars, clipping coupons, buying in bulk. Her basket is
overflowing with catnip and kitty litter, Pull-Ups and pomegranates—plenty of all. She
takes a magazine out of the rack; there's a spot to scratch, an offer she can't resist—
"Got an itch you can't identify, don't know what you want, let this be your moment." The
background photo is of a beautiful house with everything just as you would want it to
be—untouched by reality. She scratches; her finger is quickly coated with gold powder
and under that is something a little sticky—tugging at her. It is as though she is being
pulled into the magazine. A sudden burst of light, an explosion of inspiration, a fleeting
illumination, and she is inside the picture and it is clear—this is her house, this is who
she is, the life she is supposed to live.

It is incredible—she's seeing not only the future but the pathway there—and it's a new
kind of floor tile—you just put one foot in front of the other, don't stop, and watch
where you're going. And then, as though in a faraway dream, she hears the scanner
beeping, she hears the checker say, "Are you taking that magazine?" Drawing a deep
breath, she pulls herself back into the checkout line. She takes every copy of the
magazine out of the rack. "I'll take all you've got," she says.

"Paper or plastic?"
Prose is a style of writing that is heavily invested in the creation of Narrative. While all
the super-genres use the four main components of Literature, Prose focuses the most
on Narrative, meaning how it creates the story and what the story is.

Before we even read any prose, we are going to start with defining a big part of
Narrative, which is plot. Plot is essentially what happens in the story, who does it, when
does it happen, where does it happen, and how does it happen. When we look at plot,
we are really looking at Plot Arc: The movement of the story and its characters through
the resolution of the text’s conflict. Plot is really defined by conflict. Without it, stories
are dull and uninteresting because nothing happens. A story is motivated by conflict in
some way, whether actual physical conflict or emotional conflict.

The five standard stages of Plot Arc are as follows:

Step 1: Exposition – Setting the stage, giving us information about conflict and about
characters. We use exposition to help ground the reader in the world. We meet our
characters, we find out the conflict, and we learn about the world around the text.

Step 2: Rising Action – The characters attempt to resolve conflict and conflict becomes
more complicated. This is an important step as we must see progression of conflict,
meaning the characters are trying to do something. Often, this is where we see the
characters struggle and the conflict becomes much complex as stories with easily solved
conflicts can get boring.

Step 3: Climax – The characters and plot can no longer alter course due to conflict, all
actions become inevitable. It is important to remember that this is not the most
“exciting” part of the story or even the end but rather the middle. After the climax,
because of the decisions of the characters, the story will unfold in only one way. Poorly
constructed plots do not have endings that are the result of the Climax.

Step 4: Falling Action – The conflict begins to be resolved. This is where we see the
majority of action as the conflict starts to be resolved, one way or the other. Real
progress is made, either in favor of the characters or not.

Step 5: Dénouement - The conflict ends. This is where we wrap up, and again, conflict
should end. This doesn’t mean writers don’t play with this though.

It is important to note that conflict is central here, and well, conflict is simply the central
problem or issue between characters or between a character and the setting. This is
what the story is attempting to resolve in some way.

Ok, with this in mind, we can start on looking at pieces of Prose and start to dissect it.
This is one of my favorite essays of all time, and it most certainly captures one of the
great pieces of Tone in a text.

First, we need to look at the language itself. This is an example of Complex Language,
language that utilizes advanced vocabulary and design to more efficiently convey
complex concepts; however, it is far more difficult for the audience to engage the
text. Part of this is because the text itself is much older, and older language in English
tends to be more advanced. This is a long conversation for another time.

This piece also really captures the Tone of both Satire: (Purposefully constructing a
situation or argument meant to taken as a joke and worthy of derision or study) as well
as Farce: Purposefully constructed to appear silly, stupid, and meant to be taken as a
joke and worthy of derision or study.

This text’s central argument is farcical, eating children, but it is the power of the writer
that it appears logical, and this meant for us to realize how horrific our own thought
process can be. Swift wants us to mock this position as well as the positions similar to
it.

This is also a good time to introduce The Purpose of a Narrative: Narratives typically
have goals in mind. They are trying to accomplish something here in some way.

Academic: The purpose of the narrative is to impart wisdom or learning.

Exposition: The purpose of the narrative is to impart information.

Rhetorical: The purpose of the narrative is to persuade the audience.

Artistic: The purpose of the narrative is to express or explore personal concepts of

beauty or meditation.

Economic: the purpose of the narrative is to entertain the audience and generate
revenue.

In this, we can see that Swift is going for the Rhetorical purpose, namely trying to make
a real world point.
This is a great example of capturing colloquial language or common vernacular. When
we look at the language of a text, we must be able to identify what kind of language it is
and what this does for the text. Here, it is Common: Language that utilizes mundane or
more accessible language, allowing a wider range of readers to engage the text;
however, it is far more difficult for the writer to craft complex ideas in a small amount of
space.

This short story captures the sound of the dialogue, and Hurston is very famous for
faithfully writing down how rural African-Americans (and in her time, Freed slaves)
sounded. Many people found this off putting, but really, it was a very brave act to
capture how a group of people spoke, especially at the time that she was writing.

This is also our first example of another kind of Narrator, 3rd Person: Narrator is a
separate party to the events or actions. Many different kinds of 3rd person. 3rd person is
the most common and most flexible of the narrators. We can see that the story is told
from some other point of view, able to see what is happening to Sykes and Delia at the
same time, even though they are in separate rooms. 3rd person is the most common
narration type, and typically, it is what you write your academic essays in.

We also again see plot arc at play although there isn’t a huge amount of
exposition. This is important because if you spend too much time doing it, it makes the
work drag and start slow. A lot of the exposition is set within the details around the
story rather than having a dedicated portion. The Rising Action is Delia and Sykes
having their first argument and the Climax is when Sykes brings home the snake. The
falling action is the couple’s failing out, and finally, the end is when Sykes dies by snake
bite.

Lastly, for Tone, we get something important: Symbolism. Symbolism is how one idea,
concept, object, or even character stands in for a larger concept or idea. In this, the
snake is symbolic of an abusive relationship, namely that Sykes thinks he can control the
snake, but he really can’t, and there is going to be a reaction. The thing about
symbolism is that the meaning changes depending on the reader, so you may see the
snake being symbolic of something else. That’s totally fine, and it is actually very
normal. Part of the fun of reading literature is to decode the symbolism for yourself.
This is an amazing excerpt from a larger piece, and within it, we get a lot of information
and a whole lot of important techniques. First, we look at character more closely for this
piece. Here, we have another 1st person narrator, but more importantly, our Narrator is
a strong component of the narrative itself:

Our narrator is a great example of a Sympathetic character: A character that evokes

sympathy or pity from the audience. These are not necessarily heroes but rather
characters designed by the author to engage the emotions of the reader. We feel bad
for him because of everything that happens to him, and that’s the point. Authors can
really manipulate your feelings by having bad things happen to sympathetic characters.

The kind of general white characters in this story are also great examples of Alienating
characters: A character that antagonizes the audience. These are not necessarily villains
either but their job is to be something for the audience to root against in some
way. Typically, a writer can manipulate the audience’s emotions by rewarding
Sympathetic characters and punishing Alienating characters.

It is important to see how much the resonance of this story is built alongside your
connection to the characters. Character is a huge part of narrative, and so a narrative is
shaped by how the author uses character in different ways.

In terms of language, we see something important here: Vulgar Language: Language

that purposely tries to be ugly, distasteful, honest, and “raw”. Much like common
language, it is very accessible to the audience, but it can also be repellant to the
audience and it can easily lack any real intellectual complexity. This excerpt doesn’t
hide from the nastiness in this world, and that vulgar language can be extremely jarring.

Finally, we have another big part of Tone: Context: This is the real world situation of
the novel’s publishing. Many theorists argue that the context of a novel matters,
meaning that authors often respond to their world around them. This is key to
understand when looking at certain works and how they engage ideas in the real world
around them. It is also important to understand that older works with radically different
contexts will seem strange or even offensive to us, and that is itself a larger
debate. This story is shocking, but in context, it is actually believable. These kinds of
forced battles have a long history in the United States, starting out as what we called
“Mandingo Fights” during slavery, and this practiced continued for a long, long
time. This is important to know when evaluating this story.
This is one of the best uses of Tone in any short story (or anything really) that you can
read. This is a story that is built around the tension of what you do not know, and what
you learn. I mean, think about the ending of this story and its beginning. They are so
radically different, and they show Tone can really show itself slowly.
This is a great example of a 3rd Person omniscient narrator: The narrator is godlike,
able to narrate different times, places, and even thoughts at once. We get a lot of
information about the characters, about this world, from just the narrator, who sees
everything at once.
When we look at the Tone, so much of it is hidden in the Subtext again, and this story
plays with plot arc by mostly hiding the importance of the conflict until the very end. All
the clues are there, but when it happens, boom. This is often what is referred to as a
Twist-Ending, a type of dénouement that relies on purposefully obscuring the relevant
information of the first four steps of plot arc to make the final moments more
surprising. These are very hard to do effectively because it only works if all the clues
are there in the first four steps. Just having an ending that doesn’t connect to the climax
in any meaningful way is just bad writing, but a good Twist-Ending can be incredibly
satisfying.
As with all good literature, we can look at the symbolism here. Is this conformity gone
mad? Is this the spiteful nature of humanity? Is it the passive acceptance of atrocity?
There is a lot of good meat to dig into in this story.

This is another excerpt from a larger work, and it is actually the first chapter. What we
see here are examples of how narrative can be played with to an extent (and the novel
plays with both of these things a lot).

The first is with narrative. There are two general kinds of narrative in writing:

Linear Narrative: The story or plot follows a clear line of logical and temporal
progression.

Non-Linear Narrative: The story or plot does not enfold in any logical or temporal
progression.

We can see this even in this very short piece as there is a lot of memory and jumping
between times and places, and this is very much like the novel. The story is not told in
the way that we are used to stories being told, but this helps us capture moments better
as we are less invested in what happens next and more in the meaning of what is
happening.

We also see Cisneros play with character a lot, namely using a lot of Minor Characters:
A character that appears for a very limited amount of time or space within a text, often
to be used as a plot point. Minor characters really exist to help facilitate something in a
story either by acting as a vehicle for conflict or as a symbolic meaning to add to the
main characters. Even in this piece, she has a lot of characters here, and they are all
minor, but we can see how they subtly add meaning to the story and the text itself.

This is a beautiful except from a collection of short stories, and this story really brings us
to an interesting concept with how we play with characters. This is the idea of
Embodiment: How characters become symbols or metaphors for larger concepts and
how they are used within the narrative to this effect. Mr. Kapasi and Mr/Mrs. Das are
both great examples of they both become larger metaphors for much grander ideas
than a family quibbling during their vacation.

The Das family could be seen as a larger metaphor for the sense of assimilation that
happens with first or second generation Americans. They seem completely removed
from their home culture, and you could take this as a negative, depending on how you
analyze it. Mr. Kapasi could also be seen as the idea of Colonial Tourism, a theory that
argues that particularly American and European citizens travel to other countries to find
escape and personal peace, often at the expense of exploiting the native people
there. Really, there is a lot of metaphor in this short story, and depending on what
Critical Lens you apply here, you can get a lot of cool reads of the story. That is entirely
up to you. This is why we have Critical Lenses as each time we start to explore
metaphor and symbolism, we really are looking through specific patterns of thought
that influence how we see what we see.

In terms of character, we also get an interesting version of the Supporting

Character: A character that literally supports or helps develop a major
character. Supporting characters are typically minor characters, but they can be major
characters in some forms. Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapasi are the major characters here, and
the story really revolves around them, but Mr. Das is really there to add a layer of
meaning and complication to Mrs. Das.

This is again an interesting story that showcases several important aspects of

literature. One in terms of language that we haven’t really seen yet is: Translation: How
a work is translated from one language to another, and the translator himself/herself
can have a huge impact on the language and success of a text. Languages are
fundamentally different than the other. We think differently when we speak different
languages, so it can be almost impossible to translate one language to another. The
thing about this piece is though that it doesn’t translate for you. There is Spanish here
that is not translated for the reader, and it is an interesting move. It forces the reader to
either speak the language (and in this case, slang as “Pato” does not mean what it
means in West Coast Spanish as it does in East Coast Spanish), or to actively seek out
the meaning themselves.

We also can see the question of two main types of characters: Flat character: A
character that does not change or alter themselves throughout the text. They start in
one form and end in the same form, meaning they show no change in attitude,
perception, or ability.

Round character: A character that changes or develops based on the conflict of the
text. These characters make actual changes to their identity or their perception due to
what happens in the story and their interactions with others.

Does the Narrator change? Is he round or flat? What about Beto? Do the experiences of
these characters change who they are? If no, they are flat, and again, stories with
nothing but flat characters can feel very dull, and if they do change, then they are round
as we can start to ask how do they change and why is it important?