How to Read a Short Story

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GENERAL INFORMATION ON HOW TO READ A SHORT STORY

  • Find a quiet place, free of all distractions, (turn OFF your phone) where you can dedicate a couple of hours. 
  • Make sure to have a highlighter and a regular pen available for hard copies of the story, or make sure that you can highlight, underline, and circle words on the computer;
  • Read a few lines, or a paragraph, without stopping. Go back and read it again; this time, underline words you don't know and phrases that don't make sense to you right now. 
  • Look up the words you need to look up, write the definition in the margins, and read the paragraph again. 
  • Move on to the next several lines, repeating the steps above. 
  • Make sure to ask questions in the margins of the page or below on plot points, descriptions, characters, or vocabulary. 
  • Circle scenes or lines that are giving you trouble.
  • Re-read as many times as necessary. 
  • USE A DIFFERENT COLOR highlighter for lines that you think are important to the MEANING of the story. 
  • Write questions in the margins that you can ask the class as a whole. 

Once you have understood the plot, characters, events, and general themes of the story, ask yourself:

  • What is strange, contradictory, mysterious, or ambiguous about this story?
  • What does this story want the reader to know? What seems to be the purpose of the story? What does it wish to express?
  • What appears to be the driving theme or conflict within the story?
  • How does the language work? Is it formal, informal, descriptive, ambiguous, direct, preachy, local (clearly from a certain country or region) or more universal? Is the language transparent or obtuse? Does the story make the symbols, metaphors, and themes clear to the reader, or do you have to work to figure out what the story is communicating to the reader?
  • Who is narrating this story? Is it an objective third person, a character within the story with a limited perspective, or is it a first-person narration? Whoever the narrator is, does it seem that this person has unlimited or limited knowledge as to what is going on with the characters and situations? 
  • Do you trust the narrator and her/his perspective on things? 
  • Does the narrator make you feel like there is a lesson or message here that the reader needs to understand? 
  • Is the tone serious, sarcastic, humorous, pedantic, academic, colloquial, or ironic?
  • Does the narrator appeal to your emotions or your intellect? Or both?
  • Are there clear heroes and antagonists? Are you supposed to feel sympathy or identify with certain characters over others?
  • Do you feel motivated, energized, angry, confused, inspired, frustrated, overwhelmed, or challenged by the narration?
  • If the story and narration is designed to make you feel a certain way, why is that? What opinion, point of view or belief does the story wish you to affirm, question or perhaps change?