The Short Story

An Analysis of¦
The short story “TheStory of an Hour”
The short story “Two Brothers”
and
The novel “A Rose for Emily”

Submitted by:

Dante P. Dollente
English

Submitted to:

PROF. GILDA E. DEGUMA

English Professor
 “A Rose for Emily”
By William Faulkner

I. Bio of the Author

William Faulkner came from an old southern family, grew up in

Oxford, Mississippi. He joined the Canadian, and later the British, Royal Air
Force during the First World War. He studied for a while at the University of
Mississippi, and temporarily worked for a New York bookstore and a New
Orleans newspaper. Except for some trips to Europe and Asia, and a few
brief stays in Hollywood as a scriptwriter, he worked on his novels and short
stories on a farm in Oxford.In an attempt to create a saga of his own,
Faulkner has invented a host of characters typical of the historical growth
and subsequent decadence of the South. The human drama in Faulkner's
novels is then built on the model of the actual, historical drama extending
over almost a century and a half Each story and each novel contributes to
the construction of a whole, which is the imaginary Yoknapatawpha County
and its inhabitants. Their theme is the decay of the old South, as
represented by the Sartoris and Compson families, and the emergence of
ruthless and brash newcomers, the Snopeses. Theme and technique - the
distortion of time through the use of the inner monologue are fused
particularly successfully in The Sound and the Fury(1929), the downfall of
the Compson family seen through the minds of several characters. The
novel Sanctuary (1931) is about the degeneration of Temple Drake, a young
girl from a distinguished southern family. Its sequel, Requiem For A
Nun (1951), written partly as a drama, centered on the courtroom trial of a
Negro woman who had once been a party to Temple Drake's debauchery.
InLight in August (1932), prejudice is shown to be most destructive when it
is internalized, as in Joe Christmas, who believes, though there is no proof of
it, that one of his parents was a Negro. The theme of racial prejudice is
brought up again in Absalom, Absalom! (1936), in which a young man is
rejected by his father and brother because of his mixed blood. Faulkner's
most outspoken moral evaluation of the relationship and the problems
between Negroes and whites is to be found in Intruder In the Dust (1948).

In 1940, Faulkner published the first volume of the Snopes trilogy, The
Hamlet, to be followed by two volumes, The Town (1957) and The
Mansion (1959), all of them tracing the rise of the insidious Snopes family to
positions of power and wealth in the community. The reivers, his last - and
most humorous - work, with great many similarities to Mark
Twain's Huckleberry Finn, appeared in 1962, the year of Faulkner's death.

II. Summary of the Story

The story begins at the huge funeral for Miss Emily Grierson. Nobody
has been to her house in ten years, except for her servant. Her house is old,
but was once the best house around. The town had a special relationship
with Miss Emily ever since it decided to stop billing her for taxes in 1894.
But, the "newer generation" wasn't happy with this arrangement, and so
they paid a visit to Miss Emily and tried to get her to pay the debt. She
refused to acknowledge that the old arrangement might not work anymore,
and flatly refused to pay.
Thirty years before, the tax collecting townspeople had a strange
encounter with Miss Emily about a bad smell at her place. This was about
two years after her father died, and a short time after her lover disappeared
from her life. Anyhow, the stink got stronger and complaints were made, but
the authorities didn't want to confront Emily about the problem. So, they
sprinkled lime around the house and the smell was eventually gone.
 Everybody felt sorry for Emily when her father died. He left her with
the house, but no money. When he died, Emily refused to admit it for three
whole days. The town didn't think she was "crazy then," but assumed that
she just didn't want to let go of her dad, even though you could argue that
he had stolen her youth from her.
Next, the story doubles back and tells us that not too long after her
father died Emily begins dating Homer Barron, who is in town on a sidewalk-
building project. The town heavily disapproves of the affair and brings
Emily's cousins to town to stop the relationship. One day, Emily is seen
buying arsenic at the drugstore, and the town thinks that Homer is giving
her the shaft, and that she plans to kill herself.
When she buys a bunch of men's items, they think that she and Homer
are going to get married. Homer leaves town, then the cousins leave town,
and then Homer comes back. He is last seen entering Miss Emily's house.
Emily herself rarely leaves the home after that, except for a period of half a
dozen years when she gives painting lessons.
Her hair turns gray, she gains weight, and she eventually dies in a
downstairs bedroom that hasn't seen light in many years. The story cycles
back to where it began, at her funeral. Tobe, miss Emily's servant, lets in
the town women and then leaves by the backdoor forever. After the funeral,
and after Emily is buried, the townspeople go upstairs to break into the room
that they know has been closed for forty years.
Inside, they find the corpse of Homer Barron, rotting in the bed. On
the dust of the pillow next to Homer they find an indentation of a head, and
there, in the indentation, a long, gray hair.
III.Characters

Emily Grierson -She is the main character,she was a very perverse woman,
atormented continuously by her father. After her father died, she said during
three days “he is not dead”. These is the time when miss Emily started the
negation of the change in the world.She was raised in heart of an aristocratic
family. She is the former aristocratic culture, who wereconservative and
closed to the economic, social and racial equality. She killed Mister Homer,
but does not exist a very specific reason.

Homer Barron - A foreman from the North. Homer is a large man with a
dark complexion, a booming voice, and light-colored eyes. A gruff and
demanding boss, he wins many admirers in Jefferson because of his
gregarious nature and good sense of humor. He develops an interest in
Emily and takes her for Sunday drives in a yellow-wheeled buggy. Despite
his attributes, the townspeople view him as a poor, if not scandalous, choice
for a mate. He disappears in Emily’s house and decomposes in an attic
bedroom after she kills him.He representeverything that in the of Emily is
the fist time the people was prohibited.

Judge Stevens - A mayor of Jefferson. Eighty years old, Judge Stevens

attempts to delicately handle the complaints about the smell emanating from
the Grierson property. To be respectful of Emily’s pride and former position
in the community, he and the aldermen decide to sprinkle lime on the
property in the middle of the night.

Mr. Grierson - Emily’s father. Mr. Grierson is a controlling, looming

presence even in death, and the community clearly sees his lasting influence
over Emily. He deliberately thwarts Emily’s attempts to find a husband in
order to keep her under his control. We get glimpses of him in the story: in
the crayon portrait kept on the gilt-edged easel in the parlor, and silhouetted
in the doorway, horsewhip in hand, having chased off another of Emily’s
suitors.

Tobe-Hewas the servant of Emily‟s house. He was the only connection of

Emily with the out side world, he goes out every day to the market with the
shopping cart, but he decides to keep her with the time stopped in a lie.
Tobe is an important character , he covers Miss Emily‟s murder and
represent the people of the north , who were freed from slavery through the
civil war.Tobe disappearance represents the culmination of slavery, and with
miss Emily the entire ideals of the aristocratic society died.
Colonel Sartoris- A former mayor of Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris absolves
Emily of any tax burden after the death of her father. His elaborate and
benevolent gesture is not heeded by the succeeding generation of town
leaders.

IV. Setting Town of Jefferson Miss Emily’s house.

V. Theme

The main themes of the story are (dis)obedience, holding on to the

past and isolation. In the word (dis)obedience, you have to place the ‘dis’
between brackets. This is, because Emily is an obeying woman, as well as a
disobeying woman. We see the obeying part when talking about her father:
she does everything she does to please him and she would not dare to do
anything that might anger him. We find her being disobedient on several
moments in the story. She is not disobeying a person, she is disobeying the
law. The first time we see this is in section one: Emily has to pay taxes, but
she does not want this. When a deputation of the Board of Aldermen comes
to her house to confront her, she tells them: “See Colonel Sartoris. I have
no taxes in Jefferson”, even though Colonel Sartoris has been dead for ten
years by then. The second time we see this is in section three, when she
buys the arsenic. Emily said: “’I want arsenic’ ‘Why, of course,’ the druggist
said, ‘If that’s what you want. But the law requires you to tell what you are
going to do with it’”. Emily does not answer the druggist’s question, though,
so she again flouts the rules.

The second theme is ‘holding on to the past. Emily does this

throughout the story and these are a few examples: - Emily wants to keep
her father with her after his death, even though he did not grant her
anything when he was alive. - Colonel Sartoris had been dead for a long
time, but she still did not want to pay her taxes.
 - In her living room before the fireplace, she has this crayon portrait of
her father.

- When Homer Barron wants to go back to the north, she does not
want to leave her hometown behind (because of her father’s roots there) so
she kills him. These are a few examples of ways Emily uses to cling to the
past.

The third theme is ‘isolation’. Most of the isolation is obvious: Emily

shuts herself up in her house and she never comes out. Parts of that
isolation are not so easy to discover though. For example: Emily actually still
has family left, but because it is mentioned in only one sentence, you might
not notice it. When her cousins then come to visit her in section four, you
might think they just appeared out of nowhere. The fact that she has not
kept in touch with her relatives in Alabama – they did not even attend her
father’s funeral – confirms that she is isolated from her family; she has no
one to rely on anymore. She is also isolated from the community, because,
as I mentioned before, she shuts herself up in her house. What struck me,
though, is that the people of Jefferson do nothing to get Emily out of her
shell; they just watch passively on the sidelines. They keep saying how sorry
they feel for her, but at the same time they do not take any action to help
her.

VISymbols/ Images

Emily’s House

Emily’s house, like Emily herself, is a monument, the only remaining

emblem of a dying world of Southern aristocracy. The outside of the large,
square frame house is lavishly decorated. The cupolas, spires, and scrolled
balconies are the hallmarks of a decadent style of architecture that became
popular in the 1870s. By the time the story takes place, much has changed.
The street and neighborhood, at one time affluent, pristine, and privileged,
have lost their standing as the realm of the elite. The house is in some ways
an extension of Emily: it bares its “stubborn and coquettish decay” to the
town’s residents. It is a testament to the endurance and preservation of
tradition but now seems out of place among the cotton wagons, gasoline
pumps, and other industrial trappings that surround it—just as the South’s
old values are out of place in a changing society.

Emily’s house also represents alienation, mental illness, and death. It

is a shrine to the living past, and the sealed upstairs bedroom is her
macabre trophy room where she preserves the man she would not allow to
leave her. As when the group of men sprinkled lime along the foundation to
counteract the stench of rotting flesh, the townspeople skulk along the
edges of Emily’s life and property. The house, like its owner, is an object of
fascination for them. They project their own lurid fantasies and
interpretations onto the crumbling edifice and mysterious figure inside.
Emily’s death is a chance for them to gain access to this forbidden realm and
confirm their wildest notions and most sensationalistic suppositions about
what had occurred on the inside.

The Strand of Hair

The strand of hair is a reminder of love lost and the often perverse
things people do in their pursuit of happiness. The strand of hair also reveals
the inner life of a woman who, despite her eccentricities, was committed to
living life on her own terms and not submitting her behavior, no matter how
shocking, to the approval of others. Emily subscribes to her own moral code
and occupies a world of her own invention, where even murder is
permissible. The narrator foreshadows the discovery of the long strand of
hair on the pillow when he describes the physical transformation that Emily
undergoes as she ages. Her hair grows more and more grizzled until it
becomes a “vigorous iron-gray.” The strand of hair ultimately stands as the
last vestige of a life left to languish and decay, much like the body of Emily’s
former lover.

VII. General Questions for the Analysis & Evaluation of the NovelsA
Rose for Emily

Reading Questions

1. From George L. Dillon’s “Styles of reading”:

. Why weren’t there suitable suitors for Emily?

There weren’t suitable suitors for Miss Emily because she was deprived
of a husband by her father. He is domineering and controlling and finds all
suitors unsuitable. He rejects all gentleman callers as not good enough for
his daughter.Certainly Emily learns her genteel ways from him. It is his
influence that deprives her of a husband when she is young. Then, when
Miss Emily meets Homer Barron and everyone in town thinks that they will
marry, she discovers that he prefers the company of men.

.How does Emily respond to being denied suitors?

Emily's response was to simply continue living as she'd been living.

This response is one she keeps up throughout each of the five sections
Faulkner has provided.

Also, you have to remember that Emily would have been completely
obedient to her father. He may not have been able to completely stop the
suitors from coming at first, but he was certainly good at frightening them
away.
 . Why does Emily take up with Homer Baron?

Emily take up with Homer Baron because she too curious to experience
being a free woman and maybe she wants someone to accompany her just
as her father. Emily is just looking form a father figure that she take up with
Homer Baron.

. What happened when he left? Did he abandon her? Why did

he come back?

When Homer left Emily became more recluse that she refuses to make
a contact anyone aside from Tobe her servant. She is pitied by the townsfolk
because her father died leaving her with nothing. She was raised in the
fashion of old nobility and no one has the heart to break through her pride
but Homer has left her and she is heartbroken.

Several occurrences draw suspicious to Emily's house. For one thing,

Emily bought a box of poison before Homer's disappearance from town. For
another thing, her house takes on a terrible smell for a time. She actually
closes the house to all visitors and family

No, he may have intended to marry Emily, but became dissuaded by

the wacky antics of Emily’s cousins and the town.

The reason why Homer went to her house that last time is unclear.
The author have not emphasizes the reason behind why he came back to
Emily’s house and how exactly he ended up dead in the bed, maybe he
really did itto talk about and to break off his relationship with Emily before
she killed him.

. Why did she kill him?

Miss Emily killed Homer Barron because Homer had gossiped to the
town that he and Emily had sex. Why I think Homer did this is because it
was said earlier in the story that after he begun his construcion work, he
started getting to know everybody and it seemed like he is a bright man
with obvious charm, as it said he was usually in the middle of any laughing
chatter or something to that affect, so it isn't out of the ordinairy to accept
the idea that he told people around the town given the fact that he was
pretty popular.
 Miss Emily is upset because she belonged to a family that was well
respected, and you would never hear of a Grierson having sex with a guy
like Homer Barron, a character who was portrayed as a lower to middle-class
member of society, and a construction worker. But she was more upset that
Homer didn't marry her, (hint: it was said that Homer hung out at the club
with younger men and didn't want to get married..He was a "player".)

Lastly, when Miss Emily goes to buy the Arsenic to kill Homer, it says
on the package "For Rats". Homer Barron is a RAT, for letting the word out
that he had sex with Miss Emily.

. Why did the smell disappear after only one week?

The smell disappear after only one week because of the four men who
slink around Miss Emily's house and sprinkled lime there, and in all the
outbuilding in which lime is a substance used to both cover smell and hasten
decomposition:

. What did Miss Emily think of the men scattering lime around
her house?

Emily thinks of the men scattering lime around her houseas a burglars
but she didn’t care maybe because she knows what the four man is doing
and she favors it to cover the crime that she has been committed.

. How did the hair come to be on the pillow? How much hair is
a strand?

The important thing about the strand of hair is that it is "iron-gray".

On a literal level, this indicates that Emily has been laying her head beside
the bones of her dead husband recently. When Homer Barron was last seen
alive, Emily was a comparatively young woman; after he disappeared, she
herself was not seen for six months, after which she emerged, fat and
beginning to gray. The fact that she has kept his body hidden there in her
house all these years is made even more horrendous by the insinuation that
she has been sleeping by his side during the time that has elapsed since his
demise.
 On a deeper level, the strand of gray hair signifies age, and the
passing of time. Decades have passed since Miss Emily was young; the
times have changed, as has the town, and the once proud South has
undergone a complete decline. Generations have come and gone, and the
only thing that hasn't changed is Miss Emily. She is an anachronism, and the
townspeople look upon her with an attitude of curiosity. Emily Grierson is a
"fallen monument", an aging symbol of an era that is no longer in existence.

. What was her relationship to Tobe?

Tobe is described as "an old man-servant – a combined gardener and

cook" .He is an even more mysterious character than Emily, and, ironically,
probably the only one who knows the answers to all the mysteries in the
story. He's also a major connection to the theme "Compassion and
Forgiveness.

Tobe gave his whole life to the care of Miss Emily. We don't know what
kind of relationship they had beyond that of employer and servant, but there
isn't any indication that either of them abused the other. Perhaps they have
us all fooled, and there in the haunted old house they carried on a loving,
caring relationship.

Whatever the case, we have to hand it to Tobe for taking care of Miss
Emily for most of her life, and most of his (as we talk about in the next
section). He also must have been the one to alert the town to both Emily's
father's death, and also to her own death. Loyal and discreet, he protected
her privacy from the prying eyes and ears of the town. This might be part of
why he split after her death, to avoid having to divulge her secrets to the
town. Of course, he probably also left because his duty was finally done, and
he could escape the stinking, rotting crypt of a house.

. Did she lie beside the corpse? How often, for what period of
years?

Yes, it happen at once when Emily is about forty years old that she
started torefused to let a mailbox be attached to her house when the town
got postal delivery service. Years pass and Miss Emily "passed from
generation to generation - dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and
perverse.
 . Why did she not leave the house for the last decade of her
life?

Emily did not leave the house for the last decade of her life because
she just want to spent her time and life to be with Homer. The influenceof
her father who apparently indoctrinated her with the proud ways of the Old
South pushes Emily to become recluse and to isolate herself. Her upbringing
thus isolated her from the New South residents of the town; she had become
totally dependent on, and totally attached to, her father. It is no wondered,
then, that when her father died she refused to give up his body for burial. It
took townspeople three days to persuade her to surrender the corpse.
Afterward, he reached from beyond the grave to continue to oppress her, as
the following passage indicates:

“Now and then we would see her at a window for a moment, as the
men did that night when they sprinkled the lime, but for almost six months
she did not appear on the streets. Then we knew that this was to be
expected too; as if that quality of her father which had thwarted her
woman's life so many times had been too virulent and too furious to die.”

Emily had become, in effect, a hapless slave to the will of her father.
Her one attempt to free herself of psychological bondage to him occurred
when she dated a newcomer to town, a Northerner of low social standing
whom she knew her father would not like. But the Northerner, Homer
Barron, informed her that he was not the marrying kind. So she lapsed back
into the seclusion of her house and into the comfortable past of the Old
South. Time had stopped for her, and she decided that it would also stop for
Barron.

. Did she not know Colonel Sartoris had been dead ten years
when she faced down the Aldermen?

Emily knowsthatColonel Sartoris had been dead ten years when she
faced down the Aldermenyet she refuses to acknowledge his death because
she remains to live in her fantasy.
 . How crazy was she (unable to distinguish fantasy from
reality)?

Emily became recluse and isolated person because of the influence of

her father who was a man who had thwarted her woman’s life so many
times. Just one example of his behavior was that he drove all of Miss Emily’s
suitors away because none were perceived as good enough for her. As a
result, she never married.After her father’s death and her subsequent
breakdown, Miss Emily was “sick for a long time that she retreated entirely
into a world of delusion and fantasy.

. Why does she allow so much dust in her house?

She allow so much dust in her house because the dust throughout
Emily’s house is a fitting accompaniment to the faded lives within. When the
aldermen arrive to try and secure Emily’s annual tax payment, the house
smells of “dust and disuse.” As they seat themselves, the movement stirs
dust all around them, and it slowly rises, roiling about their thighs and
catching the slim beam of sunlight entering the room. The house is a place
of stasis, where regrets and memories have remained undisturbed. In a
way, the dust is a protective presence; the aldermen cannot penetrate
Emily’s murky relationship with reality. The layers of dust also suggest the
cloud of obscurity that hides Emily’s true nature and the secrets her house
contains. In the final scene, the dust is an oppressive presence that seems
to emanate from Homer’s dead body.

Which of these questions occurred to you? What would you add

to this list?

These are the questions that occurred to me most:

1. Why weren't there suitable suitors for Emily?

2. What happened when he left? Did he abandon her? Why did he

come back?

3. Why did she kill him?

4. How did the hair come to be on the pillow? How much hair is a
strand?
 5. Why does she allow so much dust in her house?

I answer each question by analyzing the story and by expressing my

points of view with regard to this story.

These are the questions that I like to add to the list:

1. Does the story have greater significance?

2. What is the timeline of the story?

2. Are there any passages or aspects of the story which leave you
confused or which seem irrelevant to the plot? Are you reminded of
any other stories you have read or seen on film or television?

Yes, the part that Homer went back to Emily’s house confuses me
because the narrator did not tell the reason behind Homer’s return and it
puts me to speculation of how Homer has died. Also, this story reminds me
of a movie about an abandon woman that after she loved her boyfriend and
gave everything she have he just left her that she became recluse and die as
recluse.

3. At what points did you notice any foreshadowing of the ending?

Did the story prepare youto expect something different from Miss
Emily?

I expect that Emily will change herself and accept the reality in the end
of the story.

4. This story is told by "we": who do you imagine this narrator (or
narrators) to be? Young orold?Male or female?Both? What is their
attitude toward Emily? How is this representedby their calling her
"Miss Emily"? What do they remember about her? How does
thisshape your attitude toward her? Do you find yourself
sympathizing with her situation asthe center of the town's attention
(and gossip)?

I think the author is a female because she is trying to emphasize the

strong character of being a woman by the how she relates the role of Emily
in the story. It encourage the readers to sympathize the situation of Emily
and try to explain why she became recluse.
 The author represented her respect for Emily by calling her "Miss
Emily" through her story.

I find Miss Emily as an old-school southern belle trapped in a society

bent on forcing her to stay in her role. She clings to the old ways even as
she tries to break free. When she's not even forty, she's on a road that
involves dying alone in a seemingly haunted house. At thirty-something she
is already a murderer, which only adds to her outcast status.

Miss Emily is a truly tragic figure, but one who we only see from the
outside. Granted, the townspeople who tell her story know her better than
we do, but not really by much. This is why Emily is called "impervious." We
can't quite penetrate her or completely understand her. But, perhaps there
is a little Emily in all of us. In the spirit of finding the human being behind
the mask, lets zero in on a few aspects of Emily, the person.

Yes, I find myself sympathizing with her situation asthe center of the
town's attention (and gossip) because of what I observe in the reality about
woman that had experience like Emily who became center of the town's
attention and gossip. As I can conclude gossip cannot help the person like
Emily but an unconditional sympathy through Godly advices and prayers
could greatly help the lost soul and sanity of the person like Emily.

5. Women of the Old South and of a "good family" were often put on
pedestals as paragonsof virtue and respectability and given special
treatment as "ladies." How do you see theseattitudes at work in this
story? How have they shaped Miss Emily's life and how peopleview
her? Why is she called a "fallen monument" in the first paragraph?

Women of the Old South and of a "good family" were often put on
pedestals as paragons of virtue and respectability and given special
treatment as "ladies.In the story Miss Emily Grierson was raised in heart of
an aristocratic family. She is the former aristocratic culture, who
wereconservative and closed to the economic, social and racial equality. She
killed Mister Homer, Homer Barron because he had gossiped to the town
that he and Emily had sex.

Emily might bethink as weak, or as unwilling to take a stand against

her father in life. This assessment is kind of like blaming the victim though.
The bare sketch we have of her father shows a man who was unusually
controlling, domineering, and perhaps capable of deep cruelty, even toward
his only daughter. This theory also disguises her behavior after his death,
when she tried desperately to shed the image of dutiful daughter, and,
probably for the first time, at thirty-something pursued her own desires for
love and sex.When this attempt at womanhood failed miserably, she
reverted back to the life her father created for her – a lonely, loveless,
isolated life. Except now, with Homer Barron rotting away upstairs, there are
two men that haunt her.

Miss Emily was called a "fallen monument" in the first paragraph

because she is the last representative of the southern aristocracy in the
town, and even though her economic circumstances are now grim, she is still
accorded some respect simply for her family's history in Jefferson. She
becomes a "fallen monument" by violating the town's social norms when she
associates herself with someone not even remotely close to her class.

6. What does the title tell you about the story? Why isn’t it called "A Rose for
Miss Emily"?Read Faulkner's interpretation of the story (it appears on the
back side of the sheet),stated many years after he wrote it. What other
interpretations are possible about thestory which are different from or even
contradictory to Faulkner's interpretations?

The title tells about the storythat the rose is symbolic...a sort of nod in
her direction for her success as an aristocratic representative, the last of her
kind, and the conquerer of Homer Baron.The rose is also symbolic of love
and of her life. It was beautiful, soft, protected, with a few thorns. Her
southern heritage enveloped her and protected her in the dullness of the
rules that she followed almost without question. Her father also protected
her from marriage to unsuitable men, and then from taxes as he died
leaving her alone with Toby.

Roses need not be literally spoken of to have power. Think of roses

and their various roles in human life. Roses are often present at weddings,
a promise of love despite hardship, the combination of pain and beauty.

However, roses because of their strong odor, are also used in funeral
homes to cover the stench of decay. In Faulkner's day as well, older ladies,
those of the late 1800s, favored rose water perfumes as a means of hiding
bodily odor no deodorants then, you know. Emily tries hard to be something
she is not...young, engaging, and marriageable.
 The covering of stench could be applied to a variety of characters: the
town in its neglect of one of its own, Emily in covering the death of her
lover, the dead flowers symbolic of Homer's apparently neglected promise.

Additionally, it has been traditional for brides and lovers to press and
preserve roses. The rose of the title then, may symbolize Emily's stagnant
dreams for a life with Homer.

Or, one could view the rose as the narrator's offer of friendship,
extended too late. Like a clipped rose, life itself is short and once it is gone,
the rose can never be restored to its previous glory.
 "The Story of An Hour"

Kate Chopin

I. Bio of the Author

Kate Chopin was born on February 8, 1850, in St. Louis, Missouri. She
began to write after her husband's death. Among her more than 100 short
stories are "Désirée's Baby" and "Madame Celestin's Divorce." The
Awakening (1899), a realistic novel about the sexual and artistic awakening
of a young mother who abandons her family, was initially condemned for its
sexual frankness but was later acclaimed. Chopin died in St. Louis, Missouri,
on August 22, 1904.

II. Summary of the Story

Mrs. Mallard has a heart condition, which means that if she's startled
she could die. So, when news comes that her husband's been killed in an
accident, the people who tell her have to cushion the blow.

Mrs. Mallard's sister Josephine sits down with her and dances around
the truth until Mrs. Mallard finally understands what happened. The
deceased Mr. Mallard's friend, Richards, hangs out with them for moral
support.

Richards originally found out because he had been in the newspaper

headquarters when a report of the accident that killed Mr. Mallard, which
happened on a train, came through. Richards waited for proof from a second
source before going to the Mallards' to share the news.

When Mrs. Mallard finds out what happened she acts differently from
most women in the same position, who might disbelieve it. She cries
passionately before deciding to go to her room to be by herself.
 In her room, Mrs. Mallard sits down on a comfy chair and feels
completely depleted. She looks out the window and looks out at a world that
seems alive and fresh. She can see the sky coming between the rain clouds.

Mrs. Mallard sits still, occasionally crying briefly like a kid might.

The narrator describes her as youthful and pretty, but because of this
news she looks preoccupied and absent.

She seems to be holding out for some kind of unknown news or

knowledge, which she can tell is approaching.

Mrs. Mallard breathes heavily and tries to resist before succumbing to

this unknown thing, which is a feeling of freedom.

Acknowledging freedom makes her revive, and she doesn't consider

whether she should feel bad about it.

Mrs. Mallard thinks to herself about how she'll cry when she sees her
husband's dead body and how much he loved her. Even so, she's kind of
excited about the chance to make her own decisions and not feel
accountable to anyone.

Mrs. Mallard feels even more swept up by the idea of freedom than the
fact that she had felt love for her husband. She focuses on how liberated she
feels.

Outside the locked door to the room, her sister Josephine is pleading
to her to open up and let her in.Mrs. Mallard tells her to go away and
fantasizes about the exciting life ahead.

Finally, she goes to her sister and they go downstairs.

Suddenly, the door opens and Mr. Mallard comes in. He's not dead and
doesn't even know anyone thought he was.
 Even though Richards and Josephine try to protect Mrs. Mallard from
the sight, they can't. She receives the shock they tried to prevent at the
beginning of the story.

Later, the medical people who examine her say that she was full of so
much happiness that it murdered her.

III. Elements of Fiction

Characters

Louise Mallard - A woman whose husband is reportedly killed in a train

accident. When Louise hears the news, she is secretly happy because she is
now free. She is filled with a new lust for life, and although she usually loved
her husband, she cherishes her newfound independence even more. She has
a heart attack when her husband, alive after all, comes home.

Brently Mallard - Louise’s husband, supposedly killed in a train accident.

Although Louise remembers Brently as a kind and loving man, merely being
married to him also made him an oppressive factor in her life. Brently
arrives home unaware that there had been a train accident.

Josephine - Louise’s sister. Josephine informs Louise about Brently’s

death.

Richards -Brently’s friend. Richards learns about the train accident and
Brently’s death at the newspaper office, and he is there when Josephine tells
the news to Louise.

Setting

One Hour at the Mallards' Home

Plot

Louise Mallard has heart trouble, so she must be informed carefully

about her husband’s death. Her sister, Josephine, tells her the news.
Louise’s husband’s friend, Richards, learned about a railroad disaster when
he was in the newspaper office and saw Louise’s husband, Brently, on the
list of those killed. Louise begins sobbing when Josephine tells her of
Brently’s death and goes upstairs to be alone in her room.
 Louise sits down and looks out an open window. She sees trees, smells
approaching rain, and hears a peddler yelling out what he’s selling. She
hears someone singing as well as the sounds of sparrows, and there are
fluffy white clouds in the sky. She is young, with lines around her eyes. Still
crying, she gazes into the distance. She feels apprehensive and tries to
suppress the building emotions within her, but can’t. She begins repeating
the word Free! to herself over and over again. Her heart beats quickly, and
she feels very warm.

Louise knows she’ll cry again when she sees Brently’s corpse. His
hands were tender, and he always looked at her lovingly. But then she
imagines the years ahead, which belong only to her now, and spreads her
arms out joyfully with anticipation. She will be free, on her own without
anyone to oppress her. She thinks that all women and men oppress one
another even if they do it out of kindness. Louise knows that she often felt
love for Brently but tells herself that none of that matters anymore. She
feels ecstatic with her newfound sense of independence.

Josephine comes to her door, begging Louise to come out, warning her
that she’ll get sick if she doesn’t. Louise tells her to go away. She fantasizes
about all the days and years ahead and hopes that she lives a long life. Then
she opens the door, and she and Josephine start walking down the stairs,
where Richards is waiting.

The front door unexpectedly opens, and Brently comes in. He hadn’t
been in the train accident or even aware that one had happened. Josephine
screams, and Richards tries unsuccessfully to block Louise from seeing him.
Doctors arrive and pronounce that Louise died of a heart attack brought on
by happiness.
Theme

There are two main themes in "The Story of an Hour.” Identity and
Selfhood—Chopin examines issues of “female self-discovery and identity”
through having her main character demonstrate extreme feelings of grief
upon learning of her husband’s death, only to have those feelings
immediately replaced by an indescribable feeling she can only describe as
"free, free, free!" or as having "abandoned herself." In essence, she has
basically lived through her husband, and now that she thinks he is gone, she
realizes with astonishing exhilaration that she is free and her life is her own
once again. Imagine her sense of complete devastation upon his return. The
other theme is the Role of Women in Marriage, and Chopin broaches a
subject that was not very popular in her time—the right of the husband to
dominate the wife in a marriage. In the story Louise Mallard is elated that
she would no longer have to bend to the will of her husband.

I just want to add to the theme of the role of women in marriage. One
thing the author makes clear in this story is that Brently Mallard was not a
mean or abusive husband to Louise. As Louise is sitting in the upstairs room
alone, she admits that "she would weep again when she saw the kind,
tender hands folded in death, the face that had never looked save with love
upon her, fixed and gray and dead." It's important to know that her husband
had been a kind and loving man and, in spite of this, Louise is happy that
she will live the rest of her life without him and now hopes she will have a
very long life.

The author is stressing to us that women had no rights at that time to

choose their lives. Louise Mallard is a woman who wanted opportunities that
were available only to men. A woman was conditioned to go from her
father's home to her husband's, and no thought was given to asking if she
wanted to go to college or work. This is why it takes Louise a moment to
understand "this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was
striving to beat it back with her will ...". She tries to fight this strange feeling
she's having, but she can't, and then the words "free, free, free" pour out.

Louise Mallard didn't want out of a bad marriage; she did not want to
be married. She wanted to make her own decisions and live her life the way
she chose.

Symbols/ Images

Heart Trouble

The heart trouble that afflicts Louise is both a physical and symbolic
malady that represents her ambivalence toward her marriage and
unhappiness with her lack of freedom. The fact that Louise has heart trouble
is the first thing we learn about her, and this heart trouble is what seems to
make the announcement of Brently’s death so threatening. A person with a
weak heart, after all, would not deal well with such news. When Louise
reflects on her new independence, her heart races, pumping blood through
her veins. When she dies at the end of the story, the diagnosis of “heart
disease” seems appropriate because the shock of seeing Brently was surely
enough to kill her. But the doctors’ conclusion that she’d died of
overwhelming joy is ironic because it had been the loss of joy that had
actually killed her. Indeed, Louise seems to have died of a broken heart,
caused by the sudden loss of her much-loved independence.

The Open Window

The open window from which Louise gazes for much of the story
represents the freedom and opportunities that await her after her husband
has died. From the window, Louise sees blue sky, fluffy clouds, and treetops.
She hears people and birds singing and smells a coming rainstorm.
Everything that she experiences through her senses suggests joy and
spring—new life. And when she ponders the sky, she feels the first hints of
elation. Once she fully indulges in this excitement, she feels that the open
window is providing her with life itself. The open window provides a clear,
bright view into the distance and Louise’s own bright future, which is now
unobstructed by the demands of another person. It’s therefore no
coincidence that when Louise turns from the window and the view, she
quickly loses her freedom as well.

IV. Highlights of Perspectives

1. Who is the protagonist of the story? What are the conflicts? Are
they physical, intellectual, moral or emotional? Is the main conflict
between good and evil sharply differentiated, or it is more subtle
and complex?

Mrs. Mallard is a classic late nineteenth-century protagonist. Stuck in a

domestic space, trapped in an unfulfilling marriage, full of longing for
freedom, and even diagnosed with a weak hear Mrs. Mallard has many of the
characteristics of other traditional heroines of her time. In a way, that seems
to be the point. It's what Mrs. Mallard does with the event of her husband's
death, what makes her unlike other women in her position that makes her
interesting. Somehow, when she hears about her husband's death, it's
almost like she's being reborn as a new person, under her own control – as
though she gets a new lease on life. Because she's the protagonist, we root
for her to have that life and enjoy it. It's too bad she doesn't get to.

2. Does the plot have unity? Are all the episodes relevant to the
total meaning or effect of the story? Does each incident grow
logically out of the preceding incident and lead naturally to the next?
Is the ending happy, unhappy, or undetermined? Is it fairly
achieved?
 Yes, the plot has unity. All the episodes are relevant to the total
meaning or effect of the story. Yes, each incident grows logically out of the
preceding incident and lead naturally to the next. The ending of the story
was happy because even Louise has died of a heart attack. She died
happyas what the doctor said.

3. What use does the story make of chance and coincidence? Are
these occurrences used to initiate, to complicate, or to resolve the
story? How improbable are they?

The Story of an Hour made of chance and not of coincidence, it is

mentioned in the story that Mrs. Mallard was trapped in an unfulfilling
marriage, full of longing for freedom, and even diagnosed with a weak heart.
The occurrence of the death of husband resolved her problem and longing
for freedom.

4. How is the suspense created in the story? Is the interest confined

to examples of mystery? of dilemma?

The suspense of the story is when Richard delivers the new about
Louise husband.There is a mystery in the story in the part of Mrs. Mallard
that she was trapped to a marriage which she did not want.

5. What use does the story make of surprise? Are the surprises
achieved fairly? Do they serve a significant purpose? Do they divert
the reader’s attention from weakness in the story?

Yes, the story has surprise. It was a surprise when Mrs. Mallard dies at
the end of the story. Yes, the surprise was achieved fairly. Yes, it served a
significant purpose. Yes,they divert the reader’s attention from weakness in
the story.
6. To what extent is this “formula” story?

In “The Story of an Hour,” the fact that Mrs. Mallard is “afflicted with a

heart trouble” becomes an ironic reality, for Mrs. Mallard’s “heart trouble” in

the beginning of the story is that she feels emotionally thwarted in her

marriage. When her husband is believed to have been killed in a train

accident, her friends notify her cautiously, assuming she will be devastated.

The news, however, brings her tears of release rather than of grief. She is

enlivened by her new situation and symbolically insists that all the doors of

the house be opened. When Brently Mallard suddenly returns home,

however, Mrs. Mallard’s death is both literal and symbolic—in one hour, her

freedom has been won and lost. For Chopin, Mrs. Mallard represents the

numerous women who silently bear the feelings of being trapped in unhappy

marriages but whose escapes could be ephemeral at best.

This makes it seem like it's not Mrs. Mallard's fault she has these

feelings – they chase her down. She's helpless to resist them, passive and

powerless. Mrs. Mallard is on the verge of thinking something complicated

and not very nice – the short version of that would be, she's kind of glad her

husband's dead because she gets to be free. Even though freedom's scary at

first she's excited about it by the end. If that were related to us in first

person, we might think Mrs. Mallard to be selfish or believe that she didn't

love her husband. As told by the narrator, though, it seems like Mrs. Mallard

is helpless under the greater weight of human truths.

CHARACTERS

1. What means does the author use to reveal characters? Are the

characters sufficiently dramatized? What use is made of character

contrast?

The authors used to reveal each character by describing their role in

the story. Yes, they are sufficiently dramatized. Emphasizing the role of each

character made the story digestible for the readers.

2. Are the main characters consistent in their actions? Adequately

motivated? Plausible? Does the author successfully avoid stock
characters?

Yes, the main characters are consistent in their actions. Yes, they are
adequately motivated. Yes, they are plausible. Mr. Mallard is the stock
character in the story because he marry Mrs. Mallard out of her will. He is
considered as the cause of conflict in the story.

3. Is each character developed enough to justify his role in the

story? Are the main characters round or flat?

Yes, each character is developed enough to justify his role in the story.
The main characters in the story are considered as flat character in the story
because there is a total realization freedom on the part of Mrs. Mallard. The
happiness she felt when she hears the news of her husband which also
results to her death due to heart attact.
4. Are any of the characters a developing character? If so, is his/her change
a large or small one? Is it a plausible change for him/her? Is he/she
sufficiently motivated/ is she/he given sufficient time?

There is no developing character in the story.

THEME

1. Does the story have a theme? What is it? Is it implicit or explicit?

Yes, the theme of the story is female self-discovery and identity.The

symbols and imagery used by Kate Chopin's in “The Story of an Hour” give
the reader a sense of Mrs. Mallard’s new life appearing before her through
her view of an “open window”.The author's use of Spring time imagery also
creates a sense of renewal that captures the author's idea that Mrs. Mallard
was set free after the news of her husband's death

2. Does the theme reinforce or oppose popular notions of life? Does

it furnish a new insight or refresh or deepen an old one?

Yes, the theme of the story reinforces popular notions of life. Whether
we accept it or not the story.Louise Mallard experiences what most
individuals long for throughout their lives; freedom and happiness. By
spending an hour in a “comfortable, roomy armchair” in front of an open
window, she undergoes a transformation that makes her understand the
importance of her freedom.

POINT OF VIEW

1. What point of view does the story use? Is it consistent in its use
of this point of view/ if shifts are made, are they justified?
 The use of an omniscient third-person narrator enables Chopin to tell a
complete story that's not limited to the protagonist's point of view. This is
key because the opening of the story begins with us readers knowing
something Mrs. Mallard doesn't, and because the story ends after Mrs.
Mallard has already died. If Mrs. Mallard were telling the story in first
person, readers would be exposed to a whole different explanation of her
weak heart, and the story would end very differently – and somewhat
earlier.

The use of third-person omniscient narrative voice also keeps Mrs.

Mallard more sympathetic and understandable. The narrator seems to be
excusing her behavior and thought process, or at least providing reasoning
for it. For example, look at this description, stated by the narrator, of how
Mrs. Mallard cringes away from the approaching feeling of freedomThe
narrator was consistent in its use of this point of view. There’s no shifts
made.

2. What are the advantages of the chosen point of view? Does it

furnish any clues as to the purpose of the story?

The advantage of the chosen point of view is it understandable and

well explained that reader can fully understand what the story is about to tell
by giving a complete description and details about the characters. Yes, it
furnishes clues as to the purpose of the story.

3. If the point of view is that of one of the characters, does this

character have any limitations that affect his/her interpretation of
events or persons?
 Thepoint of view for the characters is omniscient, the narrator knows
the story well for heexplained the story in detailed manner. The characters
have no limitations that affect his/her interpretation of events or persons.

4. Does the author use point of view primarily to reveal or conceal?

Does he/she unfairly withhold important information known to the
focal character?

The author uses point of view primarily to reveal and unfold the true
events and character of the story. He also fairly withholds important
information known to the focal character.

SYMBOLISM AND IRONY

1. Does the meaning of the story make use of symbols? If so, do the
symbols carry or merely reinforce the meaning of the story?

Yes, it does uses symbolism, one is the heart trouble that afflicts
Louise is both a physical and symbolic malady that represents her
ambivalence toward her marriage and unhappiness with her lack of freedom.
Another is the open window from which Louise gazes for much of the story
represents the freedom and opportunities that await her after her husband
has died. From the window, Louise sees blue sky, fluffy clouds, and treetops.

2. Does the story utilize irony of situation? Dramatic irony?Verbal

irony? What functions do the ironies serve?

Yes, it utilizes irony of situations. It is a dramatic irony because Mrs.

Mallard has heart troubles. Her physical heart problems symbolize her
emotional heart problems as it relates to marriage. She could be said to
represent women of her time period who were unable to find happiness in
marriage and motherhood, not because it's not found there, but because
their freedoms within marriage are restricted.

EMOTION AND HUMOR

1. Does the story aim directly at an emotional effect, or is emotion

merely its natural by product?

The story “The Story of an Hour” aims directly an emotional effect.

Readers who have experience the same situation the character are
experiencing in the story and the feeling they have can relate to this.

2. Is the emotion sufficiently dramatized? Is the author anywhere

guilty of sentimentality?

Yes, the emotion was sufficiently dramatized in the story. No, the
author is not guilty of sentimentality.

FANTASY

1. Does the story employ fantasy? If so, what is the initial

assumption? Does the story operate logically from this assumption?

No, fantasy is not employed in the story.

2. Is the fantasy employed for its own sake, or to express some

human truth? If the latter, what truth?

No, fantasy is not employed in the story.

GENERAL

1. Is the primary interest of the story in the plot, character, theme,

or some other element?

The primary interest of the story is in the plot and of the theme.

2. What contribution to the story is made by the setting? Is the

particular setting essential, or could the story have happened
anywhere?

The story takes place within an hour, so there's only so much time the
characters have to go anywhere or do anything. Still, it's striking that the
women are always inside the Mallards' house, while the men can come and
go as they please. This means the primary action of the story takes place
within the Mallards' home, which is barely described: there's more than one
floor, because there's a staircase inside; the internal doors have locks; and
Mrs. Mallard has her own room. In that room, there's "a comfortable, roomy
armchairand it seems that she’s to be pretty confined to the house, because of
her medical condition.

3. What are the characteristics of the author’s style? Are they

appropriate to the nature of the story?

The author represents the story in orderly manner and based on the
events that happen in order for the readers to understand better.The author
never mention or describe the features of Mrs. Mallari’s room that we don't
know what color it is, what material it's made of, or whether it matches the
wallpaper.

4. What light is thrown on the story by its title?

The title of the story refers to the story's duration (an hour) and its
actual form (a story). "The Story of an Hour" to be limited to events that can
happen in only an hour's time. We can read about the things that happen to
Mrs. Mallard in just about the same amount of time that it takes for them to
happen, which is pretty cool. This lends the whole thing a sense of
immediacy – in other words, a feeling that things are happening to Mrs.
Mallard right as we read them.

An hour doesn't seem like a lot of time – it's barely an episode of The
Vampire Diaries. As soon as it starts, it seems like it's over. An hour,
though, can seem like it goes on forever if you're doing something difficult or
uncomfortable – like go to the dentist, sit in detention, or if you're on a road
trip and desperately looking for a decent public restroom. In Mrs. Mallard's
case, processing the tragic news of her husband's death and what it means
for the shape of her life makes that hour slow way down and stand still. It
may not seem like it takes very long, but a lot of stuff happens to Mrs.
Mallard during that hour.

5. Do all the elements of the story work together to support the

central purpose? Is any part irrelevant or inappropriate?

Yes, all the elements of the story work together to support the central
purpose. No, there no part of the story thatis irrelevant or inappropriate.

6. What do you conceive to be the story’s central purpose? How

fully has the story achieved that purpose?

The central purpose of the story is to inform that the heart of any
society is the family and a marriage between a man and a woman is the
essential foundation of the family. Mrs. Mallard's heart troubles may
represent the peril in which the late 19th century institution of marriage
finds itself on account of the inequalities therein.
7. Does the story chiefly offer escape or does it have greater
significance? How lofty is the story’s purpose?

The story has a greater significance to the readers because can relates
in the story. The story captures the heart of the readers.

8. Does the story gain or lose on a second reading?

I really gained a lot on my second reading.

 The Two Brothers

byRony V. Diaz

I. Bio of the Author

Rony V. Diaz is a Filipino short-story writer. He was born in

Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija on December 2, 1932. He has won several
Palancaawards.He joined The Manila Times in 2001 as executive director. He
eventually became publisher and president of the Manila Times School of
Journalism. He has taught English at the University of the Philippines Diliman
and has worked for the Philippine government as a foreign service
corp.[clarification needed] He is the author of the story "The Centipede".

He is a recipient of a University of the Philippines Fellowship for

Literature, a Rockefeller Fellowship for creative writing and is a member of
the University of the Philippines Writers Club.

II. Summary of the Story

The story is about the two brothers engaged in spear fishing. Litoy is
being unfriendly and judgmental in his surroundings but he is a good, loving
and caring older brother to Simo. Simo is a pompous type who tries to
impress his older brother. At dawn the two brothers left the town and went
to the black beach. They were walking unstoppable and it was led by Litoy.
And they only stop to examine the goggles because it was been damage by
Simo last week. When they reach the breakwater, Litoy tested and
confirmed it is usable. Simo is excited to fish because it will be his first time
in pier. And he is having a hard time to find a good topic. The topic he talked
about his older brother is about Kaltang. It has been the recent legend fish
in their town. Even though, he already knows about it , still, he keeps asking
him about it. When they walk toward the pier head, a stevedore asking a
favor to the older brother about having a job and he approached it
disinterestedly and angrily. At the old steamboat, they meet MangOrto and
the older brother judge him for having a junk and also to Ninoy the one who
repairs it is a lazy person. When they spear fishing, Litoy really look after for
his younger brother. They got Maya-Maya and a big black Lapu-Lapu and his
older brother was proud to Simo. And Litoy wants to go home already but
Simo he dive alone because he wants to impress more his older brother. He
cut himself by the oyster shells. And his older brother is very worried but he
pretendsits ok and continuously fishing like nothing was happened. And
again he was hurt but this time it’s severe because it was an explosion. As
Litoy tries to stop the bleeding, he resisted because of his pride. And at the
end, as he slowly lost his consciousness, his older brother trying his best to
save him and that is what his trying to convey to the stevedore.

III.Characters

Simo- He is a pompous type who tries to impress his older brother.

Litoy- He is unfriendly and judgemental in his surroundings but he is a
good, loving and caring older brother to Simo.
MangOrto-Litoyjudge him for having a junkold steamboat.
Ninoy–He is the one who repairs the old steamboat.Litoy judge
him as a lazy person
A Stevedore- The onewho ask a favor to Litoy about having a job.

IV. Setting

Inthe black beach

V. Theme

Unfriendly and judgmental

General Questions for the Analysis & Evaluation of Short Stories and
Novels

The Two Brothers

byRony V. Diaz

PLOT

1. Who is the protagonist of the story? What are the conflicts? Are
they physical, intellectual, moral or emotional? Is the main conflict
between good and evil sharply differentiated, or it is more subtle
and complex?

The protagonist of the story is Litoy.The conflict is the attitude of Litoy

who unfriendly and judgmental. The conflict is moral and emotional. The
main conflict between good and evil is not sharply differentiated.

2. Does the plot have unity? Are all the episodes relevant to the
total meaning or effect of the story? Does each incident grow
logically out of the preceding incident and lead naturally to the next?
Is the ending happy, unhappy, or undetermined? Is it fairly
achieved?

Yes, the plot has unity. All the episodes are relevant to the total
meaning or effect of the story. Yes, each incident grows logically out of the
preceding incident and lead naturally to the next. The ending of the story
was unhappy because of Litoy who istoo much unfriendly and judgmental.
His too much pride to accept the help of others endangered the life of Simo
his younger brother. Yes, it was fairly achieved.

3. What use does the story make of chance and coincidence? Are
these occurrences used to initiate, to complicate, or to resolve the
story? How improbable are they?
 The story “Two Brothers” was made of chance and not of coincidence,
the story can tell that thereis the only the two of them who live because the
author did not mention about the parents. Maybe the parents issue could
explain a lot about the character of Litoy who is unfriendly and judgmental in
his surroundings but he is a good, loving and caring older brother to Simo.
The character of Litoywas used to complicate the situation between Simo
and the people around them particularly MangOrto and Ninoy.It‘s too
improbable on the part ofSimo that he resisted help because also of his
pride, the story ends that Litoy was trying his best to save him.

4. How is the suspense created in the story? Is the interest confined

to examples of mystery? of dilemma?

The suspense in the story is when Litoyaccept help as he is trying his

best to save the life of Simoat the end of the story. There is no mystery in
the story but rather, a dilemma among characters.

5. What use does the story make of surprise? Are the surprises
achieved fairly? Do they serve a significant purpose? Do they divert
the reader’s attention from weakness in the story?

Yes, the story has surprise. It was a surprise when Litoyaccept help as
he is trying his best to save the life of Simo at the end of the story. Yes, the
surprise was achieved fairly. Yes, it served a significant purpose. No, they
don’t divert the reader’s attention from weakness in the story.

6. To what extent is this “formula” story?

This story wants to inform us about brothers loved. As the author did
not mention about their parentsit signifies the reason why Litoy became
unfriendly and judgmental in his surroundingsbut to his brother Simo, he is
a good, loving and caring older brother.The story “TwoBrother” is a very true
to real life story that gives a lesson and make its readers to come up into
realization as the story touches their heart. It can make its readers
particularly the parents to realize and understand that abandoning your
childrenmay result to lifetime inferiority complex and bitterness.

CHARACTERS

1. What means does the author use to reveal characters? Are the
characters sufficiently dramatized? What use is made of character
contrast?

The authors used to reveal each character through description. Yes,

the characters were sufficiently dramatized. The readerenables to achieve
understanding of the story throughcomparison of characters.

2. Are the main characters consistent in their actions? Adequately

motivated? Plausible? Does the author successfully avoid stock
characters?

Yes, the main characters are consistent in their actions. Yes, they are
adequately motivated. Yes, they are plausible. Litoybecome a stock
character in the story because he was the cause of the conflict in the story.

3. Is each character developed enough to justify his role in the

story? Are the main characters round or flat?

Yes, each character is developed enough to justify his role in the story.
The main characters in the story are considered as round character because
there is a realization on his part that he lowered his pride and acceptthe help
to save the life of his brother at the end of the story.Some minor character
was not revealed by the author such as the parentsof the two brothers.

4. Are any of the characters a developing character? If so, is his/her

change a large or small one? Is it a plausible change for him/her? Is
he/she sufficiently motivated/ is she/he given sufficient time?
 There is no developing character in the story.

THEME

1. Does the story have a theme? What is it? Is it implicit or explicit?

The theme of the story is being unfriendly and judgmental in his

surroundings. It is explicitly stated in the story.

2. Does the theme reinforce or oppose popular notions of life? Does

it furnish a new insight or refresh or deepen an old one?

The theme of the story reinforces popular notions of life. This is very
true to real life story that happens in our society nowadays. Yes, it
furnishes a new insight, it refreshes our minds to be aware of the
consequences of infidelity and deepen an old one.

POINT OF VIEW

1. What point of view does the story use? Is it consistent in its use
of this point of view/ if shifts are made, are they justified?

The use of an omniscient third-person narrator enables Rony Diaz to

tell a complete story that's not limited to the protagonist's point of view. This
is the key because the narrator knows everything about all the characters
and was all knowing. The narrator was consistent in its use of this point of
view. There’s no shifts made.

2. What are the advantages of the chosen point of view? Does it

furnish any clues as to the purpose of the story?

The advantage of the chosen point of view is it understandable and

well explained that reader can fully understand what the story is about to tell
by giving a complete description and details about the characters. Yes, it
furnishes clues as to the purpose of the story.
3. If the point of view is that of one of the characters, does this
character have any limitations that affect his/her interpretation of
events or persons?

Thepoint of view for the characters isomniscient; the narrator knows

the story well for heexplained the story in detailed manner. The characters
have no limitations that affect his/her interpretation of events or persons.

4. Does the author use point of view primarily to reveal or conceal?

Does he/she unfairly withhold important information known to the
focal character?

The author uses point of view primarily to reveal and unfold the true
events and character of the story. Yes, he also fairly withholds important
information known to the focal character.

SYMBOLISM AND IRONY

1. Does the meaning of the story make use of symbols? If so, do the
symbols carry or merely reinforce the meaning of the story?

Yes, it does usesymbolism; one is the oyster shells which is a symbolic

malady that represents repentance and water for softness. Yes, the symbols
merely reinforce the meaning of the story.

2. Does the story utilize irony of situation? Dramatic irony?Verbal

irony? What functions do the ironies serve?
 Yes, it utilizes irony of situations. It is a dramatic irony because Litoy is
unfriendly and judgmental in his surroundings but because of brotherly loved
for Simo that he lowered his pride and accept the help to save the life of
his brother at the end of the story.Ironies serve as springboard that this
story may happens in real life.

EMOTION AND HUMOR

1. Does the story aim directly at an emotional effect, or is emotion

merely its natural by product?

The story “Two Brothers” aims directly an emotional effect. Readers

who have experience the same situation the character are experiencing in
the story and the feeling they have can relate to this.

2. Is the emotion sufficiently dramatized? Is the author anywhere

guilty of sentimentality?

Yes, the emotion was sufficiently dramatized in the story. No, the
author is not guilty of sentimentality.

FANTASY

1. Does the story employ fantasy? If so, what is the initial

assumption? Does the story operate logically from this assumption?

No, fantasy is not employed in the story.

2. Is the fantasy employed for its own sake, or to express some

human truth? If the latter, what truth?

No, fantasy is not employed in the story.

GENERAL

1. Is the primary interest of the story in the plot, character, theme,

or some other element?

The primary interest of the story is in the character and of the theme.

2. What contribution to the story is made by the setting? Is the

particular setting essential, or could the story have happened
anywhere?

The story takes place in the black beach, where in there is water that
represents softness. The settingcontributes a lot in the change of heart of
Litoy that he lowered his pride and accept the help to save the life of his
brother at the end of the story. Yes, this story couldhappen anywhere.

3. What are the characteristics of the author’s style? Are they

appropriate to the nature of the story?

The author represents the story in orderly manner and based on the
events that happen in order for the readers to understand better.The author
uses spear and goggleand also the names of the character likeLitoy and
Simo sounds common especially those who are living along beaches.Yes, the
style of the author used was appropriate to the nature of the story.

4. What light is thrown on the story by its title?

The title of the story explains a lot. "Two Brothers” represents the
relationship that exists between siblings of the family. It signifies that
brotherly love can change and soften a harden heart.

5. Do all the elements of the story work together to support the

central purpose? Is any part irrelevant or inappropriate?
 Yes, all the elements of the story work together to support the central
purpose. No, there no part of the story thatis irrelevant or inappropriate.

6. What do you conceive to be the story’s central purpose? How

fully has the story achieved that purpose?

The central purpose of the story is to inform its readers to be careful

and to be aware of their attitude towards people around them. The story
make us realize that we are living in a round world so we must have or
develop a give and take relationship to our fellowmen.The story had fully
achieved its purpose by using chronological order of events in presenting the
story.

7. Does the story chiefly offer escape or does it have greater

significance? How lofty is the story’s purpose?

The story has a greater significance to the readers because can relates
in the story. The story captures the heart of the readers.

8. Does the story gain or lose on a second reading?

I really gained a lot on my second reading.