SHORT STORY ANALYSIS
SAN JUAN EDUCATIONAL SCHOOL
SAN JUAN HIGH SCHOOL
SMART READING
The key to smart reading is to be critical. Criticism can be positive or negative, and
you need to have confidence in your own views of the work, regardless of the
author’s reputation or whatever anyone else thinks.
The bottom line with literary criticism is that there are no right or wrong answers. As
long as you back everything up with evidence, you can still attain a top grade if you
take the opposite view to the author, your teacher or the best student in your class.
But your reading needs to be methodical.
For the first sitting, focus on the sequence of events that takes place throughout the
story.
A SHORT STORY PLOT
ANALYZING THE PLOT
Analyzing the plot of a short story is easy because unlike novels, which can contain multiple plotlines, short
stories usually have only one.
And to make the process even easier, here are some questions that you can ask yourself as you read:
Does the plot hold your interest from beginning to end?
What are the most important events, and why?
Is the plotline realistic?
Are there any parts of the plotline that seem irrelevant the main story?
Does the plot deal with external conflict, internal conflict or both?
Next you can look at the way the author portrays the characters in the story.
ANALYZING CHRACTERIZATION
Short stories will not have many characters, and often centre around one main character, known as the
protagonist.
The best way to analyze characterization is ask these questions:
Who is the protagonist?
How effectively does the author describe the characters’ actions, appearance and thoughts?
What are your feelings towards the characters?
Does the way the characters speak give you any information about their personality?
Do the characters change over the course of the story?
If the story contains minor characters, are they necessary and effective?
ANALYZING SETTING
Short stories are usually set in a single location and time period, but some do have more than one.
These questions will help you master the setting:
How does the author describe the location of the events?
Does the story take place in the past, the present, or the future (or all three)?
What are the wider circumstances surrounding the story’s setting?
Does the setting play an important role in the story?
Does the place and time period in which the author lived and worked have an effect on the place and
time period in which the story is set?
Has the author successfully given you a feeling of really being in the story’s setting?
ANALYZING POINT OF VIEW
Short stories are usually narrated in the first person by one of the characters (“I woke up early that
morning”) or in the third person (“She woke up early that morning”). In the case of the third person, the
narrator could be all-knowing or just have the perspective of one or more of the characters (the
focalizer). Less commonly, a story will be written in the second person (“You woke up early that
morning”).
Analyzing point of view will give to a deeper insight into all of the previous aspects that you have dealt
with. So ask yourself:
Who is narrating the story?
Does the author use a consistent point of view throughout?
Is the narrator telling the truth?
Does the author have the same mindset as the narrator?
Would the story be different if it were narrated from a different point of view?
ANALYZING STYLE
Ask the following questions when analyzing style:
What is the author’s tone? Humorous? Serious? Sarcastic? Sentimental?
Does the author use any unusual words or phrases? What effect do they have?
Is there anything in the story – an object, for example – that has any special meaning?
Does the author’s use of literary devices affect your enjoyment of the story in any way?
What would the story be like if the author used a different style?
