Identities

Short Stories - Literary Devises Title: Identities

Point of View: Third person/Present time

Protagonist: round/dynamic

Antagonist: flat

Describe the setting: A strange and dangerous neighborhood at night lit by streetlights.

Type of Conflict: Man vs. Environment

Describe the main conflict: The main conflict would be when the protagonist becomes further lost in the strange neighborhood and has no way of contacting his wife, until he finds an area to call her.

Describe the Climax of the Story: The climax would be when the protagonist reaches for his wallet to grab his identity.

How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story? He starts off feeling relaxed and excited to go on some type of adventure to relive the memories of his childhood. Later on in the story, however, he becomes nervous, frightened, and worried because of the neighborhood he stumbles upon during his adventure.

Describe the relationship between the title and the theme. The title is called Identities and the story’s theme is viewing someone as what they look like as the first thought of the type of person they may be, hence the title “Identities”.

How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme? The main conflict is the protagonist is lured into a neighborhood that he should not be in and gets lost and slightly frightened. It helps illustrate that when something looks bad or scary, one’s reaction would be to get nervous or frightened.

How does the climax help to illustrate the theme? It helps illustrate the theme because the climax is when the protagonist is relieved upon seeing the policeman and reaches for his wallet, and the theme is about profiling the unknown as one is accustomed to do.

Give examples of each of the following literary terms in the story (use quotes):

Simile: //“…the grubby children who dart back and forth like startled fish.”//

Metaphor: //“…a certain untidiness creeps in…”//

Personification: //“The smell of burning leaves stirs the memories of childhood car rides…”//

Symbol: A symbol is the Mercedes Benz, which symbolizes that the protagonist is wealthy and has a good job with good pay.

Foreshadowing: In the story the author describes the officer as inexperienced, nervous, suspicious, and trained to see an unshaven man in blue jeans to be dangerous. Because of this one would assume that the cop is going to do something to the protagonist.

Irony: The irony of this story is that the protagonist is viewing the setting as a bad area and the officer who was following him viewed him as a bad person.

Imagery: Sunshine, tins gleaming with silver, hand-painted signs, neat suburban streets, identical, grey stone gates, picket fences//untidiness fragment of glass, chocolate bar wrapper, cracked sidewalks, ridges of stiff grass, phone booths, seedy grocery stores, ten-foot wire fence, playground bare of equipment, double locked gate, paper clogging the fence, yellow bricks chipped, houses squat with band of dirt around bottom, narrow streets, darkness, no trees

Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story. The theme "humanity" relates well to the story because humanity is basically our emotions and our thoughts. In the story there are a lot of emotions and thoughts going through the protagonist's head. The police officer, who supposedly shot the protagonist, did that because it was only in his human nature to get nervous and have a shot of adrenaline upon seeing a stranger.

Completion 5/5

Effort 3.5/5

Content 4/5

 Paragraph 3.5/5

total 16/20