Worksheet for Analyzing the Novel & Short Story

The Author:

1. Give a brief introduction to the life of the author. Include any information that might help understand the novel you have read.

The Plot:

Present a brief summary of the plot. Make sure you point out the important aspect of the story and comment on how does the author use the plot to convey ideas.

The setting:

What is the importance of the setting? Consider the following questions when analyzing the setting:

1. Where does the story take place? Is it a urban, rural, fantastic, real, imagined place?

2. What cultural importance does the setting have? Does it tell you something about the people that live in the place? How does the author use this setting?

3. Does the place change? Are there different places where the story occurs?

4. Why do you think the author chose this place to set her story?

Characters:

Make a list of the characters and talk about the role they play. Take into account the following questions when analyzing the characters:

1. What ideas are expressed in the novel through the characters?

2. What feelings do the characters express? What does that tell you about them? Are their feelings consistent?

3. Does the character belong to a particular character type or represent a certain idea, value, quality or attitude?

4. What is the social status of the character, and how can you tell from how they speak and what they speak about?

5. What is the sensibility of the character? Is the person ironic, witty, alert to the good or attuned to evil in others, optimistic or pessimistic, romantic or not romantic (cynical, or realistic?).

6. What is the orientation of the person -- how aware are they of their own and others' needs, and of their environments?

7. How much control over and awareness of her emotions, her thoughts, her language does the character have?

Narrator:

Comment on the role of the narrator. Take into account the following questions:

1. Who is the narrator? How do you know? Why do you think the writer chose this narrator? Who is telling the story? What is the perspective of this narrator? Is there more than one narrator?
2. Is the narrator a character in the story?
3. Why did the author choose this narrator?

Style and Language:

1. Comment on the style of writing and the use of language.

a. What kind of language is used? Here are some possibilities: Is the language

1. abstract or concrete language
2. language of emotions or of reason
3. language of control or language of openness?

b. What are the connotations of the language? How much language is connotative? What areas of experience, feeling, and meaning are evoked? When Conrad writes that a gate was "a neglected gap," we have to take notice, as a gate is not ordinarily a gap, nor is the issue of neglect or care usually applied to gaps. Conrad intends to imply, to connote, certain qualities through his language use.

How forceful is the language. What aspects of feeling are supported or created by the sound of the language?

i. by the vowel and consonant sounds -- soft or hard long or short

ii. by how the words go together -- e.g. smoothly, eliding, so that one slides into the other, or separated by your need to move your mouth position

iii. by imagery and sentence structure

Theme:

What is the theme of the novel? What does the author tell you about this theme.

World View:

1. What does the author think about the particular world she/he has presented in the novel? (i.e. What does she think about love, marriage, death, etc.?

2. What values is the author proposing through her writing of this work?

What type of reader is the author imagining?

Finally:

What does the author tell you as an individual reader? How can you relate to the author giving your personal circumstances? Do you think this author was thinking of communicating with a reader like you?