Critical Essay on Fiction

Directions for Five-Page O'Connor Essay
Ways of Analyzing Fiction
I. Formalist Criticism (Inside the Work)
A. Plot: What episodes/events give the story's progress? Which ones relate meaning? Within which event do we look the writer directly in the eye and share a larger wisdom (rite of passage/epiphany)?

B. Point of View/Narrator: From which camera angle does the narrator tell the story: omniscient, limited, stream of consciousness, or interior monologue? Why does the author use this approach? (Remember: author and narrator are not one and the same!)


C. Character: Is characterization interesting? believable? Round or flat? Static or dynamic? What is the motive of the major character(s)? Whose story is it? Where is the protagonist's climax? Does it coincide with the climax of the plot? If no, then why not?

D. Setting: What is the location and why did the author choose it? Does it have a relation to the plot? To the character? Does the setting rise to the level of being a ...