The Language of the Short Story

Last week, we learned that the short story comes in the form of sentence-incidents arranged in a particular plot or of the sequence of ideas.  Form, as we have studied concerns about how the subject and ideas about the subject are conveyed, delivered and presented to the reader.

Poetry differs in form from all the rest of the genres since the poet uses stanzas, rhyme and meter to convey his message.

Today, we study the language of the short story, hence we ask the question:  “How is the subject of the short story conveyed?  How are the ideas presented?

The Short Story Form

The story is a form of literature.  The short story, if we are to be faithful to its definition, is a short form of literature.  It has necessary features without which it will not be called a short story.  A short story is ­­­­­­­______ while a novel is ________.

Story and Plot

A story is a series of ­­­­­______ recorded in their __________ order.  A plot is a series of events deliberately arranged so as to reveal their dramatic, thematic, and emotional significance.

Based on the above definitions, write S if the sentence(s) tell/s a story without a plot, write S if the sentence is a story with a plot.

_____ 1.  In Nalbuan (now part of La Union) there once lived a couple by the names of Namongan (the woman) and Don Juan (the man).  (Biag ni Lam-ang)

______2.  At 9 months, when Lam-ang’s father had not arrived, he followed him to the mountains. (Biag ni Lam-ang).

______3.   In the early days, people lived in plenty, were happy and led quiet lives. (Alim)

———-4.  A sad event happened in their lives when a drought came. (Alim)

______5.  The queen died and the king died of grief.

1. A.      The Short Story vs. the Novel

Because of the limitation as to length, a short story can waste no words.  It can deal with only one or very few consciousnesses.  It may recount only one central _______ and one major change or effect in the life of the central character or characters.  It can afford no digression that does not directly affect the action.  A short story strives for a ________ emotional impact, imparts a single understanding, though both impact and understanding may be complex.  The virtue of a short story is its density.  If it is tight, sharp, economic, well-knit, and charged, then it is a good short story because it has exploited a central attribute of the form — that it is short.

A novel is __________, vast and panoramic.  It may have power, not because of its economy, but because its scope, breadth and sweep — the virtues of a medium that is long.  Therefore, a novel may range through many consciousnesses, cover many years or generations, and travel the world.  It may deal with a central line of action and one or several _______.  Many characters may change; many and various effects may constitute our final understanding.  Many digressions may be tolerated and will not destroy the balance of the whole as long as they lead, finally, to some nuance of that understanding.  In other words, the form of the novel is an _________story form.

Practice:  True or False.

____ 1. Novels differ from short stories as to form.

____2.  Short stories may deal with several chapters with different sub-plots.

____3.  If the novel is a mural painting, the short story is a detail.

____4.  Short stories come in verse form, like the poem.

____5.  Because of the limitation in terms of length, a short story need not have a conflict.

1. B.      The Necessary Features of the Story

Burroway (1982) uses the metaphor of the face to characterize what a short story is like.  She says that it can express grief, anger or joy.  A face necessarily has to have eyes, a nose, a mouth, two cheeks, two ears and a jaw.  She says a story without one of its elements can still be a story “in spite of” not having a part, but we cannot simply say that it is a wonderful face.  In the same way, even if a story has a plot but it does not have a crisis action, we can say, “It is a story, yes, in spite of the fact that it does not have a crisis action”, but we cannot say that it is a wonderful story.

Let’s define conflict, crisis and resolution, the necessary features of the story form.

1. 1.       CONFLICT

Burroway defines conflict as “the first encountered and the fundamental element of fiction, necessary because in literature, only trouble is interesting.”  Simply put, conflict is “TROUBLE”.  When we ask, “What is the conflict of the story?”  We are asking, “What is troubling our main character?”  Can a story exist without a conflict?  Yes, in real life perhaps, but _________ in literature.  You are familiar with the impediment to the love of Romeo and Juliet, right?  They love each other passionately, but their parents are against it.  Have you heard of the Koreanovela entitled “Helena’s Promise”, a formulaic example of a story the basic impediment of which is the failing health of the female lead character?

In Romeo and Juliet as well as Helena’s promise, the 3 Ds of the story form are present:  _________ equals desire plus _________. (Drama impelled by a passionate desire but an impediment, a barrier which brings about danger which when overcome, leads to a resolution.)

What are the types of conflict?  Most stories fall into these categories, and they can provide useful ways of discussing works.

1. Man against man;
2. Man against nature;
3. Man against society;
4. Man against machine;
5. Man against God;
6. Man against himself.

???

A writer once defined story as a “power struggle between equal forces.”  He said:  Each antagonist must have sufficient power to leave the reader in doubt about the outcome so that anticipation and suspense may be built.”

1. 2.       CRISIS

Crisis – the _____ _____ of the story.  The crisis action is the last battle and occurs when the outcome becomes inevitable; when, after much doubt, there can no longer be any doubt who wins.  It comes after a series of complications, leading to the crisis action, or the final battle.  It is followed a brief falling action, a walking away from the fight by the victorious one. (Burroway)

1. 3.       RESOLUTION

Resolution – the point where the story comes to a _______.  “They lived happily ever after,” is a classic resolution.

The Story Shape

The inverted check mark:  Conflict, Crisis, Resolution

Answer these questions:  How is real life different from modern fiction in terms of resolution of conflict? 

Is it possible to have a resolution that is not a resolution (that is, that there is no winner in the end)? Give an example, if yes.  Defend your answer, if no.

1. C.      Traditional vs. Modern Short Stories compared, as to conflict

In traditional short stories, conflicts occur outside the character’s mind, but “in many of the finest short stories and novels, the true territory of conflict is the main character’s mind, and so the real crisis action must occur there.” (Burroway, p. 10)

• Man vs. Himself, additional notes

James Joyce used the word _________ — to refer to a “crisis action in the mind, a moment when a person, an event, or a thing is seen in a light so new that it is as if it has never been seen before; at this recognition, the mental landscape of the viewer is permanently changed.”  Joyce chose the word “epiphany” to represent the moment of reversal, “that the word means “a manifestation of a supernatural being;” specifically, in Christian doctrine, “the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles.”  By extension, then, in a short story any mental reversal that takes place in the crisis of a story must be manifested; it must be triggered or shown by an action.  The slipper must fit.  It would not do if the Stepmother just happened to change her mind and give up the struggle; it would not do if the Prince just happened to notice that Cinderella looked like his love.  The moment of recognition must be manifested in an action. (Burroway)

Define epiphany in your own words.

(For this lecture, I used as my source Writing Fiction, A Guide To Narrative Craft by Janet Burroway, Little, Brown and Company)

Level Up: How to Understand Symbolism in Literature

Read this article that I found from the web.  The following How-To article will help you in your reading of “The Wireless Tower” by N.V.M. Gonzales.

“Whether you are taking a high school or college English literature course, symbolism will be important for you to recognize to fully understand a literature selection. If you’ve never had to evaluate a work critically, this may seem like a scary experience. Fear not, you can do it. Read on to learn how to understand symbolism in literature.

1.            Grasp the meaning of “symbol…”

2.          Recognize the signs. There are several ways to recognize symbolism in literature. One is the frequency an object or character is mentioned in a piece of literature–if it is mentioned often, it is probably important. Another way to find a symbol is to look at how much detail is used in describing an object. These two methods give clues that the writer wants you to infer something about a particular object.

3.            Familiarize yourself with the author’s work and style. A symbol in a piece of literature often represents an important issue of the time in which the author lived, or has personal significance to the writer. Edgar Allan Poe, for example, is well-known for the tragedy he suffered during his lifetime. His stories and poetry often included dark imagery and death which were undoubtedly symbolic of the events in his life.

4.            Trust your feelings. If an image or object described by the author makes you react in a certain way, you are probably on to something, never discredit your own feelings just because you’re a novice. It is very likely that the author planted the image in the work in a particular way to alert the reader that a symbol is important.

5.            Look to others. There’s no shame in reading critical essays about a literary work to gain a better understanding of it, or in discussing a piece of literature with a teacher or classmate. With experience, finding symbols will become easier, but when you are first starting out, it never hurts to get ideas from others who have a better grasp of symbolism.”

Read more: How to Understand Symbolism in Literature | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2095782_understand-symbolism-literature.html#ixzz1dkca5fgG

Next Week:

1. Expect a quiz on today’s lecture (first period, please come early).
2. In Lecture 3, we will discuss Plot, Character and Setting with exercises.
3. Read “The Laughter of My Father” by Carlos Bulosan.  We will discuss this in class.
4. Study Chapter IV of Philippine Literature Through the Years by Kahayon and Zulueta for the graded recitation

***

Every day one should at least hear one little song, read one good poem, see one fine painting and —- if at all possible — speak a few sensible words. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The master sat on his stool, his paint with him. 

The colors were handpicked by the master’s hand,

and the canvas was spread out before him. 

The blue was a true one, from the sky. 

The red, a heart that is bleeding,  

The pink, a love that won’t die. 

The black, a night without an ending. 

And all the other colors, from the finest

of the stars commingled with his suffering. 

Matched by the orchestra that plays in his heart,

now, his baton must sway with his feelings.

But alas, oh, the lady was fading,

and no color can restore what is going — is gone. 

The master sat on his stool with the most beautiful colors

to paint a memory.

Ruth Mostrales

Last revised 19 September 2010

When God made friends

He must be thinking of flowers

with lovely colors and

splendid scents.

II.

Flowers grow from seeds

that sprout from the ground;

friendships abound

because of kind deeds.

III.

Flowers are pretty and

charming, too —

friends make days blue

a little sunny.

IV.

When God sowed seeds

Flowers grew…

me and you

among the weeds.

.

Ruth Mostrales

August 3, 2009

The moment Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza, 55, began releasing children, the elderly and the sick, and had showed signs of kindness to some of the hostages — the world began to hope that the drama will have a peaceful denouement. But things did not turn as hoped, for eight people were killed, one of them, the dismissed police officer. The spectators around the globe are now wondering what really happened yesterday in the Philippines.

Yesterday’s affair is a humbling moment. Scrap the humiliation that this brings to the Filipinos. It’s not about national pride or the lack of it, considering what people may call a tactically inutile police force. In fact, scrap the idea that these are visitors whom we are supposed to accept hospitably for Filipinos are known for that trait. No, it is not a culture dilemma. What happened we would rather watch from a distance, in the comfort of our homes, on Youtube. There, we can even joke about how foolish the law enforcers were, or how not one of the hostages is Batman. From a distance, we are safe, apparently.

Life is precious — that’s not a culture or national thing. When somebody dies before our eyes, whether the villain or the victim, we are wired to feel a sense of loss. When somebody triumphs over danger, we rejoice, not only empathically for that person, but for that part in us that still believe there is a way out in the labyrinth of progressive corruption and decadence that we have found ourselves lost in. During these moments, we have the urgency of hope — or else, we would not even watch. We are part of the drama that we have just witnessed, whether we like it or not.

When somebody loses it and yields to the basest of options, we ask why. It’s instinctive to want to help, but how? It’s intuitive to want to care, but how? Most times we are left without any option but to admit that we are not the masters of our fate. When we are reminded how thin the line between sanity and madness, danger and safety, life and death, we are forced to contemplate the cruelty of not having anything or anyone to lean on to in times like these.

Certainly, the hostages could not lean on themselves, or else, all of them could have escaped without harm. Likewise, they cannot fully entrust their lives to the law enforcers, who were unable to handle the situation with utmost care. All of them: Mendoza, the hostages, the police and the media personnel standing by are crying for help.

Last week, a girl wearing a thick jacket, with beads of perspiration falling in trickles down her face, boarded the jeepney I was riding. She was in her early twenties. She got off the jeepney but returned, this time, sitting near me. The passengers were fanning themselves — it was one, hot afternoon along Taft Avenue. Suddenly, I noticed several passengers sitting across her smiling and laughing to themselves. I looked at the girl and saw that she was the instigator of the silent riot, tapping her knee in delight. Some of the passengers tried to cover their giggles with the back of their hands, while some just looked away. But she continued to giggle with unusual satisfaction at something none of us cared to know about.

That was a cry for help there, though her face looked peaceful and amused. Remove the thick jacket, and you would say she is a well-adjusted youth. Remove the smiles, and you would say she is as hardened in the realities of life as all of us must be. Remove all of these and she is just a human being who has crossed the line of sanity and ventured into a parallel universe where the harsh punishments of poverty, hunger and loneliness will no longer hurt us.

The passengers stopped laughing when after passing by a few blocks, she left us. The entertainment has ceased, for then, we were left to think about what happened there.

Mendoza became an instant celebrity after the incident. People began to care to look at his files. Research has it that he was among several officers charged with robbery, extortion and grave threats in 2008 and thereafter, dismissed. His demand was simple: to get his job back. He believes that he was terminated without cause and reasoned that he should be reinstated to his former position. In the meantime, several people’s lives were at his mercy. The grim details of the aftermath will shock the most sensible person. It is sad that for Mendoza, he thought of no other recourse.

Somewhere, at the back of our minds, we still wish there were an alternate resolution somewhere, but even happy endings are fragile, like our lives. Searching for comfort in what organized society has placed to prevent such things from happening or at least to provide us with a certain degree of security when they do occur, but finding none, I turned to God and prayed. I prayed for strength in mind for all those who are trying to process the gruesome events that happened. Sanity is as precious a commodity as life in these times, and so is faith.

rvm

august 24 2010

I smelled chopped wood from faraway
Lands, embossed with flowers
Of words by an artisan whose
Preoccupation is historiography
re: the conquest of uncharted forests.

One reads his accounts out loud, as one reads time
in anticipation of the hour. I can only
imagine what events will find themselves
on the barks gathered for the blaring paper mills —
will a territory be won with reforestation,
or will one get lost in a denuded labyrinth?

rvm
august 23 2010

“Please, let’s talk about this…” I pleaded, then.

Nothing, no word from her, but she was breathing. At least she gave me a hint she was still alive, though I wasn’t sure about myself.

“I’m coming over, and we’re going to talk,” I pleaded, again. The rain has just stopped but on my radar, a storm was afoot.

If I knew the ending of our story, I would have changed the plot. My friends laud me for the conclusion I gave to my last novel. It was satisfying, they said, though unconventional. One can only tell if a reader is satisfied with the story if he reads up to the end. Endings are for peace of mind.

When I saw her on the porch of their house, she was texting. It wasn’t me, I supposed. The whole time I was away, I didn’t receive any message from her.

“Can we talk?” I said.

“I already told you before… it’s not going to work,” she whispered. Tears fell from her eyes. I tried to hold her hand but she evaded my touch.

“But, at least say something. Give me something to think about. Give me a clue, a resolution to this,” I begged.

The silence that followed was unbearable. It’s like having ten thousand copies of your scheduled to be released book, only to find out that the publisher made a mistake — the last chapter is gone. But I waited, with pen poised to jotting, as one waits for any manifestation of his muse…

“Goodbye…” she muttered, finally, her shoulders relaxing with the utterance. I must have been cruel to her, I thought. Having nothing in common except love — it wasn’t enough for her.

I looked at my hands, and put them together, as if to pray. The word did not stir me to question. I felt her puzzled gaze.

I stood up, and recognized that a weight had been lifted off from my shoulder, too. I had an ending. It was satisfying enough and I wrote it down in my heart. I walked slowly towards the road.

ruth v. mostrales
august 19, 2010

i miss you     i want go there but my father do not like that.       i will explain about teachers.    and    i  going to  the good academy.    if you  did not teach me, i can not learn english there.

 thank you.  please do not for get me…. ”

I will never… TT

The program itself did not have my name on it, but that’s okay.  I was “compelled” to represent the grad school on such short notice.  It made me pray more, and pray a little harder than more, when a day before the program, I had scattershot ideas for it here and there, but no final manuscript. 

I sat down and began to write, as I did before, but this time it was easy.  I borrowed the ETHOS, PATHOS, and LOGOS part from Bryan Chapelle (Christ-Centered Preaching) and I had a theme.  God is good — and His guidance led me from perplexity to praise, as I delivered it this morning.

—

I had a wonderful opportunity to give credit to my teachers who have inspired me.  Perhaps they will never know how much they have influenced me in their LOGOS, PATHOS, and ETHOS pedagogy… and I have God to praise for them.  All of the grad school teachers I particularly referred to in my speech were absent, though.  But I greeted my teacher in Life of Christ and Intro to Theo a happy teachers’ day.  (But I didn’t see my teacher in Intro to Missions (a teacher whose dedication and passion in the ministry I also really admire).

Here’s my speech.  It may have many flaws but I meant every single word. 

Teachers' Appreciation Day Speech

I have moved the others and bequeathed it space.

No other book can usurp that place, no.

No other hand can encumber.

Let no one buy that book of mine.

Let no one share that little space.

Some books come and go with the

wear and tear, but not here —-

let time not change its face.

rvm

2010

I do not

walk on roads

you’ve traveled,

for the allergens in

spores you

leave make me

queasy.

.

I do not

gaze upon

images that

bewitched you,

because you leave

trails of your acuity

that vex

my eyes.

.

I do not

desire the

creations of

your hands,

for your warmth

remains in them to

scathe me.

.

I cannot steal the

air you  

breathe,

for it

scrapes the

tubes

within me.

.

I cannot eat

the fruits of

your orchard,

for their flavor

reprimands

my stomach.

.

I cannot love

myself, for

you have loved

me,

but

at this point

I shall make

exception.

.

rvm 2009