Description
Here is the assignment along with all the specifications, notes, and grading information the professor provided 🙂
Short Story: The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs (https://www.classicshorts.com/stories/paw.html)
Write a 3 or 4-page explication (close analysis) of it.
To begin your analysis, identify the story, orient your readers to its plot (without summarizing it in detail), indicate 3 narrative elements and/or techniques (see below) that you think are important to your understanding of the story, and present the main point that you want to make about the story’s meaning.
Then, give a detailed analysis of the story, organized around the 3 narrative elements and/or techniques. Be sure to incorporate passages (specific scenes, events, and or description/commentary that you quote or paraphrase) from the story to illustrate the points you make. (Remember, though, that the finished project should contain no more than 10 – 15% quotation.) Be sure to focus on how the author uses them to convey meaning; don’t simply paraphrase the story. (You will be given no credit for plot summary or for information about the author or reception or reputation of the story.)
In the analysis, be sure to briefly compare the story you are writing about to at least 3 short stories assigned to the class.
Finish your explication with your response to and evaluation of the story.
Why did you choose this story?
What is your definition of a “good” story, and to what degree does this story meet it?
In particular, argue that the story is a “classic” (worthy of continued reading and study due to its ideas and/or use of elements and/or techniques).
§ For this point, I would include the psychological aspects of the story. I chose this story because of its horror and supernatural elements.
We won’t use formal documentation for this project. The short story should be the only work you use and cite. Restrict your writing to your own observation and thinking. DO NOT consult, paraphrase, or quote from published sources except, of course, the short story itself.
Narrative elements/techniques (* = special importance and must mention):
· *Structure—order (flashbacks, flashforwards), pacing (scenes—action and dialogue, summary, description/commentary)
· Characters—dynamic/static, normative, foil
· Setting
· **Point of view—“presence” of narrator (dramatized, individualized, involved), type of narration (1st-person, 3rd-person—omniscient or limited omniscient, dramatic/objective)
· Irony
· Symbol
· Style—diction (word choice), syntax (arrangement of words into sentences)
The “techniques” or methods involve use of an “element.” For example, using a frame story results in a structure that presents events in flashback; using dialogue results in slowing the pace to present a scene; a writer may use repetition to emphasize the thematic relevance of setting or establish contrast by using a pair of characters.
You can read more about these elements in the Elements of Fiction handout.
Please note:
· Theme IS NOT an element. All these elements/techniques together convey themes.
· A theme IS NOT a word or phrase, but a sentence. It is not a topic or subject in a story but an IDEA about a topic or subject.
· Every important detail in a story IS NOT a symbol.
Criteria for evaluation:
Research and development of ideas—the writer has presented enough specific content from the short story for each general idea so that it is understandable, convincing, and engaging.
· Unity, coherence, cohesiveness–the purpose is evident, the ideas presented relate to each other clearly as parts in a whole, and each element clearly connects to the next so that the reader can discern the purpose and organizing framework of the entire piece, of each section, and of each paragraph.
· Insight—the writer has given thought to the short story, discerned a pattern of meaning in it, and responded to and evaluated the story as indicated above.
· Conventions—the writer has followed the conventions for writing about literature below.