Пример выполненного стилистического анализа
The story under the title “A Very Short Story” was written by one of the most world-famous American writers – Ernest Hemingway. Himself a great sportsman - Hemingway liked to portray soldiers, hunters, bullfighters - tough, at times primitive people whose courage and honesty are set against the brutal ways of modern society, and who in this confrontation lose hope and faith. His straightforward prose, his spare dialogue, and his predilection for understatement are particularly effective in his short stories.
Analyzing the text "A Very Short Story" we observe that the author makes use of the colloquial style avoiding professionalisms and pompous bookish words and phrases. Hemingway resorts to the language of every day life and surely it is a deliberate choice of vocabulary. Such a laconic and neat narration demonstrates the talent of the author and makes us aware of the genre of this literary creation – a novel. It tells us about war and peace, about senses and disappointments, about lie and truth.
So, the subject matter of the story under discussion is love of a man and a woman, which was lost because of the ruined dreams and awkward misunderstanding between them. Realizing all this we can for sure read between the lines the message of Hemingway, as if saying – reach your goals by all powers and opportunities, stay firm on your way and be persistent in your attempts.
Indeed, how often people surrender, go back and leave their dreams when just a step divides them from what they were looking for.
Here we can say that a little unnecessary quarrel became the point of couples’ parting. If just one of them could concede to another… Perhaps it could be a great history of love, who knows? The following sentence confirms the message mentioned above: “She hoped he would have a great career, and believed in him absolutely”. The truth is that everything turned out vice versa, not the way she imagined.
The stylistic device – antithesis – skillfully used by Ernest Hemingway proves the same could be said about her: “and she expected, absolutely unexpectedly, to be married in the spring.” We know she never did.
What concerns the text itself, it is told in the 3rd person narrative. The narration is not interlaced with descriptive passages and dialogues of the personages. It is extraordinarily poor for colorful emotions and vivid actions. Only dry, concrete and taciturn facts are present in here.
It is important to note, however, that such a dull narration, as by mistake it would seem, can give us no new idea, but the author displays a mastery in rendering the subtleties and contradictions of life. Hemingway pursued his own purpose by composing the narration this way, and he was a success in it.
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План стилистического анализа текста
1. The author and the title of the piece.
2. Its genre: a) fiction/nonfiction; b) short story/essay/fragment.
3. Title of the piece:
a) significant, serves as a clue to the theme of the piece;
b) insignificant
4. Plot, its stages:
a) think of the overall structure of the piece;
b) what does the author tell you in the exposition that helps you to understand the way the character act later in the plot? c) show how the events and conflicts prepare the reader for the climax and the resolution of the piece, showing how the climax and the resolution follow logically from preceding events.
5. Type of conflict that sets the action in process.
a) external/internal/both
b) answer the following questions:
What external conflicts does the character experience?
What conflicts occur within him? What causes them?
How are the conflicts resolved in the story?
6. Characters: a) who they are; b) the way of characterization and devices used by the author to portray his characters (physical appearance, psychological portrait: key traits, underlying motivation (the basic reason why he/she acts),);
c) flat/round;
d) static/dynamic;
e) compare and contrast 2 characters; identify a number of points of comparison and contrast, and for each point explain how the characters are similar or different.
7. Setting:
a) where the action is set and how significant the place is for the theme of the piece (the author's choice of setting can reveal its purpose by)
· creating a mood or atmosphere;
· illuminating the characters - in what way it helps the author to reveal the personalities of the characters;
· unifying or organizing the plot;
· pointing beyond itself to a deeper symbolic meaning - what it say about life in general.
Sometimes the author uses the setting in only one of the preceding ways; sometimes he uses it in all four ways);
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b) descriptions (what senses of the reader are involved, details and their importance, how they are organized, dominating impression, function in the text);
c) change of setting: how does it reflect the development of events?
8. Point of view - relationship between the narrator and the story. It is important to determine notonly what the narrator tells you but also what he does not tell you.
a) determine the point of view by asking the following questions:
· Does the narrator use the 1st -person pronouns or 3d -person pronouns?
· Does the narrator know only about the events that he/she witnesses, or does he/she seem to know everything?
· Focus your attention on the strength and limitations of the point of view chosen by the author;
· c) consider how the point of view in the piece affects your response to it
9. The subject of the piece – the specific topic.
10. The theme of the piece – expresses the author's opinion or raises a question about human nature or the meaning of human experience.
11. The author’s tone– the attitude the author takes toward the characters and events in presenting the story to the reader: sarcasric/wry/sympathetic/objective/bantering/serious/ironic/sad/bitter/comic/etc.
Answer the following questions supporting your statements with quotations from the text:
a) How does the author treat he characters? For example, does he sympathize or ridicule them?
b) What does the author seem to think about the situation in which the characters find themselves? For example, does he make events seem somber or comic?
c) What does the setting tell us about the author's attitude?
d) How do word choice and sentence structure communicate the author's attitude?
12. Personal evaluation of the piece: decide whether or not you like the story, then explain your response, considering the following questions:
a) Does the story arouse your interest at the beginning?
b) What questions does it raise that you want to see answered?
c) Does it sustain your interest and lead toward a logical solution?
Support your opinions with specific examples from the story.
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