Short+Story

Short Story Character Essay AP Lit & Comp/Clark  Short Story Choices:  //A Summer’s Reading-Bernard Malamud // //The Catbird Seat-James Thurber // //The Secret Life of Walter Mitty-James Thurber // //Counterparts-James Joyce // //A Rose for Emily-William Faulkner // //Child by Tiger // //The Lottery // //August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains //  Prompt Choices: 
 * Heed this: **<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';"> Consult your SSS Writing Guide! Remember the OREO <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">, write good intros and conclusions, use transitions, and create a precise thesis. Use variety in your sentence beginnings and lengths. Spell check AND read aloud your essay before you print and submit it. Use MLA format on all process essays.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">Directions: **<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';"> Choose a short story from the list below and then choose a prompt.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">The character in a work often encounters a moral, physical or psychological challenge, conflict or dilemma. Select a situation or episode in a short story in which the central character encounters such a conflict. Then in a unified essay, __describe how this situation reveals the character’s personality__ and __how this revelation of character relates to the meaning or purpose of the work overall__ (i.e. theme.)
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">Choose a central character in a short story and __analyze his/her dominant personality traits__, or in other words, what kind of a person is he/she? __Give ample evidence from the work to support your analysis/interpretation.__
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">Focus on the setting of short story (such as Miss Emily’s house, the pub in //Counterparts//, or the office in //The Catbird Seat//) and __explain how the author makes use of it to reflect the state of mind of a character(s) or represent values held by a character(s).__
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">Authors have a “toolbox” of literary tools to create round, believable characters. Choose a short story with a strong, memorable protagonist and __show how the author uses three specific devices__, such as diction, point of view, tone, figurative language, dialogue, physical description, plot structure, repetition, symbolism, character behaviors in particular circumstances, contrasting characters, etc. __to reveal character.__